• Home
• blog
• akg
• articles
• books

Category Listing For
environment

Zero Waste Week is coming

My Zero Waste are running National Waste Week 2010 from 6th – 12th September, and the theme this year is ‘Cooking for Victory’. According to WRAP’s “household Food and Drink Waste in the UK” report, we throw away 8.3 million tonnes of food and drink every year. Most of this is avoidable and could have been eaten if we had planned, stored and managed it better. This amount of food waste costs the average family in Britain £50 per month.

Over at My Zero Waste you can pledge to reduce your food waste during National Zero Waste Week, and be in with a chance of winning a prize! Maybe you’ll be identifying repeat leftovers and learning how to use them, focusing on your portion control or starting a new composting system.

Here in Oxfordshire they are gradually rolling out food waste collections, giving each household a caddy to collect food waste, which is then collected and used to produce green electricity. While this is great – it prevents waste from going to landfill, with all the environmental problems that entails – it does nothing to tackle food waste (unless people start to think about what they’re throwing away!) and requires energy to transport it away.

Hence the Master Composters are keen to encourage people to start, or contine, composting as much of their food waste as possible. Unavoidable kitchen waste that is easy to compost includes kitchen paper, plain cardboard packaging, egg shells, tea bags* and coffee grounds and fruit and vegetable peelings. Cooked food, meat, fish and dairy products are more difficult (unless you have a bokashi system) and it’s those things that should be sent off in food waste collections for recycling.

Composting at home is really the most environmentally friendly option – doing so for one year can save enough greenhouse gases to offset all of the times you boil your kettle, or three months of using the washing machine. And you’ll get free fertiliser as well :)

---

*sadly it does depend on the tea bags you use to a certain extent.

Our throw away culture

Recycle.co.uk have sent me an email promoting their new infographics on the subject of recycling, which clearly demonstrate why we should recycle and how rubbish we really are at doing it. Do have a look because it’s very clever but unfortunately too big to reproduce here.

I don’t buy many products for the garden these days, so it isn’t a source of much rubbish. Most of the garden waste is composted, and it even takes care of the compostable waste from the house (although we have a recycling bin for excess cardboard and the small amount of garden waste I deem unsuitable for home composting*). Other household waste gets recycled, at least temporarily, as useful stuff for the garden (mainly plastic bottles and trays).

A recent clear-out in the garage led Pete to suggest I had too many plant pots (shock) and we found new homes for those; it’s also possible to rehome tools, even some power tools, with good causes.

One of the things I have bought a lot of this year is potting compost (nice peat free, organic potting compost) – it’s a side effect of growing too many annual plants and having them in pots all over the place. Next year will be different, I hope, but in the meantime I have a lot of empty compost bags. They make a lovely black plastic mulch if you turn them inside out, which helps to retain water and radiate heat. The watermelons are enjoying the boost:

I should take a new photo, that one is from when I planted them out. You could also use empty compost bags as planting bags for potatoes and things like that, and they’re great for collecting compostable materials to be composted later. You should even be able to recycle them – according to Almost Mrs Average, the recycling ninja, if they’re polythene (slightly stretchy) then they can be recycled in the plastic bag recycling bin at your local supermarket. Anything non-stretchy and slightly crinkly is polypropylene – check whether any local recycling facilities can cope with that before you throw it in. Or you could use them to replace bin bags if you use those.

Have you got any ideas for recycling/ reusing old compost bags? Does your garden produce a waste product you can’t handle?

---

*What makes garden waste unsuitable for home composting? It depends a little bit on your composting system, but most gardeners want to avoid diseased plant material and seeding or perennial weeds – problems that can live on through the composting process and be spread over the garden with the finished compost. Twiggy material can also be an issue; bramble spines seem to be fairly impervious to composting, so if you have a lot of those you end up with spiky compost :(

Big Green Blog Gathering 2010: Climate Day

Welcome to Day 5 of the Big Green Blog Gathering 2010! Today is all about Climate, and we’re going out with a bang! It’s easy to book people for a virtual gathering (and we don’t have to pay them for travel expenses!), so we’re having a final day packed full of celebrities!

The Emma & Pete Show team are once again hosting the Renewable Energy Cinema, and they have two films about bees for us. Later on, Brigit Strawbridge will be popping by to talk to us about why she’s so worried about bees, and how we can help them.

In the Permaculture Garden, the Alternative Kitchen Garden team will be running a seed swap, and Maddy Harland from Permaculture Magazine is talking about creating a garden sanctuary.

The cafe today is being run by John Wright, and if you want something to eat later you’d better join him for one of his foraging trips out into the nearby fields and the forest. On the menu (if you can find them) are Nettle Soup, Wild Garlic Pesto and Watercress Omelettes, followed by Bramble Mousse and Chestnut Macaroons. Everyone who takes part in the foraging gets a free foragers calendar to take home!

Today’s topic for the the Knitting Circle is kitting for good – how to change the world with your needles :)

The Big Green Flashmob is helping people calculate their carbon footprints, with the aid of the WWF Eco Guru.

The Permanent Publications book stall in the yurt is offering books with a special Gathering discount – but only until 17:00 BST today. You can order the following three titles for (at least) 25% off. Simply quote BIG GREEN BLOG GATHERING 25% OFF PRICE when you place an order either via email (orders@green-shopping.co.uk) or via telephone (01730 823 311):

• The Alternative Kitchen Garden: An A to Z, by Emma Cooper. RRP £14.95, BGBG price = £10.95


• Getting Started in Permaculture, by Ross & Jenny Mars. RRP £9.95, BGBG price = £7.45


• Do It Yourself 12 Volt Solar by Michel Daniek. RRP £9.95, BGBG price = £7.45

As the sun sets the PP team will be making way for Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, who is stocking the bar with his lovely Summer Coolers.

And as a big thank you to everyone who has stopped by the Big Green Blog Gathering this year, my favourite music act from last year is coming back to play us out – here’s David Byrne with Nothing But Flowers:

Big Green Blog Gathering 2010: Waste Day

Welcome to Day 4 of the Big Green Blog Gathering 2010! Today we are looking at the issues surrounding our global production of waste, but we’re also having lots of fun :)

Today’s Solar Powered Cinema is showing the internet classic The Story of Stuff, an animated look at where our stuff comes from, and where is ends up.

In the Permaculture Garden, the Alternative Kitchen Garden team will be demonstrating over 20 garden uses for a recycled plastic blottle, and Joan from Popcorn Homestead is joining us via videolink to talk about community gardens in Tokyo.

The cafe today is being run by the Love Food Hate Waste campaign, who are working their magic with leftovers from earlier in the week (and fresh veggies from the Permaculture Garden) and turning them into Mini Falafels with Cucumber Dip, Mixed Vegetable Curry and Nutty Veggie Couscous. Throughout the day they will also be serving fairtrade tea and coffee along with their scrumptious Cranberry Brownies.

Today’s topic for the the Knitting Circle in the Living Willow Dome is knitting needles that are nice, not naughty.

The Big Green Flashmob whipping up a big batch of Morsbags and handing them out to festival goers as plastic bags are banned on the BGBG site.

The Permanent Publications book stall in the yurt is once again offering books with a special Gathering discount – until the end of Friday 30th July 2010 you can order the following three titles for at least) 25% off. Simply quote BIG GREEN BLOG GATHERING 25% OFF PRICE when you place an order either via email (orders@green-shopping.co.uk) or via telephone (01730 823 311):

• The Alternative Kitchen Garden: An A to Z, by Emma Cooper. RRP £14.95, BGBG price = £10.95


• Getting Started in Permaculture, by Ross & Jenny Mars. RRP £9.95, BGBG price = £7.45


• Do It Yourself 12 Volt Solar by Michel Daniek. RRP £9.95, BGBG price = £7.45

As the sun sets the PP team will be making way for the Botanicals Bar crew, and this evening their special is Sloe Gin.

---

Tomorrow is the last day of this year’s Big Green Blog Gathering, and we will be talking about Climate. If you have relevant links, or would like to contribute ideas for the Yurt, Permaculture Garden, Flashmob, Solar Cinema, Cafe or Botanicals Bar then email me :)

Big Green Blog Gathering 2010: Transport Day

Hello! Today is Day 3 of the Big Green Blog Gathering 2010 and our theme is the thorny issue of transport.

Today’s Renewable Energy Cinema is once again being hosted by the Emma & Pete Show, and the movie playing is all about permaculture hero Emilia Hazelip and her synergistic garden.

In the Permaculture Garden, the Alternative Kitchen Garden team are talking about Indoor Salads, a sure-fire way to reduce your food miles, even in winter and even if you don’t have a garden! And Ben Campbell will be joining us by video link to give us a tour of his amazing Himalayan veg patch, which is in the Pennines!

The cafe today is being run by the Eat Weeds team, who will be wowing your tastebuds with their Orach Tabouleh and Chick Chick Pate. You can also help yourself to PYO salad from the Permaculture Garden :)

Yesterday the Knitting Circle were discussing reusing yarn to be as green as possible. Today they’re in the Living Willow Dome looking at something far more exciting for green knitheads – sourcing ethical yarn!

Once the Knitting Circle gets down to the quiet business of knitting they will be joined by the lovely Almost Mrs. Average, who will regale them (and us) with entertaining stories from her experiences of car-free living.

The Big Green Flashmob are taking action with the Campaign for Better Transport today, championing transport solutions that improve people’s lives and reduce environmental damage.

The Permanent Publications crew are a bit hung over this morning, but as soon as the (fair trade!) coffee kicks in they will be back manning their book stall in the yurt. While you are at the BGBG (Monday 26th until Friday 30th July 2010), you can order the following three titles for at least) 25% off. Simply quote BIG GREEN BLOG GATHERING 25% OFF PRICE when you place an order either via email (orders@green-shopping.co.uk) or via telephone (01730 823 311):

• The Alternative Kitchen Garden: An A to Z, by Emma Cooper. RRP £14.95, BGBG price = £10.95


• Getting Started in Permaculture, by Ross & Jenny Mars. RRP £9.95, BGBG price = £7.45


• Do It Yourself 12 Volt Solar by Michel Daniek. RRP £9.95, BGBG price = £7.45

As the sun sets the PP team will be making way for the Botanicals Bar crew, and this evening their special is good, old-fashioned ginger beer.

---

Tomorrow’s theme is Waste, and we’re focussing on Climate on Friday. If you have relevant links, or would like to contribute ideas for the Yurt, Permaculture Garden, Flashmob, Solar Cinema, Cafe or Botanicals Bar then email me :)

Big Green Blog Gathering 2010: Energy Day

Welcome to Day 2 of the Big Green Blog Gathering! Today’s theme is Energy.

Today’s Renewable Energy Cinema is being hosted by The Emma & Pete Show team, who are showing a film on permaculture entitled ‘Farming with Nature’.

In the Permaculture Garden, the Alternative Kitchen Garden team are talking about How to choose a composting system, and Kate the Vegetable Vagabond will be joining us by video link to talk about Human health, starvation and biodiversity.

The cafe today is being run by the Fairtrade Foundation, who are starting the day with banana bread and the Golden Sunrise Pancake Suprise. Later on they’ll be whipping up their world famous Mango & Avocado Salad with Sticky Balsamic Vinegar followed by Banana Fritters with Bitter Chocolate Sauce. And as if that weren’t enough they have a big supply of cakes and cookies for those of you with a need for extra calories.

The Knitting Circle will be meeting in the Living Willow Dome to discuss how to recycle old yarn into new knits.

The Big Green Flashmob are heading over to the 10:10 website to pledge to save 10% of their carbon emissions this year. They’ll also be brainstorming ideas for 10:10:10 (a global day of ‘doing’) and anyone who brought a laptop can Like 10:10 on Facebook.

Permanent Publications are back with their book stall in the yurt. While you are at the BGBG (Monday 26th until Friday 30th July 2010), you can order the following three titles for at least) 25% off. Simply quote BIG GREEN BLOG GATHERING 25% OFF PRICE when you place an order either via email (orders@green-shopping.co.uk) or via telephone (01730 823 311):

• The Alternative Kitchen Garden: An A to Z, by Emma Cooper. RRP £14.95, BGBG price = £10.95


• Getting Started in Permaculture, by Ross & Jenny Mars. RRP £9.95, BGBG price = £7.45


• Do It Yourself 12 Volt Solar by Michel Daniek. RRP £9.95, BGBG price = £7.45

As the sun sets the PP team will be making way for the Botanicals Bar crew, and this evening their special is wild Dandelion Flower Schnapps.

---

Tomorrow’s theme is followed by Transport, Waste and Climate later in the week. If you have relevant links, or would like to contribute ideas for the Yurt, Permaculture Garden, Flashmob, Solar Cinema, Cafe or Botanicals Bar then email me :)

Big Green Blog Gathering 2010: Water Day

Welcome to Day 1 of the Big Green Blog Gathering 2010! Today we are looking at the issues surrounding our global use of water, but we’re also having lots of fun :)

Today’s Solar Powered Cinema is being hosted by Allotment Envy, who are showing the first ever episode of that 70s self-sufficiency classic The Good Life (aka Good Neighbors in the US) and Rebecca Hoskin’s A Farm for the Future.

In the Permaculture Garden, the Alternative Kitchen Garden team are talking about Water-Wise Gardening, and Mr. H will be joining us by video link to demonstrate some interesting preserving techniques to make the most of your plentiful summer produce.

The cafe today is being run by Suma, who are making Healthy Vegan Breakfast Muffins for the early-birds. Later on in the day, look forward to Kidney bean and vegetable risotto and Sweetcorn fritters. Those of you with a sweet tooth will be glad to here they will also be serving Fair Trade Coffee Tarts throughout the day!

The Knitting Circle will be meeting in the Living Willow Dome to discuss books and other useful resources for anyone who wants to make sure this useful hobby is as green and ethical as possible.

The Big Green Flashmob are heading over to the WaterAid site to help with their petition to get everyone access to safe, clean water and thereby stop people dying for the toilet.

As we speak, Permanent Publications are setting up their book stall in the yurt. While you are at the BGBG (Monday 26th until Friday 30th July 2010), you can order the following three titles for at least) 25% off. Simply quote BIG GREEN BLOG GATHERING 25% OFF PRICE when you place an order either via email (orders@green-shopping.co.uk) or via telephone (01730 823 311):

• The Alternative Kitchen Garden: An A to Z, by Emma Cooper. RRP £14.95, BGBG price = £10.95


• Getting Started in Permaculture, by Ross & Jenny Mars. RRP £9.95, BGBG price = £7.45


• Do It Yourself 12 Volt Solar by Michel Daniek. RRP £9.95, BGBG price = £7.45

As the sun sets the PP team will be making way for the Botanicals Bar crew, and this evening their special is the Big Man’s Fabulous Redcurrant Kit.

---

Tomorrow’s theme is Energy, followed by Transport, Waste and Climate later in the week. If you have relevant links, or would like to contribute ideas for the Yurt, Permaculture Garden, Flashmob, Solar Cinema, Cafe or Botanicals Bar then email me :)

The Big Green Blog Gathering 2010

This time last year, we learned that the Big Green Gathering was not going ahead. Due to last year’s problems, there won’t be one this year either. Last year, for all those who had wanted to go, or just wanted a virtual staycation, I hosted the Big Green Blog Festival, five days of carnival-style posts with music, food, films and more on five different environmental themes; the BGBF even had its own flash mob!

I’m going to do the same next week (26-30th July 2010), but I need your help. Last year’s themes were Water, Energy, Transport, Waste and Climate Change. I can do those again, or we can swap them for new themes – what do you think?

I also need films to play in the solar-powered cinema, suitable music videos for the main stage, yummy recipes for the on-site café, blog posts on topics that could be talks in the yurt or workshops in the permaculture garden. And destinations for the flash mob! All on a sustainable theme, please. If you’d like to help out and host your own sections of the BGBG then do let me know!

If you have ideas for themes, then do feel free to leave them in the comments. If you have ideas for content or links to send me then it will be more of a surprise to everyone if we keep the line-up secret :) so send me those via email :)

Those of you who just want to rock up and pitch your virtual tent on Monday will be more than welcome – just remember to bring your friends along! Keep up with all the lastest BGBG information via the Twitter tag #bgbg.

Ghost Forest: A Year in Oxford

Ghost Forest is an art installation of ten rainforest tree stumps that were brought to Europe from a commercially-logged forest in Western Africa by the artist Angela Palmer.

The work is intended to highlight the alarming depletion of the world’s natural resources, and in particular the continued rate of deforestation. Today, a tropical forest the size of a football pitch is destroyed every four seconds, impacting on climate, biodiversity and the livelihoods of indigenous people. The trees in Ghost Forest – most of which fell naturally in storms – are intended to represent rainforest trees worldwide; the absence of their trunks is presented as a metaphor for the removal of the world’s lungs caused through the loss of our forests.

The tree stumps were exhibited as a in Trafalgar Square in London last November, and then in Copenhagen in December during the UN’s Climate Change Conference.

From July 2010 Ghost Forest will be exhibited for a year on the lawn of Oxford University’s Museum of Natural History and the Pitt Rivers Museum. The exhibition coincidez with the Museum of Natural History’s 150th anniversary and the UN’s International Year of Biodiversity. 2011 is the UN’s International Year of Forests.

The Ghost Forest installation is now open, but I was in Oxford last Wednesday while they were setting up:

Saving the rainforests is a complex and political international issue, but you can help by knowing where the products you buy (obviously timber products, but also food products and more) come from and how they are produced. For a quicker fix, click on the button at The Rainforest Site to make your free donation every day.

More tea?

The flowers of Jasminum sambac smell gorgeous, and are used to flavour Jasmine tea

Back in November I was talking about how tea bags don’t compost completey – manufacturers have added plastic fibres to the mix to make heat sealing easier.

This morning there’s an article in the Telegraph covering a report from Which? who have discovered something that has been difficult for lesser mortals – 6 out of 7 of the largest tea bag manufacturers don’t produce fully compostable tea bags. Teadirect, Typhoo, Tetley, PG Tips, Clipper and Twinings all use polypropylene in their bags; Jacksons of Piccadilly does not.

WRAP suggest we rip open our tea bags before we put them on the compost, or drink loose tea – neither is an ideal solution. Of course you could grow your own tea, a topic which I also covered in episode 94 of the Alternative Kitchen Garden.

Or we could take advantage of the press coverage of this topic and ramp up the pressure on our favourite tea companies to make them change their bags.

Recycle Week: Recycle your power tools

Have you got an old lawn mower you don’t need?

Gardeners are being asked to give their unwanted or unused electricals a new lease of life during Recycle Week which is taking place between 21 – 27 June 2010.

Items such as lawn mowers, strimmers and power tools can be recycled at centres across the country.

Those in working order can be donated to the British Heart Foundation’s network of stores, where they will be tested and sold in order to raise funds. If there isn’t a store nearby, there is the option of donating them to someone else through sites such as Freecycle.

Jane Hall from Recycle Now said: “Recycle Week aims to make people aware of what can be recycled as well as the benefits of reuse through donation. This year we’re focusing on electrical goods and thought that gardeners might have unwanted or unused items hiding away in a shed or a garage. It would be great if people could recycle or donate these items during Recycle Week.”

Mike Lucas, Director of Retail at the British Heart Foundation said: “Recycle Week is a new and exciting partnership for the BHF raising vital funds in the fight against heart disease – the nation’s biggest killer. We’re appealing for those unwanted electricals as the sale of just one item can go towards funding vital treatment for a heart patient. Many people don’t know what to do with their working items once they’ve been replaced with newer versions, but by donating them in Recycle Week, they could become a life saver.”

To find out more about Recycle Week you can visit http://www.recyclenow.com/recycle_week/gardening.html

Oil in the garden

There’s a very cool website doing the rounds that lets you visualize the BP oil in terms of the amount of your local area it would cover. You bash in your town, and it shows the extent of the spill. From a central point in Oxfordshire, for example, the oil would spread all the way from Bristol to Peterborough. London wouldn’t be covered (yet), but both the town I was born in and the one I grew up in are knee deep in black yukkiness.

If you’re in America then there are things you can do to help, but the rest of us can be left with a feeling of utter helplessness in the face of this latest environmental disaster.

But one of my Facebook friends has taken a different tack – she’s decided to use this spill as the motivation to cut her personal oil consumption as far as possible. She has made a commitment to steadily decrease her use of fossil fuels: “less driving, no industrial meat, use natural/eco dish/laundry detergents (as others are made from oil). More local/organic foods (non-organic food production uses as much petro-products as driving…). More conservation measures at home.”

Driving less and cutting down on consumption are obvious steps that we can take, but oil products have become so entrenched in our lives that it can be difficult to see them, let alone live without them. So today I thought I would look at some of the ways that you can cut the oil footprint of your garden.

Use less:

• Chemical pesticides and fertilizers. Not only are they made in factories with a high energy demand, and transported long distances, but many of them are oil-based.


• Plastics. A lot of modern gardening products are made from plastic. Where possible, choose a more durable option. I use plastic pots as a preference, but I reuse them every year and pass on those I no longer have a use for.


• Power tools. Again, they have a direct energy consumption that will have an impact on your overall garden footprint, but may not be adding to your oil consumption. But they are industrial products, generally with long supply chains.


• Stuff. It’s those pesky supply chains again. The more things you buy to use in the garden, the more transport oil costs you’ll be racking up.


• Water. There’s an embodied energy cost in processing and pumping mains water, as well as the fact that we’re all using more than our fair share anyway.


• Greenhouse heating. There are various ways to cut the bill if you heat your greenhouse, but consider not heating it at all. Bring tender plants inside for the winter, and use your greenhouse to extend your growing season with winter crops that are hardy but benefit from a little protection from the weather.

Do:

• Grow your own. It cuts down on your Food Miles and the oil costs of all that transportation. If you’re new to GYO then start small and gradually build up as you get the hang of it. And don’t buy a lot of stuff for the garden – you don’t need it.


• Garden organically. A report by Garden Organic showed that organic gardeners had a Garden Footprint a third lower than the national average.


• Swap seeds and plants locally. Again, it’s a case of cutting down consumption generally and the associated pesky supply chains.


• Investigate traditional storage methods to preserve your excess crops for winter. Freezers and fridges use a lot of power, but clamps, bottling and canning, drying and salting can all be less energy intensive.


• Follow the four Rs. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Rot. You can considerably cut your garden consumption and provide for a lot of your fertilizer needs by composting and growing green manures. Any waste you can avoid making, and any you can avoid sending to landfill, will be an oil saving.

That’s just a high level overview of what we can do to cut down on our use of oil products in the garden, and how our gardens can help us cut down on oil use in other areas of our lives. There’s a lot more information on all these topics on this website, so take a look around, but feel free to email questions or leave them in the comments. If you have a particularly good tip to cut down on oil use that I haven’t covered, then leave that too! It’s easy to feel helpless in the face of disaster, but we’re not powerless – we can help reduce the risk of this happening again and again.

Ashes to ashes

Volcanic eruption between Myrdalsjokull and Eyjafjallajokull glaciers, by Narisa and used here under a Creative Commons license.

The last few days have been interesting here in the UK, on account of a geological event taking place in Iceland – the eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano that is sending a huge ash cloud into European airspace and causing disruption to flights.

For several days UK airspace was completely closed, and there were no planes flying overhead. As it happens, they were also beautiful sunny days – so plenty of people were able to enjoy the sunshine without being bothered by aircraft noise or seeing their vapour trails criss-crossing the skies.

There has been a bit of a rush to capitalise on the event, from political parties in the run up to the election and from media outlets determined to get as much coverage as possible. It has led to some interesting stories.

On Monday, one of the Guardian blogs started a discussion on whether the absence of air freight would create a new wave of interest in UK-grown fruit and veg, amid stories of Kenyan farmers having to dump tonnes of produce that had been destined for sale in Britain. Can we live without green beans out of season? Of course we can! Sow a few seeds now and – even in a patio – you could keep yourself in green beans all summer. Check out the first episode of Alys Fowler’s ‘The Edible Garden’ while it’s still available on iPlayer.

BBC News has a more wide-ranging look at how we will be affected by the severe reduction in air travel that will be enforced when we run out of oil – many people see these last few days as a rehearsal for things to come (although the effects of Peak Oil won’t be accute enough to leave thousands of people struggling to get back from their holidays). It shows that only around 1-2% of the food that we eat is imported by air (although 90% of fruit and 60% of veg eaten in the UK is imported, most comes by sea), and we’re not going to starve from the lack of a few exotic delights. Nor will we struggle to get by without the Kenyan roses that have also been unable to arrive.

Most air freight is either perishable goods or high value items; we would be wise to save our fuel to bring in things we need in a hurry – like pharmaceutical supplies.

The Telegraph have wasted valuable energy putting up a post about whether the ash itself will be good for gardens, but there’s not enough of it falling to make an impact. And there’s plenty of discussion on which is adding more carbon dioxide to the atmosphere – volcanoes or aviation – which is surely a little pointless since we have both and we can only affect a reduction in one of them. If you’re interested, though, there’s a good post from Leo Hickman on that topic.

Matthew Appleby has earned the wrath of the blogosphere by stating (on his blog!) that bloggers are dull and semi-literate. He then goes on to display a press release from Seeds of Italy announcing that they are unaffected by the disruption (their seeds arrive from Europe by road) and that we could increase our food security by growing more of our own food. They might be overstating the lack of fresh food, but they have added a special ‘easy to grow‘ section to their website that includes collections ordered by when you need to sow them.

Sadly it seems to me that any good intentions are likely to go up in smoke now that flights have resumed, and that any lessons we could have learned are likely to be forgotten unless more ash comes our way. Still, it was nice while it lasted!

Red and Yellow and Green and Blue...

For the majority of my adult life I have tried to avoid getting involved in politics, because I think there are far better things to spend my time on (in recent years, mostly plant-related) and partly because politics has a tendency to be very dull. But I do always vote, because I think it’s important. I appreciate that many readers won’t be interested in UK elections, but this is the only post I will do on the subject so just skip it if you’re not.

Various events have led me to take more of an interest recently amd I thought I would have a stab at reading a few election manifestos to see if what I think the various political parties are saying is what they’re actually saying. And so here, in no particular order, are the points I thought gardening readers may find of interest, but the manifestos varied wildly in readability, so I may not have picked out all the salient points. Rather than complain, I would suggest you read them for yourselves – I will add links to PDF downloads. I haven’t done all of the parties, so feel free to add comments for the ones I have left out.

The Green Party Manifesto

As you would expect, the Green Party manifesto has a strong focus on green issues such as energy efficiency, renewable energy and increasing fuel taxes. There is also a lot about relocalisation and decentralisation – support for local shops and markets and local food in general. They are also proposing to revitalise the Post Office network, which is of interest to us as our local Post Office was closed in the last wave of ‘rationalisation’ and the closest alternatives are not great.

They plan to encourage redevelopment of under-used sites and filling of empty homes to protect the Green Belt from further development, and to invest in flood defences and a relocation support for those with homes that can not be adequately protected.

Their aim is for a 70% reduction in household waste by 2015, with free composters, improved recycling infrastructure and a reduction in packaging as the first steps towards Zero Waste in the long term.

There’s a whole section on Peak Oil and Climate Change, a ban on nuclear energy and a plan to provide more allotments where they are needed.

The Liberal Democrat Manifesto

The Liberal Democrats are one of two parties that mention garden grabbing, the practise of selling off gardens to build new homes that drastically reduces the amount of urban green space for humans and wildlife. Their solution is to redefine gardens as greenfield space (they’re currently brownfield, and hence easy to develop under planning regulations).

They also support more taxes on aviation, plus a reduction in train fares, and full public ownership for the Post Office. Their aim is to encourage community-owned renewable energy schemes and to end the testing of household products on animals. They will promote energy efficiency, insulation and renewable energy and not build any more nuclear power stations. The LD manifesto expressly mentions both climate change and zero waste.

The Labour Party Manifesto

According to the Labour manifesto we are already involved in a transition to a ‘low carbon economy’ and their aim is to have 40% low-carbon electricity by 2020. They also mention Zero Waste, and are supporting Post Offices, shops and pubs in rural communities.

The manifesto accepts that climate change is an important issue that we face, but as they are the current government they focus a lot on what they have already done and not so much on their future plans.

The Conservative Party Manifesto

The Conservative Party also address Climate Change and the need to ‘reduce UK greenhouse gas emissions’, so it looks like climate change deniers are out of luck as far as all the big political parties are concerned. The Conservative manifesto talks about a low-carbon future, and improving British energy security,

Their big new policy – ‘Big Society’ – has been much covered in the media, and is all about relocalisation and strengthening communities. They are the second party to mention garden grabbing, with a promise to ‘allow neighbourhoods’ to stop garden grabbing if they want to.

As I said, that’s only a quick skim through the manifestos to see what might be of interest to gardeners and greenies – there’s plenty more to read if you want to download the PDF files. You may also be interested to check how powerful your vote is, as the current UK voting system is unequal, but the deadline to register to vote is today so you’ll have to be quick if you’re not registered but would like a say in the General Election next month.

Merciful Meditative Manual Mowing

“Short back and sides, please!”

We don’t have a lawn. We discussed the garden early on after moving into the house and decided that as Pete suffers from grass-pollen hayfever we wouldn’t have one (my mother’s suggestion was to have an artificial lawn, but we passed on that!). As it turned out, my passion for plants grew and quickly took up the slack, and there’s an increasing movement internationally to have Food, Not Lawns, which I think is great.

But having a lawn is a great British tradition and there are plenty of families for whom somewhere to sit and lounge, or for the kids to play, is the main point of having a garden. That’s fine, I understand that. What I don’t understand is the mentality of the people who ruin the few decent days with the wretched noise of an lawn mower. We’re all so tightly packed together in UK towns that it’s impossible to sit outside for five minutes on a sunny day (or even just a dry one) without the peace being broken by the racket.

I appreciate that most people find lawn mowing a chore (so did we, that’s one reason we don’t have one), but the truth is that modern urban living for most of us means postage-stamp gardens with tiny lawns. There is no need to get a powered lawn mower for a tiny lawn. In fact, even if you have a larger lawn there are huge benefits to having a manual lawnmower – not only are they quiet, but they’re kind to the environment and give you a good workout into the bargain, although a modern manual lawnmower is nowhere near as difficult to use as an old one can be. With gentle exercise, peace and quiet and the satisfaction of a job well done then you may even find manual mowing a meditative experience.

So do us all a favour and consider swapping to a manual lawnmower this year. And while you’re at it, check out my article on Eco Lawns and have a lawn that’s truly green!

XML Feeds

Email

Search Me

Blogroll

Copyright

Valid XHTML & CSS