international downshifting week 19 - 25 april

“If you are looking for a little help to slow down your pace and enjoy life more, this is the place for you!

Our campaign was formerly known as ‘National’ Downshifting Week. This year, as a result of the strong support we’ve received from around the globe asking if other countries can officially ‘join in’, we’ve simply decided to rename it
‘InterNational Downshifting Week’!

Now everybody can get involved and form a united and global movement that supports living and working more sustainably and strives for a proper work / life balance!

Our campaign remains packed full of really simple ideas that will help you ’slow down and green up’ and it’s almost time for her 4th outing. I cannot wait to get my teeth into it and this year I’ll be working hard to keep my carbon footprint down to a minimum. I hope to enthuse you with ideas on the many ways you can slow down and green up in your home, community, business and school.

So keep an eye on our website and Green Family Blog for further details and good luck with your own personal downshift!”

Tracey Smith

Creator of InterNational Downshifting Week

turning an old demijohn into a cloche

I discovered this method by accident a few years ago while trying to clean an old bottle. I found an old demijohn outside and well past being able to clean it and more wanting to try this out!!

It’s dead simple, get a washing up bowl and add really cold water enough to cover the bottom of the demijohn, about a couple of inches. Leave it in there for a while to make sure the base is nice and cold. Then just boil the kettle and pour in the boiling water. If your lucky it should crack instantly and the bottom just drop out. If not give it a twist.

There you have it instant mini green house, the best part is you recycle something thats otherwise useless and it won’t blow away like plastic bottles.

april in the vegatable patch

Right no hints and tip’s this is just a list of things that have gone in. I was going to say it’s all from seed this year but someone just gave me some onion plants, which apparently are going to be more expensive this year. So thats a win win. Everything is probably too close together but most of the seed packets are well out of date so I thought I’d put everything in that I’ve got. For now this is what’s in.

Parsnips gladiator F1
Carrot Autum king
Beetroot bolt hardy
Spinach Beet perpetual spin
Lettuce little gem
Raddish Scarlet Globe
Broad Bean bunyards exhib
Early Pea Kelvedon wonder
Purple Sprouting Broc
Salad Leaf Rocket
Oriental Salad Leaves
Roob Cima Di Rapa

Don’t you just love the names? All seem to be doing OK apart from the early pea which despite it’s name is nowhere to be seen. It could be that the seed is too old. Below is a picture of my notebook, which I love. I wish I had kept one ever year too compare the years by, I think it’s more of me being a geek than anything useful though.

herb spiral two years on

Well at least I think it’s about two years old I can’t quite remember now. Anyway seen as this is my most viewed post I thought I would show some photos of even though I’m not still living here anymore.

There is still plenty of room for improvement. There are loads of gaps still which i used to use for annuals but would be better served by more perennials. I wish I’d never put the lemon balm in, other than the beautiful aroma I’ve never used it and it takes over the whole bloody thing by the summer. the rocket comes back year after year and if picked regular is manageable. The borage is also too large but the slugs harvest most of that so I don’t have too. Nice of them.

Other than that though everything does very well with little or no maintenance. I think I’ll shift the tree onions onto the spiral this should help then to not spread all over but then it’s on it’s own. Can you ever really give a garden up?

Ben Law - Grand Designs vote

Hello

Channel 4 is asking viewers to vote for their favourite 25 Greatest Grand Designs.

The programme’s celebrity fans, tv critics and experts all have their view, but there is also a public vote.

If you have seen the programme featuring our author Ben Law we would love you to visit the Grand Designs site today and vote for Ben’s remarkable woodland house design and build.

Visit the link below, which has a summary of each of the programmes, and register your vote for Ben’s home at SUSSEX: THE WOODSMAN’S COTTAGE:
www.channel4.com/4homes/ontv/grand-designs/Grand-Designs-Awards/2008/Vote

The results will be unveiled during Grand Designs Live television event on Channel 4 from May 4th-9th.

Visit Ben’s website (www.ben-law.co.uk) for the latest details of his Open Days, courses, books and news.

Eco house video

Nottingham Eco-Home - Penney Poyzer

check out her TV program no waste like home too.

today is buy nothing day

http://www.buynothingday.co.uk/

Saturday November 24h 2007 is Buy Nothing Day (UK), It’s a day where you challenge yourself, your family and friends to switch off from shopping and tune into life. The rules are simple, for 24 hours you will detox from consumerism and live without shopping. Anyone can take part provided they spend a day without spending!

It’s buy nothing day and I can say that I will not be buying a thing not because i agree with the whole idea but more for the fact that I don’t have a penny!!

cheap school clothes?

So it will be soon time for all the little monsters to go back to school so all us parents realise that in the course of six weeks they have all grown out of everything and everything has a hole in it some how. This can cost a fortune especially when you have a few kids at school age. Most people therefore are pleased to see that many shops and supermarkets are selling school clothes at a record low price £2 £3 for trousers for example.

On the face of it it seems great but at what cost do we benefit from such cheap prices? We save a little cash but on the other side of the world somebody takes home around £18 a month to keep our kids clothed on the cheap. Don’t get me wrong if you are a single parent with kids on benefit you want to get the cheapest clothes possible, even if you are struck by the ethical dilema.

Whats the answer then? Nobody wants to see familys struggle to buy expensive fair trade clothes but we also don’t want to think that somebody is suffering just so we save a few quid. Would it not be better to abolish uniforms altogether? thats not to say that it would solve the problems in the sweat shops of Bangladesh etc. but it might stop supermarket price wars which force lower and lower prices, which is the main problem. Kids might also gain a bit of individuality aswell.

trees for the future

50 Million Trees and Counting: Trees for the Future

National liftshare day