My home grown harvest, April 2016.

I'm still waiting for anything new to grow, but I'm eating things I planted last year! 

I planted pretty red spring onions in the pots either side of our front door last autumn and they're just ready to pick now.  I love the colour of them!  I used these ones in a chickpea and couscous concoction that's nice as a side dish or to take to work for lunch.

The garlic chives are finally big enough to harvest!  You can definitely tell the difference between these and normal chives!  Garlicky!

The good old rainbow chard is still going, I can't believe how much I've had from 6 little plants!

What are you growing and harvesting this month?  Do you have any early crops to eat yet?

Linking up with Harvest Mondays.

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Charity shopping, the one with the retro wallpaper.

I had a trip to a nearby (slightly posh) town to take care of some business, and I couldn't resist a look in the charity shops while I was there!

When I was little I had a pincushion with little oriental men all the way round it, I think it came from my Grandma, and I sent it to the charity shop when I was a teenager.  I've regretted it ever since.  I was sooo happy to find this little box, even though the lid's busted, it brings back nice memories.  

99p, (slightly posh) charity shop.

These plates were from a charity shop nearer to home, I couldn't resist.

20p each, local charity shop.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with this wallpaper, and I'm a little scared to open it, but I had to have it!

£1.99, (slightly posh) charity shop.

I also bought a very hippy dress from an amazing, huge charity shop, I'll show it to you soon! 

Have you bought anything amazing from the charity shops lately?

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Photo an hour, April 2016.

Photo an hour day was on the 23rd of April this month.

Photo an hour in organised by Jane and Louisa, anyone can join in and post their hourly photos on social media throughout the day tagging them #photoanhour.  Why don't you join in next time?

Here are my photos.

8am - I got up and looked out the window to see what kind of day it was.

9am - It was a beeeautiful day.

10am - I saw a cute little sparrow on the way to work.

1pm - Work had finished and I waited for the bus home in the sunshine (although it was actually a little cold and I wished I wasn't wearing sandals!) 

2pm - I met Joe at the local 3 courses for £7.95 curry place. After our wedding we're going there for a meal with some family and friends so we wanted to check it out.  We will be married by this time in 3 weeks!

3pm - Charity shopping.  That teapot with the bow tie and belly button freaks me out!

4pm - I bought a clematis on my way home, but I put off planting it as it was supposed to be snowy overnight!

5pm - Online chatting with my friend, she has just been offered a place on a masters course in Norway - woohoo!

6pm - Joe needed a nap before his late shift.  I needed a nap because nap.

7pm - Watching the end of Hotel Transylvania.

8pm - Doing some of my 'Blog with Pip' course and watching My Stepmother is an Alien in the background.

9pm - I always feel the end of photo an hour days are just me showing you what I'm watching on the telly - I'm not really one for nighttime outings!  By now I was re-watching Girls and practising some drawing. 

11pm - Book and bed.

Did you join in this month?  Let me know I'd love to see!  

This time last year I still lived in my tiny cute flat and I was planning what to grow in our new garden!

 

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Make one small change, give away your stuff on Freegle or Freecycle.

Making one small change at a time can make becoming eco friendly loads easier.  Lots of small changes add up to a big difference.

If, like me, you have big things you want to get out of your house and no car, then Freegle is the best thing ever.  You post your unwanted items on the website (depending on your area you'll have either Freecycle or Freegle.  We used to have Freecycle then it switched to Freegle, so I've used both and they're both pretty similar and easy to use), someone will contact you if they want your stuff then you arrange a time for them to collect it.  You can offer to deliver items to people too, if you have a car.   

I've got rid of all sorts of stuff, from videos, garden equipment left here by the previous owners of our house to my old TV unit. 

Giving away my stuff has made me appreciate what I have.  What I see as old junk hanging around my house is actually something someone else really wants.  7 people replied to my ad for lots of plastic plant pots and the couple who took away my old TV unit brought a box of chocolates to say thanks.  I feel like a total spoilt brat sometimes! 

As well as being good for the planet, giving my stuff away seems to be being good for my soul. 

Have you tried Freegle or Freecycle?  You can get some really cool stuff on there as well as getting rid of stuff!

Check out my other small changes to help you live a greener life!

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Garden, April 2016.

I like April because things start growing!  The garden's full of forget me nots, which are my favourite.  The magnolia is flowering too.

The garden's full of squirrels too!  Look at this one, he's so cute!

The main excitement this month has been a new fence.  It's been a bit of a pain, because I had to dig up all my plants from the side garden, and the builders have stomped all over the soil and made a muddy mess.  But it looks nice now and we have loads more security and privacy.  These photos show before, during, after and our new gate!  

The big old pyracantha fell down when the old fence was removed, and I think it's too heavy to stand up again.  So I'm chopping it down to stumps and if it grows back I'll keep it under control as a small bush.  Think I'll be there for a while chopping it down though!

My other most exciting thing this month is that I got a wormery!  Someone very kind gave me one after I posted an ad. on Freegle.  I ordered worms online and they're settling in ok.  I'm so happy to have this, my soil is quite poor and I think the worm compost will really help. This model of worm bin costs £80 which I can't really afford at the moment, so I definitely feel lucky and thankful to the lovely people who passed it on to me.  

The front garden raised bed seems to be ok, it's grown a few mushrooms though, as well as the garlic and onions.  I have the supplies ready to fill my second raised bed, I'm just waiting for the mood to do it to strike, then I'll plant my courgettes in it.

I have sprouters in the new greenhouse!

And I don't want to speak too soon but I think this blueberry might have fruit this year.  

Here's the whole garden.  We've had the house a year this month, the garden is so different from what it was, check out last April's garden post to see.

How are your gardens this month?

I'm trying to spend 20 minutes a day in the garden, and I'm posting about it on Instagram.

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Easy and nice ways to campaign.

This month's issue of Vegan Life Magazine has a super interesting interview with Robbie Locke, who created a huge campaign against some restaurant advertising that wasn't very vegan friendly.  

I've done my fair share of big campaigning in the past (when I was much younger!  From organising transport to animal rights demos to speaking on the radio) but now I'm more about the low key, every day, do-able campaigning.  

Issues close to my heart are to do with looking after the environment, animals and people, but these tips will work to raise awareness in a non-confrontational way for whichever causes you like.

Wear pins and badges.

This is my favourite because I like wearing badges anyway!  At the moment I'm wearing a pin supporting a campaign to save services at my local hospital, on my lanyard at work.  Loads of people have asked me about it and then I can tell them about it and point them towards the right resources.  I like to spot people wearing badges too, even if I'm just passing them on the street, because I'm like 'yey, there's another vegan, I'm not alone!'.

Sign petitions.

Petitions are great for raising awareness.  The recent petition to ask for Jammy Dodgers to be vegan again got over 7000 signatures which lead to it being featured in the Metro and the BBC amongst others.  If you want to start your own petition try using change.org or gov.uk. 

Live according to your principles.

I think this might be the best way of campaigning because you can show people what you believe in without saying anything.  I put a compost collection caddy in the staff room at work, I take home snippets of paper from my Rainbow Guides group to recycle, I don't buy plastic bags at the check out, I eat vegan food.  The people around me see what I'm doing and sometimes think about why, or ask me why (I had an interesting discussion about sea turtles eating plastic bags with a shop lady the other day while refusing a bag!).  It's all good. 

Share resources.

I donate to some eco charities and get sent their magazines from time to time.  I pass the mags on once I've finished with it so the ideas in them keep in circulation.

Share your thoughts online.

If you use social media it's really easy to share or post articles or petitions onto your accounts.  This can be daunting if it's not something you usually do, I never used to share them, because my views aren't the accepted norm I was worried I would be ridiculed or questioned about my posts.  What actually happened was I discovered which friends had the same views as me, through a quick click of the 'like' button.  Hurrah.

Blog about it.
Go a step further than social media and include campaigns or causes on your blog (or start a blog!?).  I do a monthly round up post of online articles and actions with an eco friendly angle and it's easy enough to do the same for stuff you care about on your own blog!

How do you show your support for causes and campaigns you like?

Disclosure - I have been provided with a free digital subscription to Vegan Life Magazine in return for reviewing it and writing about it monthly.  You can subscribe to Vegan Life on paper or digitally or via their app for digital subscriptions.  I only write about stuff I like, and I like Vegan Life Magazine.

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Charity shopping, the one with the 50p Meakin jug.

I've been buying beautiful mustard and brown seventies things from the charity shops, see!

Joe bought me these retro salt and pepper shakers as a housewarming present ages ago.  I love the colours so much!

Present, local charity shop.

Can you tell from the photo this is a little glass cat?  Well it is!

25p, local charity shop.

I think Saffron is my favourite Hornsea pattern.  I love the Hornsea canisters that are plain, rather than having 'tea' or 'coffee' written on them, so I'm super pleased with this.

£1.99, local charity shop.

Here's the little Meakin jug.  It's so tiny and cute, when I turned it over there was a Meakin Studio mark on the bottom, and Google tells me the pattern is called Maori.

50p, local charity shop.

Have you bought any mustard and brown seventies things recently?  Or any other brilliant bargains? 

Check out my other charity shop haul posts for even more seventies mustard and brown stuff!

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13 plastic free ways to start seeds.

Why would you want to have a plastic free garden?  Well, what about all that plastic in the sea, or the risk of chemicals leeching out of plastics and into our foods and our environment, or the fact that lots of plastics can't be recycled and hang around, literally, forever.  Forever. 

Thankfully, there are lots of ways to start you garden seeds off without plastic.

Loo rolls are my plastic free seed starter pots of choice.  You can cut them to size, fold over the bottoms to make pots, or use them full size.  I like to pop some into a larger container to help them stand up, fill them with compost and then plant my seeds.  When the seed is ready to plant out you can leave them in the loo roll tube, because it's cardboard it'll biodegrade.

I'm vegan, but my sis-in-law is a cake maker so I have a ready supply of cardboard (free range) egg boxes, which make perfect, ready divided, plastic free seed trays.

I've used loads of tea cups and old crockery this year, because they're plastic free and they make my greenhouse look prettier.  You have to be careful with drainage as there's no hole in the bottom to let out excess water.  I've found I'm more likely to have a problem with the soil drying out than being too wet, as it's quite warm in my greenhouse.  To prevent drainage problems you can add some gravel to the bottom of the tea cup, or drill a hole in the base and pop a saucer underneath.  

Terracotta pots are simple, classic and pretty.  You can buy them pretty easily and reuse them for years.  Lovely!

Lots of things can be sown directly in the ground, bypassing the need for any sort of pot to start them off!  I prefer to start most things off in pots because I plant in patches and drifts, then it's difficult to tell my seedlings from weedlings and I might hoe them out.  If you don't have a particularly weedy garden, you plant in straight rows, or you're planting big seeds (like beans) they'll be fine in the ground.

If you eat eggs then try growing seeds in eggshells (free range or home hens please!).

You can make round newspaper pots, with or without one of those newspaper-pot-making-thingies.

I like these rectangular newspaper pots too.

If you're in a rush to get your seeds started try this method, which uses a glass container with a lid and tissue paper, and claims to be super-speedy!

Make soil blocks for plastic free, pot free planting!

If you're a tea lover you can plant your seeds in used tea bags!  (EDIT - it's been rightly pointed out to me that some tea bags contain plastic, an online search can tell you whether your usual brand contains plastic.  If it does maybe it's time to change to a plastic free brand?!)

Make your own paper seed starter pots from scratch using paper pulp and a muffin tray.

Use citrus peel as a cute mini seedling pot.

How do you start your seeds off?  Do you garden plastic-free?  I'd love to know about it!

Linking up with Flaunt it Friday.

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3 ways to eat vegan yogurt, and a Koko dairy free yogurt review.

Koko dairy free sent me some of their vegan yogurt to try.  It turns out that if you haven't eaten yogurt for 10+ years because you're vegan and can't eat soya you probably don't know what to do with yogurt!

However, with a little help from the internet, and a little sweet inspiration from the past, I've come up with 3 ways to eat vegan yogurt. 

Here they are,

Naan bread.  I found a naan bread recipe online and veganised it

by swapping the dairy milk and yogurt for Koko dairy free versions.  (Other changes I made the recipe?  Added in nigella seeds, kneaded the dough after it had risen and rolled the naans out a lot thinner than recommended!). 

I made plain ones and a yummy garlic and onion version with finely diced spring onion and garlic kneaded into the dough.  I've made naan bread before, but the addition of vegan milk and yogurt made the texture loads lighter and fluffier and the taste is richer and yummier.

 

Frozen yogurt and fruit.  I saw this idea on Koko dairy free's Instagram.  Mix a little icing sugar with vegan yogurt, spoon blobs onto a baking tray covered in foil, top with fruit then pop in the freezer for a couple of hours.  I've used tinned mandarins and chia seeds on mine, they're a nice, refreshing treat.

Chocolate and coconut vegan yogurt.  My mum had a yogurt maker when we were kids and me and my brother were allowed to add either cocoa powder or strawberry nesquik and desiccated coconut to our yogurts.  I always chose cocoa, a little bit of sugar and loads of desiccated coconut on top.  I haven't eaten yogurt for years, but this took me right back to eating little tubs of homemade yogurt as a little girl.  Except better, 'cos this version is vegan.

Koko Dairy Free original plain alternative to yogurt is really nice, it's also dairy free and soya free - yey!  It's very close to dairy yogurt, in taste and consistency.  When you eat it plain there's a faint coconut aftertaste, which I quite like, but when used in something savory, like the naan breads, it's not coconutty at all.  I love that all the Koko dairy free range has added vitamins and calcium, it makes me feel like I'm eating something good for me as well as something yummy!

What's your favourite kind of vegan yogurt?  Have you tried Koko dairy free?

Disclosure - I was sent some Koko dairy free yogurt to try.  I only write about brands I like, and I like Koko dairy free, and all opinions expressed here are my very own.

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Easy green actions and articles, April 2016.

Here's this month's round up of eco-friendly articles and actions, check them out,

In Italy the law says supermarkets must give all unsold food to those in need.  I like this law!

Sign Greenpeace's petition asking companies that use palm oil to protect forests instead of destroying them.

from RSPCA

Should we be keeping monkeys as pets?  I don't think so, poor little things should be wild and free, swinging from the trees!  If you agree then sign the RSPCA's petition to end the keeping of primates as pets.

I love Lindsay's post '8 lessons learned from 4 years of zero waste living' and I'm super jealous of her home too!

From Friends of the Earth

In Germany the supermarket Aldi have banned pesticides that harm bees from being used on fruit and veg grown for their stores.  That's awesome but it would be even more awesome if Aldi UK did the same.  Friends of the Earth have an online action to ask them to do just that.

The government has approved the planting of seed coated in neonicotinoids across the UK, not cool, please sign the petition to ask for this be stopped.   

"The closing of old polluting coal-power stations and the rapid rise in renewable energy meant coal consumption fell by 22% compared to 2014, the biggest drop ever seen outside of miners’ strikes."

From The Guardian Online. 

I like this bit of good news about the UK's carbon emissions. 

I've discovered a couple of new green-y blogs I really like too, The picture of Mary, Gippsland Unwrapped and My empire of dirt.

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