Diary of a suburban permaculture -ish garden, February 2020.

Look at this little blossom! 

It's a cherryplum and I hope the weather doesn't go too crazy and blow the blossom away before it gets pollinated!  And look at these crab apples, still holding on, I love the colour of them.

It's been so long since I wrote about my garden.  And that's because my camera's memory card corrupted so I've lost like a years worth of photos.  But I have a new camera and a new memory card and I'm backing everything up like crazy!

I got some pennies for Christmas and I used them to buy this b-e-a-oootiful new trug.  I have lots of bulbs to plant and I still haven't planted them all - woopsy!   I also bought some mini fruit trees from Thompson and Morgan, the kind that stay really small for pots on the patio, the trees are nice but there were grubs in the pots (maybe vine weevils!) so I wouldn't buy these ones.  But I'm looking forward to having 2 new apples, a pear, a plum and a cherry!

I made this cute little project one winters day.  I hope to collect lots more cute little tins to make a little display somewhere. 

My back garden raised beds still have some chard going in them, but not much else.  There's messy bits everywhere that need dealing with, and theres Still that big pile o' dirt at the back of the garden that I'm running out of inspiration for!  My potting table broke too, I need to find a new one. 

My little garden robin is still keeping me company. 

In the front garden raised beds I've been picking kale and chard all winter.  The overwintered onions and garlic are going strong too. 

Can you tell I haven't done any proper gardening since last year??! 

Luckily the flowers don't mind a neglectful gardener and carry on blooming anyway! 

How are your gardens?  Have they survived the winter?  And the storms?  I hope so!

* Facebook * Instagram * Twitter * Bloglovin' *

Easy green and eco friendly actions and articles.

I don't feel like this year has got off to a good start in terms of the environment, politics, or feeling particularly hopeful, but there's always something we can do, so here are some of them and some positive things to read too,

This year I'm following along with Spiral Garden's #52climatesolutions.  Every week they're posting one simple, practical, do-able thing you can do to start to tackle climate change, check them out on Instagram if you want to take part. 

Sign Wendy from Moral Fibres petition, asking the UK government to ban microplastic glitter on greetings cards. 

#teamtrees is a fundraiser set up by a youtuber (I'm too old to know who, sorry!) with a goal to raise enough to plant 20 million trees by the end of 2019.  They've raised enough to plant 21+million trees so far and are still taking donations - you can donate trees here, they cost $1 each.

Sign Greenpeace's petition asking the UK government to act on climate change emergency now! 

Positive News have loads of great articles up at the moment as part of their 'Hope 100' project, go and have a look if you need something positive and soothing to read. 

I love Lindsay's post on individual eco-friendly actions, where they're good, where they fall short and what to do next - just what I needed to read!

My local council is taking part in Plastic-free-February, and is asking residents to sign up for weekly emails with plastic-reduction tips - is your local council doing anything similar this month? 

I don't think anyone's missed the terrible and heartbreaking bushfires in Australia this year.  If you're looking to donate try these charities... 

• Australia's Red Cross Disaster relief and recovery fund help support evacuation centres and recovery programmes for the affected communities.
• Local fire services, like the NSW Rural Fire Service and Queensland Fire Service, are accepting donations directly.
• The Salvation Army Australia also have a disaster appeal - they deliver crucial support to local communities as the fires rip through the country.
• Find a Bed has been set up for families who have lost their homes. It connects people with Australians and landlords from abroad with property in affected areas.
• WIRES Wildlife Rescue need funding, and more volunteers to help save the animals. The charity is already asking Aussies to help make pouches for small marsupials.
•  Victorian Farmers Federation was set up to help farmers whose land has been destroyed in the fire.
• The CVS Foundation of volunteer firefighters is a team of volunteers who have been working non-stop, putting their lives at risk to help save people, animals and homes.
• (I've taken this list from online, and checked the links and organisations myself, but please double check before donating)
• 
  

* Facebook * Instagram * Twitter * Bloglovin' *

Vegan review - Doisy & Dam chocolate drops and crunchy balls.

Allll over Instagram I keep seeing these Doisy and Dam vegan dark chocolate drops (aka vegan smarties!!!! vegan m&ms!!!!!) and crunchy dark chocolate balls (aka vegan maltesers) so I had to give them a try! 

I found these in Holland and Barretts, for 99p for a little bag.  Doisy and Dam seems to be a nice, vegan company with good ethics, is corp B certified and is palm oil free.  The only thing I don't like is the plastic packaging, that has no recycling info on it, it's no different to many other brands packaging, but I wish it was better.

I love the D&Ds, dark chocolate drops.  They're are soooo good!  The chocolate is dark and rich and the coating is crunchy and sweet.  They're a dark chocolate, vegan version of m&ms or smarties.  The drops in my packet were all chipped, which wasn't very aesthetically pleasing, but didn't make much of a difference otherwise.  I want to get more of these and decorate some cakes with them, when I was a kid cakes were always deocrated with simple white icing and smarties and I miss that! 

Unfortuately the Ballers weren't to my taste.  Both myself, and non-vegan-husband put these in our mouths and said 'no!', which is never a good sign.  The chocolate is really bitter and the middle is  very hard and crunchy and tastes weird, not malty and melty like a malteaser, which is what I was expecting.  Ack.  Plus you only get 10 in a packet, which would be quite disappointing, if you actually liked them. 

Have you tried these?  What did you think?

* Facebook * Instagram * Twitter * Bloglovin' *