It's Green Britain Day!! Do your bit today, to make Britain greener!

Check out the Green Britain Day website;

Green Britain Day




Seven Ticks For Organic Gardening!

Organic gardening is the way of growing vegetables and fruits with the use of things only found in nature.

Why would one want to indulge in organic gardening?

1. One can easily make compost from garden and kitchen waste. Though this is a bit more time-consuming than buying prepared chemical pesticides and fertilisers, it certainly helps to put rubbish to good use and so saves the environment.

2. Organic farming does not use chemicals that may have an adverse affect on your health. This is especially important when growing vegetables. Chemical companies tell us that the chemicals we use are safe if used according to direction, but research shows that even tiny amounts of poisons absorbed through the skin can cause such things as cancer, especially in children.
On average, a child ingests four to five times more cancer-causing pesticides from foods than an adult. This can lead to various diseases later on in the child's life. With organic gardening, these incidents are lessened.
Remember, pesticides contain toxins that have only one purpose - to kill living things.

3. Less harm to the environment. Poisons are often washed into our waterways, causing death to the native fish and polluting their habitat.

4. Organic farming practices help prevent the loss of topsoil through erosion.

5. Cost savings. One does not need to buy costly chemical fertilisers and pesticides with organic gardening. Many organic recipes for the control of pest and disease come straight from the kitchen cupboard. Sometimes other plants can be grown as companions to the main crop. An example of this is the marigold, which helps to repel aphids from vegetables.
Mixing 1 tablespoon of bio-degradable washing-up liquid and 1 cup of cooking oil can make a cheap garden pest spray. Put 3 tablespoons of this mixture in 1 quart of water and spray on plants.

6. A simple mulch of pine needles or bark will help to suppress the growth of weeds as well as keeping the moisture in.

7. Organic gardening practices help to keep the environment safe for future generations.

A couple of healthy eating pitfalls.

Green Britain Day - 2 days to go!

In one of my earlier posts I briefly mentioned the on-going food-labelling saga, and how food companies are making their products appear to be healthier for you than they actually are, simply by manipulating the way in which you are presented with the information about them....

Here's a quick question for you;

Which is a healthier option for lunch - A supermarket-bought salad sandwich, or a 'Big-Mac'?

Like most people, you probably chose the salad sandwich - but it's not necessarily the case, as this newspaper article shows;

Salad Sandwich or BigMac?

A few years ago I bought a chicken salad sandwich from a local supermarket's so- called 'Healthy Eating' range. Now unlike the example in quoted in the article above, this one contained no mayonnaise, or other sauces. But I was horrifed when I looked at the list of ingredients - it read like a chemist's lab inventory!

'Healthy Eating'??......I don't think so!!

Unfortunately, by the time I got round to reading the ingredients, I'd already eaten the sandwich, so I couldn't take it back.

So, learn from my mistake - check the ingredients BEFORE you buy pre-packaged sandwiches or better still - make your own, then you know exactly what's in them! ( And if you've grown your own salad for your sandwiches - even better! )

As a general guide, the fewer additives there are in your food, the greener they are.

Green Britain - Some concerns.......

Only 4 days to go to 'Green Britain Day'!

As you will know by now, I am a fan of being green.
To me, being green means living in such a way as to minimise my impact on my environment, to use minimal natural resources, and to try and benefit my environment wherever possible.

This may seem to some like a pretentious grandiose notion - but it isn't really - I'm doing it in my own small way because I believe it is right to do so.

However, I do have serious concerns about the motivations of businesses and organisations when they try to convince us of their green credentials. In most of the press and TV pieces I've seen, their 'green' statistics have been, at best incomplete, and at worst, downright misleading.

Businesses jump onto bandwagons for one reason only - not for altruistic motives, but to make as much money as possible.

Now, I don't have a problem with that, as long as they ARE being green - but how many are?

The so-called green credentials of big businesses and organisations remind me of the on-going food-labelling saga;

There was a time when food companies didn't have to worry about mentioning how much fat or salt their products contained. Then it became an issue and they were forced by government legislation backed by health organisations into stating the full nutritional breakdown in their products, in the hope that this would force them into reducing this or that ingredient, to make the product healthier and to help the public make informed choices about the foods they were eating.
Did the foods become healthier?
No.
Did the food companies properly comply with the legislation?
Yes - not to do so would have hit their profits and reputations.
Did they find ways of making the self-same products seem healthier?
Yes - marketing people, like Government spin doctors, are masters at manipulating the information to produce the response they want.

The same thing is happening with green issues - Nothing much has changed, except the way the information is presented to the public.

Here's a case in point; Wind Farms.....
Each giant windmill in a wind farm has it's own 'carbon footprint', which was created when it was manufactured. The Wind Farm's overall carbon footprint depends on how many of these windmills it has.
Now, the companies that operate these wind farms are very quick to point out the benefits of them, but are less forthcoming when it comes to the ecological cost of manufacturing them. ( These companies make so much money, they're not going to do anything to jeopardise their profits - are they? )
If the overall carbon footprint of making them, is bigger than the carbon footprint they save during their operational life, then they are not ecologically cost-effective.

Let me put it another way; You are told that company 'X' made £100 million in sales last year - Sounds like a good investment? Maybe, maybe not. If their costs were £101 million then suddenly your perception of the company changes. If company 'X' wanted you to invest in them, do you think they'd be open about their costs, unless you forced the issue with them, by doing your own research?

Exactly.

Be careful what you accept as fact.

Green Britain - Another use for plastic bottles!

In one of my earlier postings, I showed how plastic bottles could be re-used as mini-greenhouses in the garden - well, here's another garden use for those same plastic bottles!

As before, just cut the bottom of the bottle off, and remove the cap - then dig a hole in one of your flower or veg beds to half the depth of the bottle.

Put the bottle upside-down into the hole so that the open bottom is on top.

Now fill the bottle with water - instant water trap! Great for when there are long dry spells. It solves 2 problems - firstly the water doesn't run off dry, baked soil and secondly, it gets the water deep inside the bed, so less of it evaporates!

Put several of these water traps round your garden and watering is a breeze! Also, when it finally rains after a long dry spell, the rainwater gets to where it is really needed - around the deeps roots of the plants!

10th July 2009 is 'Green Britain Day'

So, 10th July 2009 is 'Green Britain Day' - but why have just one day?

Check out the 'Green Britain Day' website here;

Green-Britain-Day

But, why not make EVERY day a 'Green Britain Day'?
All you have to do, is do something 'green' for yourself every day!

It could be saving money by re-using something you were going to throw away, eat some fruit or veg that you've grown yourself, walk to the shop instead of using the car, using less electricity to keep your bills down, or one of a hundred-and-one other things!

And by doing something 'Green', even just for yourself, you're helping your environment and your planet!

So, be selfish and do something 'Green' every day!

Green Britain Day - 10th July 2009

Do your bit for your wallet and your planet!

I know - you're sick of being preached at to save energy, recycle, and generally live more efficiently! So am I! The information put out by governments and big business is usually bland and not very productive.

I thought I'd redress that imbalance by giving you some information that you can actually USE - TODAY - NOW!

Without further ado - here are my first few tips;

1) I know the growing season is moving swiftly along, but there's still time to plant plenty of foodie-things in the garden - You can still plant peas or beans for a late crop, or how about some green salad items like Pak Choi, rocket, or bean-sprouts. You can't get fresher - and you'll know there's no chemicals involved!

2) Instead of using local authority recycling bins - why not re-use as much as you can yourself?
( And who know's what happens to stuff that goes in them? Besides, the local authority usually makes & saves money from the stuff you throw away - so why shouldn't you? )
Here's a few ways;
a) Empty plastic bottles make great mini greenhouses or cloches for seedlings etc - just cut the bottoms off and cover the seedlings! ( For ventilation during the day, unscrew the cap - to protect them at night, put the cap back on! )
b) Invest in a paper-brick maker - then you can reuse your old newspapers and the like - use them for a barbeque! Old newspapers can also be used to make papier-mache - in the 1800's lots of items were made from papier mache - but it's very much a lost art now, as palstics have become the norm. Why not revive this art? The items made will be fully bio-degradable - unlike most modern plastics.
c) Talking of plastics - food-trays can be re-used as seed-trays! Just thoroughly wash, fill with compost, add the seeds and water. Quick, easy, and cheap! And related to the item above - if you make papier-mache seed trays, you can then plant the whole seed-tray directly in the ground where, as the seeds grow, the tray will decompose, adding nutrients to the soil! ( and you can cover the seedlings with the plastic bottles! )
d) Old clothes which are not fit to go to charity shops can be cut up and made into dusters, or sheets for a pets bedding etc.

3) Turn your heating / air conditioning down! These are wasteful of energy and very expensive - as we all discover when we see our energy bills! In the modern world, we have become soft - we have been conditioned to central-heating etc. Most households have the heating up way too high - so turn it down by one or two degrees. No-one will notice if it's done gradually - they'll get used to it, and you'll save about £2 a week on your heating bill!

4) For a free ebook on being green & saving money click on this link; Go Green - Save Green - it's usually £1.00 but free when you click from here ( that's the 'nice surprise' mentioned! )

Please feel free to add your comments and thoughts!