Eco Friendly House And Garden

National Family Week (UK) runs from May 31st to June 6th – but make yours and eco friendly one!

The event is all about celebrating Family and your time together – either indoors surrounded by books and films or outside knee-deep in grass and surrounded by bird song!

But there is no reason why your events can’t be green, local and without creating enough waste to fill your entire bin!

There are many events being held around the country that are on the official website, but why not use their guide to make a week of eco friendly fun for yourself your family and your friends.

The weeks events are running along a sort of ‘schedule’ to help give people a rough plan if the week, and you can do as little or as much as you like – or create your own eco fun, but the week is as follows:

Monday – Eco Friendly Picnic:
Why can’t you arrange an event where you make an old fashioned outdoor feast, with local or organic produce brought in bulk – rather than everything in it’s own tiny bottle or individual wrapping.  Why not get one person to bake an enormous cake, one to bake a loaf of fresh bread, one to chop homegrown salad and bring home-laid hard-boiled eggs for the filling. 

Buy huge bumper packs of crisp and nibbles to share out and bring all fully reusable plastic plates and bowls to take home after.  And don’t forget some tubs to collect wild blackcurrants or fallen apples in!

Tuesday – Family Film Day:
Why not extend the picnic theme indoors with a great matinee of one or two of the families favourite films – make sure one is a classic musical to get everyone singing and dancing.  Before the first film, maybe all spend time in the kitchen mixing pastry and cakes so that when the film is over there is plenty of home-made food for everyone to tuck into before the next film!

Wednesday – Great Story Telling Day:
Rather than read other peoples stories – why not spend this day surrounded by scissors, glue and old magazines with a selection of pens and string – and have everyone create their own great adventure story from all your old magazines and bits of the outdoors like pressed flowers and leaves!  Something they can take away and keep.

Thursday – Green Road Trip:
Car or minibus, it doesn’t matter – but if there is an adventure to be had getting there is half the fun.  Rather than take the straight route – why not find the country lanes that go through tiny villages, steepled churches and fields of cows and horses.  Maybe even take in a ruined castle or 2 on the way as well – and don’t forget the camera and a tasty home-made packed lunch!

Friday – Eco Friendly House Party:
Anything goes here – whether it’s literally a party that goes on all night (without annoying the neighbours of course) or whether it’s a day-time party where people bring their family and some tasty goodies to share.  Or maybe help out with some spring cleaning or reducing and recycling.

Take one room of your home that really needs a sort out and get everyone involved. Whether it’s taking stuff to the recycling centre, community furniture project or around a friends – many hands make light work! Maybe get together to help an elderly relative or neighbour – or just your own home and ring some green changes!

Saturday – Eco Garden Fun:
Maybe this one could be an eco garden house party, where you all take it in turns to attack someones garden for the better, laying hedges, creating a wildlife pond, a bug corner, putting up bird feeders or just planting some veg! Things you never really get round to yourself – especially with the kids under your feet! Imagine to things you could achieve with 10 people instead of just you and your mum!

Whatever you choose to do, I hope you have fun – and maybe send in some photos!
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Are You Thinking About Creating a Wildlife-Friendly Pond in Your Garden? Well here are a few pointers for you…….

There was a massive reduction in garden ponds and even those on farmlands – and as a result a lot of native mammals have lost their homes! It’s amazing how many animals rely on them not only for living in or breeding around – but as stop-overs on their way somewhere else!

And anyway – why should you just do it for the wildlife – a garden pond is a great place for you to relax yourself after a busy week working. Get yourself a comfortable chair, a drink and a good book and just sit back!

If you are thinking of creating a pond from scratch, then you have an advantage as you can make sure that it is shaped to suit the wildlife you want to see as well making it the safest pond you can and as large as you like! Big is best here.

Where:
A shady site will attract different species to a bright one so check your preferred species with the layout of your garden. If it is shallow and in direct sun you will almost certainly get an algal bloom which can be a nuisance – but could be skimmed off and used for compost!

Smaller ponds may well dry out in sun as they should only be topped up with rainwater. Never be tempted to use tap water to fill up a wildlife pond as you could kill almost everything in it!

A shallow pond will be a favourite for frogs, whereas a deeper one may well attract newts – although the deeper ones are more dangerous for small mammals (and children) and so need an escape route built in to allow creatures to climb out if necessary.

Obviously, a wildlife pond needs to be accessible by these creatures in the first place – so don’t expect your pond to become home to amphibians if it is surrounded by paving or gravel. Make sure tufty grass, lawns and shaded moist ground surround your pond – allowing them to walk or slither in from neighboring gardens or parks.

Safety:
If you have young children, make sure that you fence off the pond, or cover it with a secure metal grid. Ponds can be great fun, but they must be safe.

This counts for mammals too.

When:
If starting from scratch, start digging in the fall, when the ground is softer and the weather is bad (as this will allow it to fill up with rainwater. Make sure the bottom is filled with clay or clean sand rather than topsoil and make sure you have gently sloping sides leading in to it on at least one side. Ideally let this edge have direct contact with an unchecked lawn, allowing the marginal water plants move out onto the lawn a bit to help the transition.

The pond needn’t be over 50cms at it’s deepest – and this is safest for young children – although if over 75cm deep you may well avoid the whole thing freezing solid in a bad winter!

If your garden pond is built in direct sunlight, make sure that taller plants are around the edge to help keep the water cooler and a bit shaded. It’s not a problem to let the water level drop a bit in summer as the wet mud on the ledges will be great for invertebrates!

Fall is a great time to clean out your pond too. Amphibians have completed their life-cycles, the water in the pond will be a bit lower to make your job easier – but make sure that you don’t leave too much open water as this can be unattractive to many species. Offer up-rooted plants to your neighbors or compost them. Ideally you wouldn’t throw them into the ‘wild’ as they may contain invasive or non-native species imported in to the nursery you brought them from!

Plants:
Be aware that you may need to add some species for pond health – not all pond life can walk or float in the wind! There are lots of choices for plant-life but make your choice well.

Only buy native species when stocking up. Definitely avoid buying foreign species as they may be invasive and overrun the rest of your garden, but native species will be the best for native wildlife. Many animals have evolved to benefit from certain plants and this is true for your ponds.

Encourage a mixture of submerged, floating and emergent plants to your garden pond so they offer shelter and protection for your wildlife, but also a range of habitats for breeding and rearing young. Avoid using chemical to encourage their growth – or to reduce their numbers – as this will no doubt impact the wildlife.

Many water plants are very fast growing, so resist the temptation to make the pond perfect on day 1, and let native species colonise your garden pond over it’s first year and you will get that more natural look – free from invasive species!

Fish:
Ideally, you would not add fish to your wildlife pond as they may well eat all the wildlife that comes to your garden!

I must admit that fish tend to be the reason many people get ponds in the first place, and certain species are better than others, but best leave your new pond to the wild animals if that’s what you and your family want to see.

Humans:
Get a color chart of common garden insects and invertebrates so that you and your kids can easily identify anything that they see.

No need for great big books on the subject – just a page or 2 of the most common creatures. There is nothing better to get a kids imagination going than actually being able to know what things are easily. Things aren’t fun if you can’t get them right time and time again – make sure you brush up on it too so that you can encourage them further.

If they see something in the pond and you can tell them what it is straight away – they will learn about them easily and build on this knowledge. You could even learn a few things yourself!!!

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