The carrier bag greenhouse May 2, 2008

This week has been very productive, my husband and I used all our inventive skills and created a small but very effective greenhouse for the plants that need heat (in our case thats chillies, peppers, aubergines and melons). We had a spare black recycling box from the council (ours was stolen, then found days later, but in the meantime the council had thrown a new one at our front down - literally thrown), so we filled this with bits of rounded off glass that we’ve been collecting from the beach for some time, then put the seed trays on top. We had a couple of A frames (not sure of their original use possibly for a paste table), so we used one of those and rested it on top. Over this we put a polythene bag - we used one of those bags that you put clothes in then suck out the air with a vacuum because we had one that had ripped when we moved house. We covered up the gaps with bubble wrap and made sure we could remove it all to deal with the plants as necessary and voila! A minature greenhouse. I like it so much I’ve decided I need at least another two. But there is the question of finding a similar sized black box as the recycling boxes. In the meantime for the rest of the plants that need a bit of heat, we’ve just been wrapping them in bubblewrap (including right over the top of the plant pot until they germinate) which works a treat. Still haven’t managed to get any chillies to germinate though.

Making stuff out of old junk is great fun, I really enjoy it and really enjoy using my ingenuity to prevent things being thrown away. I certainly think everyone should do it. There is a great site called Recycle This! which gives some great ideas on how to reuse items you might normally put in the bin.

Went for a forage today but forgot to take my gardening gloves so whilst I found a great source of nettles far away from traffic pollution and dog pee I couldn’t pick any. Got attacked by plenty of brambles though. Also found some Ground Ivy but only took a little bit to press in my book for future reference, have no recipes for it yet.

Good Energy April 26, 2008

Good Energy are great. Mainly because I got a surprise parcel from them this morning of freshly pressed apple and rhubarb juice. Have put it in the fridge to chill so it should be ready for a drink in the garden around lunchtime. Yum!

April 25, 2008

Mental Detox week didn’t really last a week for me. I did an entire day with absolutely no mobile, internet, tv programmes anything. It was brilliant. I spent the day pottering around clearing up the house, sorting out stuff, cleaning my shoes (covered in mud from last years Glastonbury), planting up seeds, fashioning greenhouses out of bubblewrap and whatnot. Brilliant day. Tuesday was good I popped on the internet briefly to check something, then spent the rest of the day in the garden, planting more bits, reading a book, snoozing in a chair and other such things. Great days. My husband and I also went out to the pub for a quick drink with a friend before having a lovely walk home, then a wander round popular fly tipping areas, salvaging “rubbish”. We got a large 3 litre plastic bottle which we thought would be handy as a mini greenhouse in the garden, a washing up bowl and a clothes airer which was slightly broken but we fixed it with an elastic band (found on the pavement courtesy of Royal Mail).

So all in all a very productive week. we have also been scouting out suitable guerrilla gardening places and have found a brilliant place so expect news of gardening antics soon. In the meantime, my husband took a sprouting garlic clove from a friends house and planted it under a nearby tree. Planting things in the public domain is very empowering. I thoroughly recommend it and its a great way to use up any leftover seeds. We have an agreement that we won’t plant things anywhere that is obviously cultivated by the council as a) that will just spell trouble and b) if we are planting food, cultivated areas are likely to be sprayed or our seedlings will get ‘weeded’ so its a waste of time. But that still leaves heaps of places to plant stuff. We have also been saving paper bags to make seed bombs for fenced off waste ground so expect more of an update on that soon.

I read an extremely interesting book this week, called Anastasia by Vladimir Megre. About a Russian ‘wild woman’ of sorts (for want of a better description). A completely amazing in tune with nature woman, who lives without any material possessions but is in perfect health and completely happy, and seems to be able to come up with solutions to any of the worlds problems. But there was a very interesting theory in the book regarding growing plants that would be tailored to a specific persons needs. By coating the seeds before you plant them with your own saliva, they are able to create defenses for whatever health problems you have, and by walking over the earth with your bare feet, again you transmit information to the plants as to what needs defending against. I don’t think I’ve put it very well, but I understand it works as very basic homeopathy? In the sense that you give the plant something to build up its immune system against, so when you eat it, it is more enriched and tailored to your specific needs. Anyway, I may give it a go. But I recommend the book, it’s a little airy fairy and not very well written (as the writer is originally an entrepreneur) but the ideas are very interesting.

pests April 19, 2008

Do chavs count as pests? I’m sure I could be persuaded to use a non organic approach on them. But seriously now, I should not have to ask my work colleague for a lift home because I’m worried about getting knifed by some gobby teenager in the 200 metres from work to my house. I think the time may be coming to bite the bullet and get a job with longer hours, but more pay in order to fund out getting out of England plan. In theory I believe all people are equal and we should be given the chance to look after ourselves and not have to be governed so harshly but if you had to deal with some of the people I do on a day to day basis you would be amazed. I’m sure they’re not people, they’re a different species and they NEED to be told what to do as they clearly cannot look after themselves.

*bangs head against wall*

Right. I’m going to bed.

binsacks and mental detox April 19, 2008

I was rather proud of myself the other day and made a statement to the council binmen, who dutifully pushed two large rolls of binsacks through my letterbox. So, slipper and pyjama clad I ran after them to give them back telling them that I don’t need binsacks. Cue incredulous looks. But after a patronising ‘are you sure you won’t need them?’ I explained that in the three months we have barely filled half a wheely bin (and even then I’m sure our sieve went in there by mistake so needs to be fished out meaning even less rubbish), so would not need the binsacks (each one being the size of a wheely bin). They seemed quite impressed and surprised, so I really hope I’ve made two people think about how it could be possible to not produce so much waste.

In other news, this week is International Downshifting Week. I haven’t really paid too much attention to it to be honest, as we live a fairly downshifted life but it coincides nicely with Mental Detox Week, which I am considering taking part in, and I do feel the two are linked. Mental Detox Week will involve no mobile phones, no unnecessary internet, no tv programmes, no computer games etc etc. I quite fancy the idea but I will have to speak to the Other Half, as it would have to be a joint decision as if I did it on my own I’d end up hiding away in the bedroom all week, away from the laptop. At any rate I have Monday and Tuesday off work, so I may well try and do it then, if not all week. And without digital appliances to give me grief, in theory, I should have time to try some more downshifting activities such as making a meal from scratch or planting some more seeds. Less pleasant activities planned include scrubbing the bathroom tiles, not great, but necessary.

I think, if it were up to me I would take part in Mental Detox Week for definite. I just hope I can talk my husband around. Luckily for me I have a couple of new books arriving early next week and the new Permaculture magazine just arrived today, so I’ll have plenty of good reading material to keep me entertained, as well as a whole heap of housework and practical projects to do.

of onions and things April 17, 2008

We went shopping today and discovered that the fruit and veg shop that we use to supplement our veg box has closed down! Very disappointing and I’m sure it’s to do with the massive As*a that’s opened up nearby. Big shame, as this shop used to stock cheeses and milk as well and we wanted to investigate whether they did organic milk there. Ho hum. Which unfortunately means, the only organic milk that is available in Folkestone is either from S*insbury’s or As*a. Unless there is somewhere I don’t know about. BIg shame though. Anyway, we scouted out another fruit and veg shop which sold a myriad of items, but had ‘local produce’ painted on the window….however upon further inspection it was actually very difficult to find what was local and what wasn’t as next to the local spring onions was a packet of baby corn from Thailand. Annoying. But we bought our two onions and a can of cloudy lemonade (not local) and left, thinking that this is probably the best we can get. Travelling to Canterbury to get local produce just isn’t feasible even though they do have a fantastic farmers market that runs 6 days a week.

So we hit a bit of a brick wall with that one. In other news our veggie box arrived today which means experimenting with recipes and joy of joys spring veg! I was getting so sick of cabbage but today we received just the one cabbage, as well as spring onions (still muddy), tomatoes and half a cucumber! Hooray! I think I might juice the cucumber with a bit of mint and a handful alfalfa sprouts. Yummy.

Spent a good two hours weeding at the allotment the other day. It was fantastic. Time passed ever so quickly, I wondered why I was aching then the OH looked at the time and we’d been there a lot longer than I’d realised! He made a swale/big ditch thing at the top of our plot, as we are on a slope, and the idea is that it will capture the rain then it will absorb into the ground and keep the earth moist during hot weather. I’m sure it’s going to work, we saw it on a documentary and everything! But we are both redesigning the plot in our heads in more a permaculture-y style, and I think next year we’re going to go for raised beds permanently covered in mulch to stop weeds, instead of one great big flat patch that needs constant weeding.

Ah. The weeds. They are voracious. Actually one patch is perfect and putting down cardboard then compost on top worked a treat. But the rest? Nope. The cardboard was no deterrent for these super weeds. So to save my knees and back we have put down a large tarpaulin (to cut off the sunlight) over the worst patch then will leave that until we absolutely need it. On the other patches, I’m weeding by hand then as soon as the seedlings are ready, we have very thick large pieces of cardboard which will go down, have holes cut in them for the seedlings to be planted through, then hopefully the weeds won’t have much of a chance to grow. However, this remains to be seen as I’m sure the weeds on our patch are some sort of superweed.

weeds April 12, 2008

Note to self: next time you want to do weed identification. Take the book to the allotment. Not the weeds back home. I now have a heap of shrivelled up green stuff eluding identification, and I can’t find my book anywhere. On the other hand, I knew what the dandelions were, no problem. I think the other stuff is fat hen. Which is edible. But I want to make sure first! Going to have a go at making dandelion coffee. Need to clear the fridge out of all the bits and bobs of veg! Luckily I have two days off coming up so I’ll set to it then….maybe. Although on my list is, take compostables down to allotment. Lay down new path. Find best place to plant brussels sprouts. Make magazine racks out of the cereal boxes I’ve saved. Sort out bookcases, now I’ve actually got enough bookshelves I need to sort out my books so I can actually find things. Freecycle the bits I don’t want.

Gardening is going great guns. Although the basil after sprouting excitedly looks like it might die. I think it got too cold so I have made a greenhouse for it out of an old plastic cake tray. The peas have gone mad with growth. The cauliflowers are poking shoots out shyly. The potatoes are reaching upwards a bit more each day. Oh, and a chive poked its head up today. Although now we’ve started planting stuff, the Other Half and I have gone even more permaculture crazy and have been watching documentaries left, right and centre and now I want to completely redesign the allotment and put in raised beds and stacking and all sorts. But that will have to wait until next year. Our allotment landlord kindly donated us some old fencing that we can use as trellises though.

If you are interested in permaculture, I strongly recommend Sepp Holzer’s Rebel Farmer
We love him! Try and find him on you tube as well here: Sepp Holzer
. He is our hero at the moment!

jerusalem artichoke April 11, 2008

guerilla gardened jerusalem artichoke successfully planted. success! took us all of 30 seconds then walking off subtly with lots of giggling. i look forward to the crop! right off to plan our next “attack”

Glastonbreeee! April 9, 2008

Quite excitable as we are going to Glastonbury! Which is odd because I was determined I wasn’t going to go this year as last year was full of trendies and coke sniffers and generally didn’t have the good ole Glastonbury vibe as usual. Oh, and I had very hurty legs from walking miles everyday in thick toffee like mud. But! This year will be different. Hopefully. Mainly because it didn’t sell out very quickly which leads me to believe that the ‘cool kids’ are going elsewhere (probably Reading/Leeds because of Rage Against the Machine, but I saw them last year), so hopefully a bit of the old Glastonbury vibe will be back. Also with less people, and a larger site this year, in theory it should be a bit less crowded which is great for me as being a weeny weeny little lady, large crowds can be difficult and I can get knocked over very easily without people noticing. And the Glastonbury gods cannot give us liquid mud this year! It’s just not possible. Actually apparently it’s something to do with the microclimate that it almost always rains, and even when it doesn’t rain theres always patches of gloopy mud around so I guess I should just get used to it. However, I look forward to it with hopes of sunny weather and non sticky mud.

What I particularly love about Glastonbury is the lack of litter (although last year it was more like Reading with the amount of rubbish chucked around), and the Green Police! Rushing over and embarrassing anyone who deigns to drop the tiniest cigarette butt or heaven forbid, pee in a hedge! And I love the craziness of Glastonbury too, so many interesting people and interesting things to do and see! Oh, and the Speaking Tree bookshop. That’s actually my favourite bit.

Anyway, I think my husband’s favourite bit is being a Womble on the last day. It shouldn’t happen at Glastonbury, however inevitably people can’t be bothered to carry stuff back to the car/train/bus/helicopter so leave stuff in the field! We still have packets of noodles that people left behind! And the packet of rice that I currently have on the go is courtesy of Glastonbury neighbours. Amazing. My husband says its like the worlds cheapest, dirtiest bootfair. But I have absolutely no problem with scavenging like this - after all it would only go to landfill and its senseless to waste good food. We ended up getting loads of stuff last year, including buckets (we checked, they were clean), an unopened toothbrush, heaps of food, toothpaste and enough plates and cutlery to keep us going until the end of time. I might see if I can rescue heaps of toilet roll this year, then maybe that will solve my toilet paper/supermarket problem!

Right, on the theme of Glastonbury, today’s link is www.undercoverhippy.com He is great. We met him a few Glastonbury’s back, when he was playing Henry’s Beard (a late night cafe, opposite the Old Banyan Tree if you are familiar with Glastonbury). Amazing. Really good stuff, and when he played he had a game whereby he would improvise and we would shout out words and he would have to fit them into song. How he managed ‘orange’ (a word without a rhyme) and ‘antidisestablishmentarianism’ I’ll never know. But he is playing the Croissant Neuf bandstand this year so I’ll be there cheering ole Billy on! If you can’t make Glastonbury, he is playing London somewhere at the beginning of May. Check his website for details.

Right, now I’m off to shake the rhubarb vodka and make chickpea and vegetable curry!

sorry sorry sorry! April 8, 2008

ok so i’ve been insanely lazy with this. but in my defence i moved house and had no internet for a month and erm, i’ve been doing overtime at work and ok ok i’m lazy. anyway, updates. we moved house and have rejoiced in being able to do what we want, i.e. horde our ‘junk/treasure’ in case it comes in handy. and in 9/10 cases it has. and been able to use a green electricity supplier! and the phone coop instead of a company!

what we have mainly been doing is trying to eliminate the supermarkets completely from our shopping lives. and i’m pleased to say we are *almost* there. we get the bulk of our food from a food co-op that delivers to us. we get our fruit and veg from a veg box scheme, again who deliver. and some rhubarb from the allotment at the moment (nothing else yet although the basil has started to grow!). we are lucky to have a few independent corner shops near us for items we’ve forgotten to order from the food co-op or have run out of, and a local independent bakery for bread and cake. in fact i’ll list what we use the supermarket for and if anyone has ideas about where we can find alternatives then fire away.

1. loo roll. can’t find cheaper recycled toilet paper anywhere but A**a.

2. bourbons for 15p a pack.

3. hard goats cheese. (cheddar style)

4. organic milk (although often he will have non organic if we buy from our corner shop, but he prefers organic for the taste)

5. reduced sugar and salt baked beans. (i’ve cut down on baked beans and our corner shop is currently doing 4 for a £1 on HP but they taste too sugary! and the food co-op wants to charge almost £1 a can which is just unrealistic)

6. Iced buns suitable for a lactose intolerant person like me. (actually the bakery does better ones but I never seem to get there in time and they don’t last long…and the bakery isn’t open at 2am either….)

But six items is not bad at all. Obviously occasionally other items will sneak in there but nothing I can think of regularly gets past the radar.

I’m not sure about the loo roll solution, but the cakes and biscuits can be solved by a bit of discipline and a bit of home baking. More research is needed on the rest I feel!

And we’re pretty good with the rubbish as well. After 9 weeks our wheelie bin is almost halfway full. And I’m still think there is stuff in there I could take out. Our current rubbish bag (carrier bag) has been going for two weeks and is barely full. Mainly it is plastic wrappers and the odd crisp packet. The Rubbish Diet blog has been pretty inspiring and full of good ideas.

In other news, we have rhubarb growing from our allotment! With no effort from us. Which is nice. So I made rhubarb crumble and have started on making rhubarb vodka which should have interesting results. My dining table is also covered in plant pots and home made ‘greenhouses’ out of old strawberry punnets and plastic from gift boxes and whatnot. I have cauliflowers, squash, sunflowers, aubergines, chillies, peppers, tomatoes, cabbages, parsnips, garlic and peas on the go. Oh and herbs too although I’m fairly certain I’ve drowned the parsley. But the basil looks good so far!

We have started an experiement whereby we plant up stuff according to advice, then just plant the leftover seeds at the north and south end of our plot and leave them alone. So far the south garlic is looking hopeful. We’ve also got quite interested in guerilla gardening (open to interpretation, but ours is planting food plants secretly on waste patches of ground that get ignored by the council and others, in the hope that they will grow and cause some looks of amazement, or at any rate give us a bit of extra food.). We’ve scouted out a good place for the spare Jerusalem Artichoke I have out of our veggie box.

Speaking of veggie boxes - I really recommend them! We’re tried several new veggies that we’ve never had before in the past few weeks including Romanesco and Jerusalem Artichokes, and I’ve become a dab hand at leek and potato soup. Still trying to think of inventive ways to cook cabbage though. And the apples aren’t great for juicing which is a shame as I love a morning apple and carrot juice and can’t quite manage carrot juice on its own *shudders*

Anyway, thats me done for now, I have a tummy upset (yet am currently nursing a nice glass of wine…medicinal of course…), but if you want more, I recommend you check out David Icke, Was He Right? Bit of a nutter, but if you look past the way he approaches the issues (he’s a bit aggressive for my taste), he actually has some valid points. Something to think about anyway, even if you do think he’s Britain’s greatest loon.