Interesting idea for spreading the green message. They have groups on Facebook, flickr, YouTube and delicious. Surfing on the social networking wave to try and get people to sign up and tell other people. They publish a series of challenges which people can take and then show how they tacked the challenge using photos, videos or just writing it down. Seems a little bit like The Nag which I have mentioned before but a lot more social. I’m not sure it has quite taken off yet but maybe this post will help!

This made me put this years tomatoes next to the vent for our boiler - just in case in CO2 is emitted. Another technique they used was wrapping the plants around the strings/cables they were growing up. I have also used this idea by wrapping my tomato plants around their bamboo supports - the bamboo isn’t quite long enough but there’s always next year.

I like the way the programmes have shown how some farmers have dealt with their changing markets some going back to basics and opening farm shops or some using science to provide a unique product or make the production of the product more efficient.

Another idea picked up from the programme which I have tried using before is companion planting. The idea is that you plant certain plants together and they help each other. I have heard of planting marigolds with tomatoes before but there is a whole load of things you can do to help control the bug and creature that eat your crops. The programme talked to a couple who run an organic farm in the south west who think that you should be able to buy all your food locally(I’m trying to remember what the farm was called but it escapes me at the moment!). They plant nasturtiums with their brassicas(sprouts,broccoli etc) to help control the pests - this is something I will be trying out next year as I have had terrible trouble with caterpillars this year.

I think we hear too much about farmers being beaten down by the supermarkets and getting hassled over GM so it’s nice to see that there are farms and farmers out there that could inspire the next generation to carry on in this great British tradition.

Something else I saw recently which I really like the idea of id urban farming in Detroit. I have actually been to Detroit as I have family there. It has been through a bad time and shown in Roger and Me where Michael Moore investigates the slowing of the automobile industry in the area. What they are a doing in the Detroit is very similar to what ‘organopónicos‘ are doing in Cuba. It is strange that you have two societies that are politically opposites but the people are trying to grow food in an urban environment. I think this shows that politics itself is pretty removed from many peoples real lives and many people just do what they need to get by.

I think the idea of urban farming seems to be growing. I guess in the UK there has always been some sort of urban farming as allotments seem to be growing in popularity. I have a bit of space in the back garden where I grows stuff but in the future this area may get smaller. To prepare for this we have put our names down on the list for Longbarrow Allotments which are pretty close to us and when visited were immaculate. Unfortunately there is a two year waiting list and I think this is a fairly common wait for many of the allotments in the Bournemouth area. This is why I am kind of experimenting with growing stuff in pots. This year I have grown peas, salad leaves and tomatoes in pots. I bought some strawberry pots for my strawberries last year - these haven’t actually been that productive but I am hoping that’s my lack of skill rather than the idea not working.

If are considering trying to get an allotment I should say that it is hard work and not something you can put down and pickup. They need constant attention, with the right weather it will only take week or so for a pristine weed free plot to turn into a jungle. I think this is why many allotment holders are slightly older. If you are thinking about try it out a smaller scale in your own garden first and see how it goes. If you are happy with this then go the whole hog.

Many people think bottled water tastes nicer but I would be surprised if anyone can really tell the difference. It also seems a bit mad moving it round the country/world in ships, planes trains and trucks when we have a perfectly good distribution system already set up which is easily accessible (go into to you kitchen and turn on a tap if you are wondering what I mean).

If you want to drink filtered water buy a filter.

It seems we should be drinking 2 litres of water a day to stay healthy in fact this is not true. I wonder whether this myth is encouraged by the bottled water industry so they can get their bottles into the hands of all those fitness fanatics!

This is good - yes I know it’s a plug but hopefully some politicians will see the survey results. If you were wondering how Worcester, Bosch Group products might fit into the scheme of things here is an idea of what you can do depending on what budget you have.

I know when we moved into to our new house one of the first things we did was get a new boiler. We bought a condensing combi boiler(a Vaillant in the interests of balance). It was similar to the one mentioned below in terms of efficiency. I have read that people and installers have concerns about the reliability of these kinds of boilers - we have had ours for nearly 4 years and have had not problems with it - in fact it is one of the best things we did to the house when we moved in. It cost us around £2000 to buy and get installed which still fits in with the details below.

I would love to get a ground source heat pump as described below but as with all these things the money isn’t there at the moment and I am not sure we have the space. I would like to think next time we move house we will be able get a ground source heat pump or maybe a CHP apparently the next big thing in micro generation.

Anyway here are the suggestions for how to spend your money wisely:

• Under £10 - Low energy light bulbs, buy a draft ceiling kit, reflective radiator foil
• £10 - £50 - Loft insulation top up, stand-by buster, buy an eco kettle,
• £50 - £100 - Cavity wall insulation - ask your energy supplier for details
• £100 - £500 - Loft insulation (£500) - save £100 a year
• £500 - £1000 - Buy a rain water harvesting system
• £1000 - £5000 - Installing a Worcester Greenstar condensing boiler (SEDBUK A Rated - over 90% efficient) can save up to £200 a year and installing Worcester Greenskies solar water heating system can save up to £350. Worcester, Bosch Group is offering £400 cash back when installing a Worcester Greenskies solar system and Greenstar condensing boiler.
• Over £5000 - Install a Worcester Greenstore ground source heat pump or a Greensource air to water heat pump. For every one kW of energy consumed you get 4kW back. Worcester, Bosch Group is offering £2000 cash back when installing a Greenstore ground source heat pump.

Visit the energy house section of www.worcester-bosch.co.uk to see these technologies in action and experience the benefit is of having them installed in your property.

A bit late getting this post done. Was on holiday last week in sunny France. Spring into Action started on the 1st of May. It is being run by the BTCV. There are lots of events being run across the UK. All concerned with conserving the environment. Projects vary from tree planting to dry-stone walling, footpath construction to monitoring wildlife populations. BTCV project leaders are on hand to provide guidance and training, and volunteers are free to work at their own pace as all ages and abilities are welcome.

If you read this site regularly you will know that compost is one of my favourite subjects. Next week is compost awareness week running from the 4th to the 10th of May. There are events going on all over the country and it is being supported by celebrity gardener Charlie Dimmock. In my opinion you can never have too much compost so if you need to get a compost bin check out the site to where you can get cheap compost bins from. One of the added benefits of composting is that you put a lot of food waste in your wheelie bin it can end up quite smelly especially if you bin is only collected every too weeks. Composting this waste could make you bin smell a bit nicer.

It’s amazing how much stuff will fit into one compost bin. One week it will be almost full and as the composting process develops the bins seems to empty itself. I used to worry about what I would do if one got full up so I got another one. I have still never filled one to the top. Having two is good though as turning the compost i.e. moving the whole lot into another bin speeds up the whole process. I generally try and give mine a ’stir’ with a big stick. I should probably get a compost aerator to do this - although the big stick seems to be working at the moment.

If you want to go a bit further and compost all your food waste including meat you need a bokashi compost bin. As I understand all you really need to do this is a compost bin and some bokashi bran. This video explains how to make your own bran:

I have watched the video but not tried the recipe - sometimes there is not enough time in the day!

You can turn up in person to the events in London (8th May), Cardiff (10th May) and Manchester (13th May) or you can watch and participate online - by watching our live webcasts and pre-recorded videos both before and after the events.

Panel speakers include: Rt. Hon Brian Wilson Flying Matters; Caroline Lucas MEP Green Party; Ricardo Navarro CESTA, El Salvador and many more.

I planted some salad crops, some courgettes and some herbs. I will be interesting to see which ones survive the odd hot and cold weather. I put a gardening tip my farther-in-law gave me into action. Instead of peat pots as shown in the picture I have started using old toilet rolls instead. You can cut them to the required length put them in your seed tray then fill them up with compost and plant you seeds in them. Then you can just plant them out and the toilet roll will degrade much the same as a peat pot would.

I am also going to look into build a bumble bee nest. There was an article in the Gardeners World magazine about how to build one using a plant pot and a pipe. I found this in the internet as Design 2, the pages also has some other ideas. I also looked on the Gardeners World website it self and found another idea for a bee hotel. If you lookaround the site there are some other ideas for attracting useful wildlife to your garden.

If you want to find out a bit more about why bees a good for you garden try the Bumblebee Conservation Trust it has lots of useful information about which plants will attract bees and about the problems bees are facing at the moment in the UK.

A few things I have seen of the past week or so to do with cars, traffic or roads:

Less speed more haste

I have notice a few articles about Active Traffic Management recently. Apparently part of the M42 has been modified so that drivers can use the hard shoulder at busy periods, variable speed limits and better signage. This has caused journey times to be shorter and fuel consumption to be lower.
This speeds limit thing is quite interesting in Germany recently if they had lowered their speed limit to 80mph it would have lowered the whole country’s CO2 emissions by 5%. If you want to drive you car more efficiently why not visit the Energy Savings Trust Efficient Driving page for some tips.

Size isn’t every thing

Apparently the Euro NCAP ratings for those big cars that parents seem to like to take their children to school in are not very good. The Nissan Navara got one star for adult occupancy and three for child occupancy. As a comparison our little Renault Clio got five stars for adult occupancy and four for child occupancy although apparently the Navara is better for pedestrians!

Less is more

I watched the first episode of ‘The Woman Who Stops Traffic‘ the other night. I watched the episode about Marlow. It really made me think. Recently I have been driving to work as I need to drop our daughter at nursery so it is an awkward round trip. The programme made think about it to the point where I am going to see a man about buying a second hand bike. Hopefully this will go some way to reducing car usage in our family as I will be able to cycle half the journey at least. As the documentary shows not using your car for one day a week can make a difference. Channel 4 have come up with a handy thingy to show how you could make a difference.