Living WITH The Earth

Living on the earth is easy, we all do it without giving much thought to it. But how about living with the earth?

We’ve been blessed with a beautiful planet that, if treated properly in order to give nature a chance to do things the way they were intended, would provide for all of our basic needs; there would be enough nutritious food, clean water and shelter for everybody.

But we don’t.

Most of us choose to just live on the planet instead of living in harmony with it. We no longer follow the natural cycles of life, whether that’s our own lives or those found in everything natural that surrounds us. We’ve built a society where living in peace and harmony with the earth is actually the more difficult option, but surely it should be the easiest and most natural thing to do? Shouldn’t understanding nature’s cycles, including the natural cycles of our own bodies, be instinctive or at least learned through the generations so that we ‘just know’ rather than something we have to teach ourselves and strive to achieve? Shouldn’t respect for the environment be an established standard rather than something we need to reminded of? Shouldn’t we naturally prefer food that’s free from chemicals and toxins and from livestock that’s treated humanely rather than weighing up what’s best for the earth and everything that’s a natural part of it against what’s cheapest for us?

Many hundreds of years ago people lived in closer harmony with the earth but eventually man became materialistic. Once that happened, there was no stopping us and these days, those of us who still try to live as natural a life as we can, and who truly care about the environment and want to preserve this beautiful planet are still all too often seen as ‘a bit weird’. I’ve been called a new age hippie, a tree hugger, an old witch, an eco-warrior, and a green trendy and while I suppose I’m all of those things in differing degrees (except green trendy - there’s nothing trendy about me), they’ve been said in a derogatory manner as if caring about our environment is wrong!

We can’t hide behind ignorance. We all KNOW how important it is to care for this planet and yet so many still do far less than they‘re able, if they actually do anything at all.

Why?

Sharon J xx

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Mourning The Worms

Can any of you remember me saying that I’d bought a wormery? It was back in February, although the only reason I remember when it was is because I posted about it here.

Anyway, said wormery is no more. Well, the wormery itself is still there but what’s inside resembles a toxic wasteland more than a group of happy worms going about their business of turning veg and fruit, paper and other stuff into compost and fertilizer.

So what happened? Well, somehow or another the rain got in. Lots of it. The wormery has a tight plastic lid that doesn’t blow off and although it has ventilation holes, these are tiny. And yet when I went out there to feed them a few days ago, the lid was half way up the garden and the wormery was half filled with water. Yes, that much.

The worms, for the most part, were dead. The few I managed to save were thrown into what barely passes as a flower bed but there's soil there and soil needs worms. The wormery itself has been left abandoned; it’s too heavy for me to carry and empty and I don’t want to just tip it out where it is. The job of emptying it by bucket would be too much for me too, so it’s just going to have to stay as it is for the time being until I figure out what to do about it.

Such a shame. It was coming along so well, too! I just can’t help wondering how that lid got off.

Sharon J xx

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Changing My Leaves

As I was driving my ‘almost’ daughter home last night, I couldn’t help but noticed how thickly strewn the pavements were with the leaves that are rapidly falling from the trees these days. The dazzling colours can still be enjoyed, but the heavy rain and blustering wind told me that very soon winter will get serious about laying its cold blanket across the country and it’ll all be over for another year.

Seeing the leaf littered pavements made me think about how autumn’s finale is a closing point. Nature will go to rest for a while, having rid itself of the last leaves, leaves that are no longer needed.

Perhaps, I thought, this is a good time to think about what I should be getting rid of too. I’ve been a bit lapse with the decluttering lately - too many other things going on in my mind, issues that needed to be dealt with - but seeing those leaves brought it home to me that this IS the time to get back on track. Just as the trees no longer need those leaves, I have stuff that no longer needs to be part of my life. They’re cluttering me, crowding my space and, to be honest, they’re making me unhappy. Strange really, considering that once upon a time I honestly believed that stuff would do the opposite - that it would make me feel good. Some stuff still does - the stuff that I need and that makes life easier or more pleasant - but a lot of it doesn’t. It’s just there, taking up space and demanding attention that I just don’t want to give it.

So let the decluttering re-begin, I say. Nature knows that it shouldn’t hang on to anything it no longer has a good use for - a lesson a lot of us could learn something from.


Sharon J

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Image Credit: Eve Morrison

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Saving The Rainforest

Every day I go on Facebook. Yes, I know some of you probably think that’s a pretty lame thing to do but there’s a reason that doesn’t include throwing food at friends or sending them virtual gifts that mean nothing (although when I first started using it a year or so ago, I did do those things, admittedly).

The reason I use Facebook regularly now is because there are two applications that I feel I need to use as often as I can: (lil) Green Patch and (lil) Blue Cove.

Basically, you grow a garden or look after a fish tank type thing (or both). Every time you send a plant or fish to a friend and they accept, a little bit of rainforest is saved. To buy plants and fish you need green bucks but you get 50 of those just for logging in every day (100 if you log into both applications) and there are various other ways of gathering bucks too. I won’t go into all the details here as it’s all explained in the FAQ attached to the application.

So far I’ve saved 29sqft of rainforest and I haven’t been using it that long. In fact, LM, who’s only been using it for a week or two, has already saved 15sqft. Some people have saved hundreds of square feet though so I've a way to go yet.

How? Well there are sponsors who put money into saving the rainforest for every square foot that Facebook users ‘save’. Again, that’s all explained when you look at the application.

If you want to save some rainforest and have a bit of fun while doing it, why not join? If you’re already a member of Facebook then adding either or both of the applications is simple. Just do a search for either Green Patch or Blue Cove for more information about them. If you’re not a member, signing up is dead easy. All you need to do then is find your friends, add them, add one or both of the applications and if they have one too you can start sending them plants and fish.

If you already have either or both of the applications but need more people to swap with (or if you decide to add them), feel free to email me at dioritt @ yahoo (dot) co (dot) uk and let me know. I won’t mind adding you :)

Sharon J

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Image Credit: Steve Lacy

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Beauty & The Beast

Image: Bootsandpaws.co.uk

Being a beautiful day, my friend Carol - who I haven’t seen for ages - and I decided to drive out to Middlewich yesterday to look for a fishing lake I’d heard about. I’ve been keen to get back into fishing y’see, but hadn’t yet found anywhere in the local vicinity that allows ‘my kind of fishing’. By the I mean coarse fishing without all the palaver of ground baiting, huge poles, keep nets, landing mats and the likes - I just wanted a place where I could sit in relatively peaceful surroundings with a simple rod, a baited hook and wait for the bite while I ponder life.

Shakerley Mere turned out to be quite beautiful and very accessible for somebody like me who has mobility problems. The path around the lake is even, there’s plenty of parking, and lots of open pegs to fish from. The lake's stocked with perch, tench, roach and bream (slimey suckers - yuk!) along with, apparently, some pretty huge carp, although fishing for the latter holds absolutely no interest to me - way too much faffing about. Ideally I’d like to fish for brown trout, the way I did back in Norway, but that appears to be impossible here without fly fishing equipment and expensive day tickets.

What I didn’t like about Shakerley Mere is the fact that the M6 - the country's busiest motorway - runs right along one side of it and although the lakes is big (we’re not talking Great Lakes big but bigger than a pond) and we were on the opposite side, the noise from the motorway definitely destroyed the feeling of peace. Sitting on a bench amid beautiful trees and shrubs clothed in their dazzling autumn colours whilst looking out across a peaceful lake where swans, ducks, geese and moorhens gently glided through the water should have been tranquillity itself, but with the constant drone of high speed traffic, it just wasn’t. Still, I’ll probably give it a try next year once the fishing season gets underway again as it’s the best place I’ve found so far. It’s just such a shame that such beautiful nature spots are so easily destroyed by our modern lifestyles.

We also got talking to a man who was waiting for the RSPCA to arrive. A bird had caught its wing on something on one of the two islands on the lake. Possibly left-over fishing line although I can’t say for sure, but as the carp tend to sit around the islands (an online search revealed this particular piece of information) it's a fair bet that carp anglers aim for them. The poor thing was flapping desperately and clearly becoming tired but even though it was already an hour since the RSPCA were called, they’d yet to arrive. By the time we returned to the same spot, at least another hour had past, the bird was hanging quietly by this time, probably exhausted, but still there was no sign of the RSPCA. Do they only arrive quickly when they have a camera crew in tow? It makes you wonder.

Nature has provided us with an incredible amount of beauty but man has an uncanny knack of destroying it.

Sharon J

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Who Tried What First?

Image: randomtruth

Have you ever thought about how we come to have such a wide choice of food available? We take it for granted that carrots, lettuce, eggs, sheep’s livers, blackberries, oranges and everything else is edible, yet somebody must have been the first to try them.

Who first decided they’d try eating a blackberry? Didn’t they know that others had gotten sick through eating berries? Blackberries could have been as poisonous as raw elderberries for all they knew. And that’s another point. After seeing somebody throwing up after eating elderberries direct from the tree, what made them try cooking them and eating them instead? Did they just fall from the tree into a hot pan of water and somebody accidentally ate one?

Then there’s carrots, turnips and stuff. Why would anybody pull up a plant and decide to cook the roots? Did they just bite into anything ‘back in the day’? And potatoes. Why cook knobbly things growing amongst the roots of a plant?

When did the first person decide to pulverise a bit of bark and sprinkle it over their apple pie? Or grate a rock hard nut over their rice pudding?

We mustn’t forget the humble mushroom, either. We all know how nasty some of those can be yet somebody must’ve curled up in agony, gotten high (maybe he or she didn’t mind too much?) or dropped down dead before the safe ones were found? What possessed them to keep trying? “Oh, the bloke next door just popped his clogs after eating those mushrooms over there but never mind, I’ll try some of these instead”. I think I’d have given them the no-no myself.

The ones that gets me most though are eggs. Milk I can understand - it comes out of our udders so why not try the similar looking stuff that comes from other mammals - but eggs? Who decided to take the hard thing that comes out of a bird’s bum and boil it? That surely must’ve been because one accidentally fell into hot water? I reckon I’d have still been a bit dubious, but I suppose whoever it was must’ve been starving. A fried egg probably came about by being accidentally cracked open on a hot rock or something.

And what about pastry and pasta? Who first made them and why? The same goes for bread and cakes.

Food’s all around us and for us here in the West, in abundance. But we do take it pretty much for granted, don’t we? Imagine if we were the ones having to try all this stuff for the first time.

Sharon J

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Natural Ways To Get Rid of Ants

Image: Autan

I haven’t had a big problem with ants this year (touch wood) but a few weeks ago I noticed a couple of the blighters crawling around in my back porch and knew it would only be a matter of time before they’d invaded the house and would be driving me absolutely insane.

Now, I’ve nothing against ants in general - they’re very beneficial little chaps that help clear away dead insects and animals while aerating the ground and carrying organic matter into the soil so that our plants will grow bigger and stronger. What I dislike is the fact that at this time of year, they tend to think it’s their given right to just move into my house whenever they please and I’m sorry, but I just ain’t sharing!

The thing is, if they’re not controlled they can make nests in the insulation layer found below houses and from what I’ve heard, that's when you really have problems.

Of course, the best thing to do is make sure there’s nothing in the house that’s likely to attract them in the first place. Anything sweet and sugary that can easily be found will be like a magnet to them; once one has found it, the entire working population of the nest will be marching in to pick up their share. Unfortunately, even if we’re careful to keep sugar, honey, fizzy drinks, sweets, and the likes tightly packaged and away from kitchen work surfaces and other areas that are easily accessible, ants can still find something that attracts them. Just one tiny grain of sugar or biscuit crumb is all it takes.

Not wanting to use commercial ant-killer stuff to get rid of my visitors - the common Lasius niger, otherwise known as garden ants, that are the general cause of problems here in the UK - I decided to look into ways of deterring them through natural means. This is what I came up with:

Lemon juice - pour around the areas that ants frequent. This is meant to destroy their scent trails, confusing them into marching around witlessly rather than following their trodden path. A piece of string soaked in lemon juice and left where they come in is meant to do the same job.

Chalk - draw a line across their path and apparently they won’t cross it. A couple of people have told me they’ve successfully tried this but as I didn’t have any chalk, I didn’t get a chance.

Bicarb (baking soda) - does pretty much the same job as chalk. Sprinkle a line of it across their path.

Baby Powder - again, does the same as the above.

Vinegar - this one worked for me! Apparently ants absolutely loathe the stuff so spray it around doorways and anywhere else they may be coming through, as well as across their paths. I tried a mixture of 50/50 white malt vinegar and water and the ants were gone the next day!


If ants in the garden are a problem (and who wants them harvesting green fly on the veggies?), growing mint amongst the plants is said to be a deterrent. I can’t vouch for the validity of that, though. If that doesn’t work, you could always try laying your own sweet, sugary trail leading them elsewhere (like the compost heap, for example).

I have my vinegar at the ready should they decide to return to my humble abode. Until then, I’ll just relax and be happy that once again I managed to solve a problem without turning to synthetic and potentially harmful chemicals.

Sharon J

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Other posts that may be of interest:

• How To Get Rid Of Slugs & Snails
• 20 Uses For Vinegar

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The Problem With Plastic

Image: Mimi_K

I read quite a few simplicity and ‘green’ blogs and one thing that I’ve noticed is the number of people who are trying hard to eliminate any kind of plastic from their lives. I guess I must be the odd one out, because I don’t have a problem with plastic per se.

The way I see it is that plastic, polythene and other polymer based substances aren’t necessarily bad things - they have their place in our modern society and I’m perfectly happy to use my plastic watering-can, bucket, food storage boxes, garden trug and other bits and pieces and I realise that my telephone is made mostly of plastic, my laptop contains a good deal of it, as does my fridge and a whole host of other useful items. What I’m not happy with is the way in which so many people treat plastics.

It seems to me that the majority still view plastic as something that’s easily disposable. It’s cheap so they’re not losing much when they open the bin and dump it in. Every day,

Apparently, last year 17.5 billion plastic bags were given away by supermarkets here in the UK, equating to 290 bags per person or more than 5 ½ bags for each of us every single day. What on earth are we doing with all those bags?

Also, of the total amount of plastic produced here - around 4.7 million tonnes of it - 35% was produced for packaging alone! That’s more than 1.6 million tonnes of plastic packaging!

When you consider that only around 7% of that total was actually recycled, it’s no wonder our landfills are overflowing with the stuff, not to mention the amount of plastic that’s ‘disposed of’ in the countryside and on our streets.

Even our oceans aren’t free of the stuff. On a world basis, it’s estimated that around 46,000 plastic objects are floating within every square mile! Yepp, shocking isn’t it? Not only are our beaches being swamped with plastic debris washed up by the tides, but marine life is suffering through our selfish abuse of our own ability to create new substances. In fact, 170 different species of marine wildlife have been reported to have been fatally injured through mistaking plastic for food. Here in the UK an average of 2 plastic items can be found on every square meter of beach, either washed up or left behind by visitors.

Plastic’s durable because it doesn’t decompose quickly and therein lies the problem. Because it’s also cheap to produce and therefore acquire, it’s all too easy to just get rid of it again without a thought to where it’ll go or what will happen to it.

Thankfully, things are gradually improving. The government have given stores until next spring to reduce the number of plastic carrier bags they hand out by at least 70% or they’ll introduce a forced fee per bag with the income going to environmental projects (or so they say). Marks & Spencer have voluntarily introduced a 5p charge per bag and already the number of bags they’re handing out has been reduced by 80%, proving that if people have to part with their money for something, they’re more likely to think twice about it. Perhaps the problem with plastic is that it’s simply too cheap?

When you can buy a bucket for £1.99, it doesn’t hurt much to just ‘chuck it’ and buy a new one when the original’s looking past its best or no longer matches the décor, whereas if the same bucket cost £10, I’m sure far more people would think twice.

One of my pet peeves is the amount of plastic that supermarkets use for packaging. I bought two small pork chops a few days ago that were packed in a relatively large plastic tray that was again covered with a sturdy plastic film. Now I realise that, unlike the local butcher, they need to pre-pack their meat while leaving the contents visible but the plastic tray was far larger than it needed to be; at least four, maybe even five, chops would have fitted into it. What a waste!

That’s the last time I buy ‘small’ from the supermarket. I prefer to buy my meat from the butcher anyway, but sometimes I have no choice. From now on, when the supermarket’s my only option I shall buy in bulk. Half a dozen chops, chicken breasts or pieces of steak packed in one piece of plastic has to be better than the same packed in three although I know I still won’t be entirely happy about opening it, dividing the contents for freezing, and then discarding the plastic. Some I can reuse to at least extend their life a little but not all of them. The butcher, on the other hand, wraps his meat in a small piece of plastic film and then greaseproof paper - very little packaging in comparison.

Any plastic carrier bags that come into the house are reused as bin liners - the council still prefers us to wrap our waste rather than dump it straight into the bin (health & safety) and I’m blowed if I’m buying special bin liners! I have a friend who only ever uses scented bin-liners but throws her carrier bags straight into the bin. What, I ask you, is the point?

As I said, plastic is here to stay and has its place in our lives - it’s the way in which we use it that I have a problem with.

Sharon J

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Christian The Lion

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Take a look at this video…




An amazing story, don’t you think? One that should never have happened because Harrods should never have sold exotic, wild animals in the first place, but they did and the video shows that an extraordinary bond can be created between man and one of the most dangerous wild animals on the planet. Even George Adamson, of 'born free' fame and the man who re-introduced Christian to Africa had never seen anything like it.

Lions, of course, do not belong in our living rooms, back gardens or driving around in Bentleys, as Christian did while he was living in ‘the lap of luxury’ with his owners. Thankfully, its now illegal to sell and keep wild animals as pets but until the ban in 1976, keeping lions, pumas, leopards and other big cats was quite popular.

Unfortunately, after the ban was introduced, few actually tried to have their pets re-introduced to the areas where they belonged, releasing them instead in the UK countryside. Even today there are regular sightings of big cats in various areas and as late as in 2000 a young boy was attacked by a “leopard like” animal in Monmouthshire. Apparently, sightings in the highlands of Scotland have become common occurrences. It's believed that these sightings could have a direct connection with the 70's mania for keeping such animals.

In Africa, the number of lions has fallen by around 70% during the last decade alone leaving no more than around 16,500 of these magnificant creatures. Every year, over 600 are illegally hunted and killed as ‘trophies’ and illicit trading in lions still goes on. Habitat loss and the depletion of their natural prey has also taken its toll of them. Many are still kept under dreadful conditions in poorly managed zoos, circuses etc.

Man has a choice as to whether or not our species will have a chance of long-term survival; the animals we share the planet with do not. What we ruin for ourselves we also ruin for them and as I’ve always said: “mess up your own life if you want do, but don’t mess up others’ lives for them.”

Surely we owe it to those creatures who can’t make their own choices to do what we can to help keep the world a beautiful place where we can all happily survive?

Sharon J

For more information about Christian the Lion, see:
Wikepedia Entry
Daily Mail Story
The Born Free Foundation


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Fishing

Image: Old Shoe Woman

For years I could regularly be found either by the sea, a lake or river, or in our boat, fishing rod in hand, waiting eagerly for ‘the bite’.

By regularly I mean at least once a week during summer, often more, but then fishing was so easy in Norway. No matter where you are, there’s always a lake, stream or river within easy hitting distance (cycling distance) and as the coast line’s long with fjords digging deep into the country, the sea’s usually not too far away either. You just sit on the rocks, and wait.

The peace and quite I felt whilst fishing was enormously good for me. I’d contemplate and theorise about all manner of things while I was surrounded by beautiful nature and didn’t care whether it rained or was late at night. As long as I was dressed properly, I was happy. Really happy.

Fishing can be such a simple pursuit and yet whenever I see anglers along the canal or at lakes here, they seem to be making such a big thing of it. They’re bogged down with all sorts of equipment (don’t ask me what they use it all for - I haven’t a clue) and in order to make a catch more likely, they’re stressing over which ground bait to use.

To me, fishing is a matter of a rod, a reel, a hook, some bait or a lure, and a box of extra line, hooks and other incidentals. A Y-twig to rest my rod on, should I need to leave it, is always good if I can find one but if I can’t, I’ll just make do.

Sometimes my partner and/or kids came with me and the children soon became almost just as keen as me although Paul, bless him, couldn't use a real hook because he didn't understand the danger and ended up with one firmly embedded in his hand. The photo at the top actually reminds me of Lise's first catch - that was a tiny perch, too.

Unlike most inland anglers here, what we caught was generally eaten. The only exceptions were young fish that would be thrown back in to hopefully be caught later once they’d grown or inedible fish that just happened to take the bait. Cod would be frozen down and used in fish cakes, fish pies, casseroles, or just eaten as fillets; trout would be grilled or barbequed the next day; and If we had too much fish for ourselves, we’d give some away to friends and family.

I really miss that kind of fishing so I’ve decided that next time I visit my family in Norway during summer, I’m going to buy myself some simple fishing equipment, take myself off somewhere early in the morning and fish until I feel ready to point my nose back towards ‘home‘. No rushing and nobody hassling me for something - just me and nature and complete relaxation.

I shall leave my gear over there so that I can fish every time I make a late spring/summer/early autumn visit. Ice fishing, I’m afraid, is off the agenda now. It was never as much fun anyway and now that I feel the cold so much, I don’t feel the least bit inclined to try again. I just hope I can still remember how to tie a knot!

Maybe one year I’ll hire a boat that we can all poodle around the fjord in, while I look for the places where nicely sized cod tend to gather, hoping for that exciting moment: ‘the bite’.

Sharon J

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How to Get Rid of Slugs and Snails

Image Source

Slugs and snails! Just the thought of them munching their way through my favourite hostas and nibbling the tender shoots of my emerging perennials is enough to have me declare death and destruction on what is, essentially, just another of nature’s creations.

I wouldn’t like to see them disappear entirely – that wouldn’t be good for the birds, hedgehogs and frogs that enjoy making a meal of them. A few in the compost heap can be useful but a whole platoon of them munching their way through the vegetable patch isn’t. But like any other pest, it’s only when the balance is wrong that they drive you insane.

So now that we’ve determined that too many of the blighters can turn them into ‘the enemy’, let’s look at what deterrents there are.

If you scout around the Interweb you’ll find quite a few. Some work better than others and some just don’t work at all. Some I’d be happy to try, others I wouldn’t. Which you ultimately choose to try isn’t up to me though, so I’ll just pass on the knowledge I have and leave it to you to make your decisions.

PELLETS
Pellets contain ‘metaldehyde’ which causes the slugs to produce enormous amounts of mucus that will quickly lead to dehydration and death. Unfortunately, metaldehyde can also harm other wildlife and our pets. Even worse, if children become too curious, they can be harmful to them, too. Being blue, which is a non-food colour, they‘re not immediately attractive to wildlife and pets, however, that doesn’t mean they’ll never get inside them and young children are hardly likely to be deterred by the colour. According to the RSPB, pellets aren’t harmful to birds but that still leaves the ‘bird eats snail, cat eats bird’ problem.

I’ve used them in the past and they do work but I’d much rather manage without them.

BARK CHIPPINGS
I’ve been advised to cover my beds in bark chippings as they don’t like moving over it. Poppycock! It doesn’t work. They simply slither underneath it instead.

BROKEN EGG SHELLS
When scattered around vulnerable plants broken eggshells work for a short while but considering the amount of egg shells you’d need for there to be any real value in it, this isn’t a particularly viable idea. It’s ok for protecting one or two favourite plants but make sure the majority of shell pieces have their sharp sides up.

CRUSHED SEA SHELLS
Some garden centres sell these and I’ve been told by those who’ve tried them that they work better than egg shells as they don‘t crush down to powder anywhere near as easily and won‘t disappear in heavy rain. Useful in pots but, as with egg shells, you’d need far too many for them to be of any use as protection for plants in the ground. They’d look pretty good in a garden with a seaside theme, though.

COFFEE GROUNDS
Apparently molluscs don’t like the caffeine so coffee grounds sprinkled in a circle around target plants should stop them crossing. I’ve tried it with some success but it washes away very quickly and needs to be re-applied often. What does worry me though, is what it might be doing to other creatures like earthworms, beetles etc. If it’s so effective against slugs then could it be having some other adverse effects?

LIQUID COFFEE
Very strong liquid coffee (about the equivalent of 30 spoonfuls to a mug) sprayed on plants is said to stop slugs and snails from munching them. Well if coffee grounds work I’ve no doubt that this will have some sort of effect too but what might it do to the plants? It’s all well and good getting excited about methods of slug control but until we know that it won’t have any negative side-effects, I’d rather steer clear.

GRAVEL
Because of their thin skin, molluscs don’t like crawling over anything sharp and is the reason broken egg shells work to an extent. Part of our garden is laid to gravel with plants around the edges and while this area definitely appears to be less attractive to the slimy visitors, a few do cross it. However, so far the hosta in the gravel is still intact whereas those in the beds have been munched so it’s definitely an improvement.

VASELINE ON RIMS OF POTS
If you’re trying to save your hostas then this one’s useless. The leaves hang down over the edges of the pots, the slugs climb on and, without ever touching the Vaseline, they’re enjoying a slap up meal. It could be useful for veg in pots though, as long as they grow upright, although not having tried it myself, I can’t say whether it’d work or not.

BEER TRAPS
A tin can filled with beer and placed in the ground should attract slugs to it that will then fall in and die through being submerged in alcohol. It does work but isn’t really useful in a garden with a big slug problem because you’d need too many traps that have to be emptied and refilled every day. If the problem’s small-scare it could be worth trying, though.

AN ORANGE OR GRAPEFRUIT
Remove the fruit from an orange or grapefruit and place upside down in your beds. Molluscs will be attracted to them and then, in the morning, you simply pick them up and dispose of them. As with beer traps, the method’s ok if you don’t have much of a slug problem but no good if you’re trying to control a whole army of munchers because you’d need to use an awful lot of fruit.

CARDBOARD STRIPS
Rather than wasting money on beer and fruit, place 6” x 12” strips of cardboard amongst your plants to make hideaways for slugs then just go out in the morning, turn them over, pick the slugs off, drop them into a container and dispose of.

REMOVING LARGE STONES, LOG PILES ETC
I’ve often heard people recommend this as slugs and snails like to hide in moist, dark places but I refuse to recommend it. Sure, you’d be removing their hidey holes but you’d also be removing the natural hiding places of beneficial creatures and having them inhabit your garden will do far more for your personal battle against slugs and snails than removing a few stones, etc. ever will.

NIGHT-TIME PATROL
Once darkness falls, go outside with a torch and hand pick the little beggars off your plants. I’m squeamish and just can’t touch slimy slugs so I usually cover my hand with a plastic bag (a previously used one, preferably) before picking them up.

If you’re vigilant with this for 3-4 nights you’ll notice the amount you find start to decline quite drastically. Once you feel you’ve got them under reasonable control, you’ll no longer have to go out every night. Once or twice a week will be enough and eventually maybe even once a fortnight. Don’t ever stop though or their numbers will be back up again before you can spit three times.

SALT
Sprinkling salt on slugs will literally dissolve them. I’m no slug lover but I have to admit that this is just too agonising to watch. Ok, so they munch my plants but they’re only doing what comes naturally to them. Do they really deserve such a tortuous death? To make any real impact on their numbers you’ll have to do as recommended above and go out every night for 3-4 nights with the salt pot at the ready. I’ve seen it work but only you know whether or not you can do it.

FIGHT NATURE WITH NATURE
The introduction of natural predators in the garden is by far the best solution, especially if combined with the night-time patrol method. If you can entice beneficial creatures like frogs, hedgehogs and thrushes into the garden, they’ll be of tremendous help.

Once you’ve got the number of molluscs under control through picking them off and disposing of them, the other creatures will ensure that those remaining are kept under control. We’ve had a family of baby blackbirds in our garden this year and believe me, the number of slugs I’ve found has been hardly worth talking about compared to a ‘normal’ year.

To make your garden attractive to them there has to be a good supply of food and water along with places for them to shelter. Hence my not advising you remove log piles, etc. Don’t expect your garden to become slug free though because your garden friendly visitors will need a food supply. It’s all about striking a balance. You put up with some slugs and the other creatures will make sure they don’t become too much of a problem.

You‘ve probably got an ample supply of food for them because, after all, it’s their food that caused the problem in the first place. Mind you, hedgehogs, frogs and thrushes are no different to you and me when it comes to getting fed up with the same old meal every day, even if the main course is juicy and mouth-watering, but most gardens have enough diversity to keep them happy. That’s assuming you haven’t been attacking every bug in sight with your chemical weapons, of course.

A wildlife pond is the best magnet for attracting beneficial creatures into the garden. It doesn’t have to be huge; just a place where frogs and newts can lay their spawn and from which other creatures can drink. An old washing up bowl sunk into the ground can be enough in a small garden.

Collecting tadpoles from natural ponds is, contrary to what some people believe, not illegal and neither is the removal of frogs and smooth newts as long as they‘re transferred to another pond and not for profit. Great crested newts are protected and mustn’t be removed from their natural habitat under any circumstances, unless under licence. So, to get your wildlife pond started, why not pop down to a local pond and fish out some taddies? Perhaps a little late now but certainly something to think of for next year. Watching tadpoles turn into tiny froglets is both fun and educational for children, too.

NEMATODES
Another natural method is the introduction of nematodes (Phasmarhabditis hermaphrodita) to the garden. These are microscopic worms sold under the name of “Nemaslug”. Once in the ground, nematodes will seek out slugs and aggressively attack them so as to use their body as a place of reproduction. As sick as this sounds, they actually enter the slug’s body through a hole in its head (it’s what slugs use to breathe through) and once in residence, they release a bacteria that stop the slugs for being able to eat. They then lay their eggs and within 7-10 days the slug’s a gonner! The newly hatched nematodes will continue to feed on the dead slug’s body until they’re ready to go into the ground alone, seeking out new slugs to attack and reproduce in.

Unfortunately, this isn’t an ever continuing cycle as the nematodes are only active in the soil for about 6 weeks. Long enough, however, to protect emerging plants whilst at their most vulnerable during spring.

Nematodes find clay soil difficult to move in (which is why I’m not able to use them in this garden) and cost about £8.95 to treat an area of 40 sq metres or £18.95 for 100 sq meters from Unwins.

KEEP CHICKENS
Apparently, chickens see slugs as a delicacy to be devoured with pleasure so keeping them should help keep the numbers down. Mind you, the chickens will probably walk all over your garden beds and leave their droppings on your patio so y’know, weigh one against the other and make your own decision. All I can say is that slugs don’t lay eggs suitable for human consumption.

Any chicken keepers out their like to tell us whether this works?

YOU’VE CAUGHT ‘EM, NOW DISPOSE OF THEM

If there’s one thing that really riles me, it’s reading a magazine that contains some tip or another for catching slugs but ends with “…and then dispose of them by your preferred means”. Unless somebody tells you how to dispose of them, how can you possibly have a preferred means?

Here are some ideas that could become your ‘preferred means’.

STAMP ON THEM
Yukk! Sorry, but I hate doing this. I can handle stamping on the odd one now and then but if I’ve just picked up a piece of cardboard with 20 dirty great slugs stuck to it, I’m not about to squidge them all over my garden path! No way! It works, there’s no doubt about that, and as it’s quick it’s also a humane way of dealing with them, but it isn’t for me. You may feel differently. Do as you wish.

THROW SNAILS AT A WALL OR OTHER HARD, RIGID SURFACE
This is Richard’s preferred means of disposal. He reckons aiming them at a tree is great target practice for cricket! Oh well, each to their own, eh? I’d imagine a cricket ball weighs considerably more than snail, though. Anyway, this method doesn’t kill them outright but they will die of moisture loss, assuming they don’t become bird food, first. Speaking of which, you could always pick up the crushed snails once you’ve finished lobbing them and put them on the bird table.

FREEZE THEM
Put them in Tupperware type container in the freezer. Being cold blooded they’ll slow down and become torpid in the cold, rather like being anaesthetised before dying. Ok, slugs and snails in the freezer may not sound very nice but fishermen have been keeping maggots in the fridge for years. Freezing’s undoubtedly the most humane way of killing them if you don‘t like the stamping method but whatever you do, DON’T use a small plastic bag tied with a knot. Slugs are incredibly muscular creatures and 20-30 of them in a bag, all struggling to get out will probably cause the bag to burst with the result being… well, not very pretty!

The slimy corpses can be disposed of by dumping them in the compost heap (assuming you have one) where they’ll do as nature intended and replenish the ground once they’ve become part of the ready compost. Failing that, you’ll just have to put them in the bin I suppose.

DUMP THEM ELSEWHERE
For those who don’t like the idea of killing anything, even slugs and snails, it’s possible to gather them in a lidded bucket (do make sure it’s tight, though - they’ll lift the lid and crawl out, otherwise) and transport them to another place where they’ll again be able to enjoy their freedom.

Don’t go thinking you can just chuck ‘em over next door’s garden, though. Molluscs have a homing instinct (no, I’m not having a laugh). If you don’t believe me, try putting some nail varnish on the shells of a few snails, drop them over the wall and see how long it takes before you find them in your garden again. Evidently, to be certain that they won’t find their way home, you’ll need to transport them at least 5 miles away. Quite honestly, I can’t believe you’d need to dump them THAT far away. I mean, they’re hardly marathon runners, are they? And if there’s a busy road between you and them, well… need I say more?

For some reason people tend to dislike slugs more than snails (I’m one of them) even though they’re essentially the same creatures. It’s said that snails were an attempt by a well-meaning angel to cover up the fact that God wasn’t paying proper attention when he created slugs. The angel said “let’s give snails a little house and then everybody’ll think they’re cute and love them”. I wouldn’t go as far as to say love them but they definitely have something that slugs lack. I mean, would Brian of Magic Roundabout fame have been so popular had he been a slug?

Sharon J

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AWOL and Tweets

My apologies for the recent inactivity here but a hospital stay made it impossible to post. I’m sort of sorted now although another bout as an in-patient wouldn’t surprise me. Fingers crossed that won’t happen.

Anyway, in the interim, a black bird has built her nest in the clematis outside our kitchen window, amongst an abundance of blue flowers. It’s a bit too high up to take a look inside without climbing onto a patio chair but as she spends most of her time there, there are no doubt eggs inside. Once she becomes more active, I’ll try to take a look to see how many chicks she has. Hopefully there will be many and they’ll keep the slugs and snails down this summer.

She's hidden herself so well that you'll probably need to click the picture to see a larger version

There’s also a bird nesting in the eaves but I’ve no idea what as I only ever see her as she flies past my window. She certainly makes enough noise up there though.

It’s lovely to see spring in the garden. I’m just looking forward to having enough strength to start making some improvements out there. Still, the birds obviously like it and that’s definitely a good thing.

Sharon J xx

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How Green is Your Lawn?

Photo: Caribb

Late March is generally the time when most gardeners start giving their lawns some extra attention and no doubt many will be out now, during the Easter break, tidying up and getting things ready for the coming seasons. They'll rake, aerate, weed and feed as they look forward to a summer where they can enjoy the lush, green carpet laid out before them. But just how green are our lawns? Environmentally green, that is.

An average back garden lawn is actually one of the biggest culprits when it comes to the environmental damage we do whilst at home. In our quest for the perfect lawn, we use vast amounts of water, artificial fertilisers, pesticides and weed killers. Then there’s the energy used every time it’s mowed with an electric mower. Some still even use petrol driven lawn mowers!

A well-manicured lawn also offers very little to help sustain our wildlife.

Now I’ll be the first to admit that our towns and cities would be far less pleasing without any lawns but do they have to be so perfect? Does it matter that there’s clover growing amongst the grass, giving bees plenty of sweet nectar to drink? Will the odd dandelion really make a huge difference? If you cut their heads off as they appear, they won’t seed and spread so shouldn’t cause too much of a problem. And daisies look lovely in a lawn. In fact, my mum mentioned just the other day that you rarely see daisies growing in lawns anymore whereas when she was young…

When it comes to mowing, did you know that just one hour with a petrol driven mower is the equivalent of a 100 mile car trip? Although the energy usage from a small electric mower is negligible it all mounts up over time, and there’s no denying the noise pollution they create. If your lawn is small, why not switch to a manual lawn mower - you’ll be harming the environment less, saving money on energy bills, getting exercise outdoors, and you won’t be disturbing your neighbours as they try to relax in their own gardens. That’s gotta be good, surely?

Weed and Feed style fertilisers are harmful to the environment and really shouldn’t be used (I’ll be disposing of mine); there’s been enough publicity about herbicides and pesticides that we should all know the consequences of them and weed and feeds are no exception. A balanced, natural lawn fertilizer and no weed killers is the answer if you want a ‘green’ lawn.

Photo: Nutmeg66

But let’s say you really can’t stand those dandelions. Well digging them up won’t work. Just a tiny piece of root needs to be left for it to grow again and if you break the root in two, you’ll actually be propagating it. If only the plants we want in the garden were that hardy! Putting salt in the middle of the leaf rosette kills them but it has to be done before the plant starts developing its flower stem. Other than that, it seems we’ll just have to live with them. They’re actually quite beautiful when you stop thinking of them as weeds, and bees and ladybirds love them for their pollen.

Then there’s water. Apparently a modern lawn of average size accounts for a massive 30% of domestic water usage during the summer months. That’s a LOT of water!! Drinking water! If you must have a lawn, at least install a waterbutt so that you’re not depleting our precious water supply quite as much.

Thankfully I only have a very small front lawn and have no intention of ever having a well manicured lawn at the back. Until I can afford to pay somebody to come in and landscape my garden (mud pit), I’ll just chuck a load of grass seeds out there, mix in some wild flower seeds and let it do its thing. With some shrubs along the fences and a few climbers, preferably native ones, I think it’ll be okay. Who knows, it may even stay that way :-)

Sharon J

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Walking in a Winter Wonderland

Photo: MonkeyImages

Strange things are happening in the winter wonderlands of Scandinavia and they aren’t good.

Having spent 18 years of my adult life in what I consider to be the most beautiful country in the world, Norway, I can’t help but feel saddened by the fact that the amazingly snow-filled winters appear to be fast disappearing. Not only in Norway, of course, but over the entire Scandinavian peninsula.

I experienced my first Norwegian winter during 1979/80 and fell totally and utterly in love. After the miserable, wet, grey winters I’d experienced in London, what faced me every morning out there was everything I’d imagined a winter paradise would be. Crisp, deep, pure white snow covered the ground, tree branches and roof tops and turned every other conceivable object into an object of beauty. Even the ugly old rusty wheelbarrow by our shed suddenly took on the kind of splendour that only a snowy winter could give it.

The days were cold but the air was dry and snow doesn’t soak you through in the way that rain does. Being outside in a snowfall was magical.

Kids would play outdoors all winter long. “There’s no such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate clothing” is what Norwegians believe. Unlike in England, there’s was as much outdoor activity during winter as during summer; they just found different ways of enjoying being in the great outdoors, associating with and respecting Mother Nature.

But gradually things started to change. Winters starting to become milder, meaning the snow would melt during the day then freeze at night. You had to be careful; walking on a polished, sloped skating rink isn’t easy. Remember, the countries right up north are mountainous – few roads are flat.

Gritting vehicles worked overtime to keep the traffic moving but if you lived at the top of a steep hill, as we did for a while, getting home was rarely easy.

Children could no longer be sure that the skating rink they’d played on today would still be usable tomorrow, or even whether they’d get to use those new skis that Santa brought them. Skating, skiing, sledding and various other winter tournaments were often postponed or cancelled and it was probably only by sheer luck that the Lillehammer Olympics in 1994 went ahead. It was definitely touch and go for a while.

This year? Apparently there have been reports of record temperatures from all over Scandinavia, and I’m not talking record lows. In Norway, February this year is said to be the second warmest on record since 1900 and although I haven’t been able to find out for certain when the warmest was, I wouldn’t mind betting it was February 1989. That’s when DD2 was born, y’see. The evening after she'd made her entrance I sat out on the hospital balcony wearing nothing but my pyjamas and slippers. That, believe me, was something that just wasn’t done. Totally incomprehensible. Mothers are told not to take their babies out if the temperature falls below -10 but it never did, even though January and February are supposed to be the coldest months. In fact, in the Drammen area we had no snow until April. The wildlife dependent on local streams and rivers suffered that following summer. There just hadn’t been enough melt off.

If you think 108 years isn’t such a long time to be worrying about high temperatures, let me also tell you that Stockholm has had its warmest winter this year since 1756. That’s 252 years. I could be even longer but there are no earlier records.

Even the Baltic ferries have been operating without any pauses to clear ice and local fisherman around the Oslo Fjord are shaking their heads because the ice was just too thin to venture out on.

The glaciers have been melting at a record rate and if this continues, people will no longer be donning their skis but walking in what was once a winter wonderland.

So is all this just part of nature’s own cycle? Should we just accept that we’re still coming out of the last ice age and that there’s nothing we can do about it or are we humans to blame?

I’m not about to give up hope. We must be able to at least slow this down, even if we can’t stop it, so that maybe, if we slow it enough, somebody in the future will find a way of stopping it altogether and the planet will be able continue to sustain life as we know it.

Sharon J

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Would You Miss The Buzz?

Photo: Andreas

Albert Einstein is rumoured to have once said:

"If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, then man would only have four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man."

Whether or not he actually did say it, we don’t know. The jury’s still out.

Now I can’t be absolutely certain that it would only take four years as I’m neither a bee, nor or bee-keeper, nor a person who’s studied bees. I have, however, always known that we’re dependent on them to pollinate our crops. That’s our fruit, veg, corn etc. Yes, science is making lots of progress when it comes to self-pollinating crops, but is that really the answer? Wouldn’t we miss the gentle buzz of bees during summer? What was that you said? You hate them because they sting? Noooo! Just leave them to get on with their business without swatting at them and you'll be fine.

Anyway, back to the point in hand.

Apparently we could be facing a bit of a bee disaster this year. According to Scotland’s Sunday Herald, thanks to the extreme mild temperatures that February brought with it, queen bees were emerging early this year. That’s two months too early!

When the article was written there was fear that these Queens would be killed off should temperatures drop during March, which they have done. I don’t know about where you live but here in South Cheshire we’ve had some very nippy nights. LM (that’s DD2) had to keep scraping ice from her car windscreen in the mornings!

Considering there’s already been a decline in the numbers of bees in this country over recent years – thanks to destruction of their natural habitats and chemical pesticides etc - this isn’t good news at all.

This is something I think we all need to take action on.

• Instead of planting flowering plants that have little or no nectar at all, find nectar rich - preferably native – plants for the bees to feed on instead.
  
  
• Let the clover grow in your lawn. It’s an excellent source of food for bees whereas lawn grass offers nothing at all. The scent of clover also entices them into the garden, as does cat mint (nip).
  
  
• Make sure there are safe and warm places for them to spend the winter. Special bee houses can be bought but I’ve seen some simple home-made versions that have worked just as well. A pile of old dried logs can be useful too, but remember they like to nest up relatively high.
  
  
• Unless you have a pond or bird bath, put out a tray of water so that the bees can quench their thirst.
  
  
• And for goodness sake stop using chemical pesticides in your garden. A ‘perfect’ garden without insect life just isn’t worth the environmental risks that go along with it.

Photo: Andreas

Plants that are good for bees include:

• Heather
• Primroses
• Snowdrops
• Crocuses
• Poppies
• Borage
• Thyme
• Foxgloves
• Cornflowers
• Marigolds
• Sunflowers
  
• Honesty
• Aquilegia
• Lupins
• Hollyhocks
• Campanulas
• Lavender
• Salvia
• Old fashioned roses
• Honeysuckle
• Jasmine
• Any flowering berries and fruits

Before you go dashing off to the garden centre, one thing to bear in mind is to avoid double flowering varieties. They may look pretty but they’re far less useful to the bees. In fact, some aren’t of any use at all because the nice, plump bees just can’t get far enough in.

I’m definitely going back to a wildlife friendly garden. One day, my mud pit will be transformed, until then I shall put out plenty of pots and plant a new honeysuckle. Oh, and I do plan to throw a packet of grass seed around, mixed in with some wild meadow flower seed. It's gotta be better than it is now :)

Sharon J

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March

I can’t believe it’s 1^st of March already! Doesn’t time fly by? It seems only yesterday that it was Christmas! Yes, I know I’m starting to sound like my grandmother but time does appear to pass more quickly as you get older, there’s no doubt about that. Even DD2, who’s just 19, mentioned that fact a few days ago. She told me that a week’s holiday in our tent used to feel like forever when she was little whereas now a week away is gone before you’ve got there almost.

I always think March is a good month. Spring starts to show her face around this time of the year and although the daffodils, periwinkles and primulas have been blooming in my garden for a couple of weeks already, other plants will start springing into life throughout the month. Birds will start looking for nesting places and squabbling over the best ones, and hibernating creatures will start emerging after their long sleep. In the countryside the first lambs will be in the fields, kicking up their heels and bringing a smile to people's faces.

North Wales, on a misty March morning.

March 23^rd will be Easter Sunday so a few days beforehand I’ll try to find some young birch twigs that I can take in and put in water. It’s a Norwegian Easter tradition to bring spring into the house this way, usually with colourful feathers attached to the twigs. It's a tradition I love. The bright green of the new leaves as they emerge always cheers me up and remind me that another winter is finally going to have to give way to bright early mornings and long, light evenings.

The first official day of spring is on March 21^st which follows the Spring Equinox on the previous day. Traditionally we should plant seeds on that day so I’ll have to try to get hold of some wild flower seeds to throw around the garden. I know that’s not proper sowing but it’ll have to do.

Oh, I love this time of year. It’s so full of hope and anticipation.

Sharon J xx

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Mountain Life

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Did you know that I once lived up a mountain? I don’t know how high up the house was but the road certainly didn’t go any further and it was possible to walk from our place to the top without too much trouble.

We weren’t there long, but it was an experience I wouldn’t be without. The house itself was a bit of a shack – you could look between the floorboards from the second floor and watch what was going on downstairs, the only heating was a wood burner in the living room, and when the wind blew it felt as if it would fall down. No wonder we found the midnight thunder storm exciting! It did have hot water and a shower though which helped a lot.

The house we lived in

It’s more redeeming feature was, without a shadow of doubt, the view. From the living room and patio it looked out through a valley between two other mountains, out towards the sea (you had to climb a bit further up the mountain to actually see as far as the sea) and it was spectacular. Like something I’d never imagined! Living in Norway I’d seen some pretty amazing views before but having that right outside my house every morning was incredible. What’s more, every morning at around 9.30 an eagle used to fly across the valley. I’d never seen a wild eagle before so you can imagine how mind-blowing that was to watch. Strangely enough, I never saw it fly back the other way.

There was one bus a day from our mountain and into the nearest village. It was the school bus really but anybody could catch a ride. Being as I didn’t have a car at the time, you'll understand that organisation was essential if I wasn’t going to run out of essential supplies. Luckily, a lady I’d befriended – and who I’m still friends with today – used to offer to drive me down with her but that wasn’t too often. We used to enjoy a lot of time together though. Her house was about a 20 minute walk from mine (houses were few and far between up there) but that didn’t matter – the walk was always enjoyable whether at 2 in the afternoon or 2 at night.

A local farmer used to come up with his horse and cart a couple of times a week and took the kids out for a ride. They were always welcome at the farm, too. DD2 learned to ride there.

Strangely enough, during my short spell on that mountain I made more friends than I have in six years in the street I live in now. I wonder why that is? Any suggestions? The people of Bontveit were open, honest and hard-working; they had a real respect and understand of nature and the part they played in it. There was no place for misplaced sympathy – sheep had to be slaughtered and if the dog was too ill to live, the shot gun came out. But the sheep roamed freely on the mountainside while they lived and the dog was treated with the greatest respect.

Living there was, my friends, truly living the simple life. It was a very happy time for all of us.

Sharon J xx

Trees as Gifts

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Apparently, it was once popular in the United States to commemorate the birth of a child by planting a tree. It was a tradition derived from the Native Americans who believed that as the child grew the tree would also grow, representing maturity and responsibility. They also believed that as trees live for many years, a tree for a baby would ensure the child a long, healthy life.

That was many moons ago though and these days, as we all know, it’s popular in just about any Western culture to spend as much money as possible on something mass produced.

I’m not saying that baby blankets, little sleep suits, or even silver plated boxes in which to keep babies first tooth aren’t useful gifts but with the lack of trees in this country, planting a tree sounds like a very good idea to me, not only the celebrate babies birth but as birthday and Christmas gifts, too.

I once dedicated a tree in a newly planted forest to a friend’s grandchild for his first birthday. He had everything he needed and there was no point buying more toys or clothes. A tree, however, will help make the air that he breathes much cleaner and become home to a plethora of creatures that are otherwise struggling to find new habitats.

Having spent 18 years in a country where 37% of the surface area is forest, most of that in the lowlands, I miss the forests more than I can say. Here in England we have just 340,000 hectares of forest and 80% of those are less than 20 hectares in size. When you think that Hyde Park’s size is 234 hectares, you can understand just how small most of our forests are. Miniscule! And London comprises 160,000 hectares so we're talking total forest area that's just over twice the size of London.

During the post-war period and right up until the mid 70s it was popular for gardeners to fell large trees that grew in their gardens to make way for manicured lawns and perfectly planted flower beds. I can remember my granddad doing just that and being sad that the squirrels and birds would no longer have somewhere to live out there. Luckily, that trend has turned and more gardeners are planting trees, albeit smaller, more manageable trees, but there’s still no doubt that we need more trees!

DD2 having fun in a tree

If you’d like to give a tree as a gift the following sites can help:

• The Carbon Neutral Company - tree dedication in a choice of forests starts at just £10.
  
  
• Treegifts – a tree and baby rattle sent directly to the recipient’s home for planting. Best make sure they have room for it first!
  
  
• Getting Personal – trees are planted where they’re needed most, such as along hedgerows, in woodlands and nature reserves. £19.95.
  
  
• The Woodland Trust – help save ancient forests or create new areas of broadleaf woodland. £10.00.

I’d love my great-grandchildren to be able to grow up with woodland close by. A few hours spent walking in the woods is the best de-stresser I know about - how wonderful to be close to nature! In fact, from now on, every time I fly I'm going to buy at least one tree to help offset my footprint. I don't fly often and they're usually short haul flights to Norway which apparently produce 0.3 tonnes of carbon which can be offset by half a tree. I guess that means buying a tree is a good thing. If I were flying to Hong Kong I'd need just over two trees to be carbon neutral. I'm not really sure how this carbon neutral lark works though; I must look it up.

Sharon J xx

The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second best time is now. - Chinese proverb

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