My homegrown harvest, May 2018.

I've just had a few little pickings from the garden so far this year, but the first of anything is always the sweetest!

These are onion scapes - unopened flowers from my Siberian perennial onions. Nice in a stir fry but they're a bit slimy to be honest!

I'm not entirely sure what variety these are, I think some are red spring onions and some are baby leeks - they came out of the raised beds as Joe was emptying them to be moved.  They're very strong!

'Scuse this terrible phone photo, but this is the first kale I've picked this year.  In fact I think this is the first kale I've successfully grown, so yey!  I know you're supposed to be able to pick it all winter, but my plant was only little so I waited for spring to come and for it to grow a bit more before harvesting from it. 

Have you been eating anything from your garden yet?

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Diary of a Permaculture(ish) garden, April and May 2018.

Hey friends, I had a slight internet hiatus due to my internet breaking at home, and then going on holiday - but I'm back now to show you my garden again!

Here's the garden in April and then in May - I came back from a week's holiday and everything had grown at least a foot!

I took some cuttings from my Mum's fig tree a couple of months ago, just a branch, snipped off and cut into three.  I popped one into water and two into compost.  The fig cutting rooted in water has been the most successful, and I've potted it up to live outside.  The other two, in compost, are rooting more slowly, but I think they'll both grow eventually.

I've got lots of seedlings in the greenhouse.  I bought some tomato seedlings because I can never get seed to germinate myself.  There's onions, leeks, kale, sweetcorn, and delphinium seedlings in there too.  

I'm so behind this year with everything.  Usually I have all my seedlings in their raised beds by the time we take our annual holiday in mid-May, but there was just too much snow/cold/rain during spring for me to get things started in time.  My seedlings went to Mum's greenhouse for a holiday while I was away, and they're still not planted in their raised beds.  

Joe's 'doing' the drive.  I'm not quite sure what it entails, but apparently just whacking more gravel on top of the gravel already there isn't the right technique, and he's doing a lot of digging!  What this means for me, is that my two front garden raised beds have been temporarily taken down, so I'm seriously down on growing space.  The good news is that once the drive's been 'done' I have plans to squeeze an extra raised bed in, but for now I'm stuck waiting while Joe's stuck working hard. 

Joe emptied the front garden raised beds before he moved them, and the soil in them was so nice.  If you've been here for a while you might remember that I filled the raised beds using the lasagne method, about two and a half years ago.  The straw, food scraps, leaves and paper have all composted down and disappeared, leaving beautiful soil (which is currently piled up under a tarp, to be returned to the raised beds one day).

I'm really pleased with this little corner of the garden, I moved some plants about, and the dark leaved Psysocarpus Midnight is a lot happier on this side of the garden, and at the very far left you can see the Rowan tree I planted, isn't he so teeny and cute. 

I bought a new rose to climb up the fence too, I'm not sure it'll get going this year, but maybe next. 

I'll leave you with all these beautiful blossoms, and hope that I'm less in garden limbo by next month!

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What happened when I tried to have a Plastic free Friday.

Last Friday I had the day off work so I decided to try taking part in Friends of the Earth's new initiative, Plastic free Friday.   You're meant to go without single use plastics one day a week - Fridays - to help the environment.  I'm going one step further, because I've already cut out a lot of single use plastics, I wanted to have a completely plastic free day, but as you can see it was more difficult than I thought...

Breakfast.

Despite trying really hard to have a plastic free breakfast, it didn't happen.  My organic mushrooms from Abel and Cole came in a plastic tray, my vegan margarine is in a plastic tub and although I store my seeds in glass jars they come packaged in plastic bags.  I made my own bread to save using pre packaged bread, but I used oil in a plastic bottle and even the bicarb was in plastic!  Urgh!

Getting up.

I'm not wearing deodorant because it's in a plastic tube, it's about 20 degrees today so we'll see how that goes!  I have washed my armpits with soap (came in a paper wrapper) and a cotton flannel, so that was plastic free at least.  Sorry to say I've brushed my teeth with a plastic electric toothbrush and paste from a plastic tube, and put on moisturiser and sun cream from a plastic bottle too.

Chores.

I washed up with some fairy liquid from a plastic bottle left by the previous owners of our house.  I use a loofah and wooden brush to wash up, and some really old cloths that get washed and reused to wipe the kitchen worktops.  I use Method eco friendly cleaning sprays for the kitchen and bathroom, and Ecover loo cleaner, all three have had a use today and all are in plastic bottles.  I put the dishwasher on, the tablets come in a cardboard box, but each tab is wrapped individually in plastic.  I usually use Ecover laundry liquid, but I have soapnuts so I used them, and white vinegar as fabric conditioner, to do a couple of loads of washing, which I dried in the sunshine.

Shopping.

I went to Wilkos, Holland and Barretts and Boots on the hunt for some plastic free sanitary towels, I found some in Boots and they were suuuuuper expensive, but I bought them and had a nice chat with the lady at the till about being plastic free (she buys her apples loose in the supermarket!).  I bought some antihistimines in Wilko, which come in plastic blister packs. I Really wanted some crisps but resisted, and instead bought some loose nardicotts, a cauliflower and a lettuce from the market.  The lettuce was all wrapped in plastic, but so is the organic lettuce that comes in our veg box, and I'm still waiting for my homegrown lettuce to get going.  FYI I am regretting not wearing deodorant. 

Lunch.

I had a huuge green salad with the aforementioned plastic wrapped lettuce, another homemade flatbread, vegan cheese, nuts and pretzels.  The cheese, nuts and pretzels were all in plastic.  Sigh.  I am beginning to feel disheartened. 

Gardening.

This was a fairly plastic free afternoon, but I did use some compost that comes in a plastic sack.

Dinner.

Joe came home super late from work, and I fell over in the garden like a wally and twisted my ankle, so we had a takeaway.  And some snacks before the takeaway came. Ahem.  

Bedtime.

Back to my plastic-y tooth bush and paste, and my medicine - at least the eczema cream only has a plastic lid, the tube is metal.

I tweeted companies throughout the day asking them to reduce their plastic packaging, but only got replies from a few (Abel and Cole, Oral B, Aldi, B&Q, Wilko), I suppose as long as we keep giving our money to companies that use plastic packaging they won't change their business practices - it's hard though because who doesn't use some pre-packaged foods, household and personal care stuffs!

So, as you can see, Plastic free Friday is not easy and I have to go away and think about how I can cut more plastic out of my life.  Have you ever tried Plastic free Friday?

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15 ways I use coconut oil instead of conventional beauty products.

I used to spend loads of pennies on beauty products, but over the years I've replaced them all with coconut oil.

Conventional beauty products contain loads of chemicals and some of them are harmful, and they're generally packaged in plastic which I try to avoid. 

This huge jar of coconut oil cost £15 and has lasted me well over a year so far.  If I used conventional beauty products I'd be spending over £50 (calculated using prices for basic vegan friendly products on Superdrug's website).  Here's how I use it...

Face

Lip balm

Under eye cream

Serum - if it's a really cold day, or my skin is a bit dry, I pop some coconut oil on my cheeks before I put my moisturiser on.

Day cream - if I'm not going out I'll use coconut oil as a face moisturiser, but if I'm going outside I use a cream with SPF instead.

Night cream

Face exfoliator - make a really nice exfoliating and moisturising face mask by mixing coconut oil, oats and sugar - rub in into your face and leave it on for a few minutes before washing it off.

Body

Body lotion

Hand lotion

Cuticle balm

Foot lotion

After sun

Body scrub - mix a little bit of coconut oil with granulated sugar for a nice gentle exfoliator. 

Hair

Leave in conditioner - I melt a teeny bit in between my palms and then run it through wet or dry hair.

Frizz ease - I used to use sooo much Frizz Ease, coconut oil doesn't give quite the same effect but it does help keep frizzy hair at bay. 

Hair protector for swimming

Is there anything else I can use coconut oil for?!?

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Easy green actions and articles.

Here are a few easy online actions and interesting articles to make the world a better, greener, happier, place, 

IKEA are launching a vegan hotdog, and I'm excited for it! 

This little cow darling ran away from the abattoir and swam away to live on an island!  

Friends of the Earth's newest campaign is a challenge to go plastic free on Fridays.  Which I think would be interesting, but also totally hard! 

Glastonbury Festival is planning on banning plastic bottles from next year. 

The government has promised to phase out coal mines by 2025, so it would be stupid to give planning permission for a new one now, in Durham, wouldn't it??  Sign this petition to make sure it doesn't happen.  

Women are an unstoppable force for climate action! 

Los Angeles-based ‘gangsta gardener’ and community leader Ron Finley is determined to redefine ‘gangsta’ as being about building thriving communities, not machismo.  "Gardening is gangsta: Mother Nature is gangsta. Being educated, creative and self-sustaining is gangsta. That whole concept was about turning a negative into a positive. If you want to be gangsta about anything, make it about building your community, sharing knowledge."

via positivenews.com

I love this piece about 'Gangsta Gardener' Ron Finley from Positive News.  

Scarily, the world has lost a third of it's quality arable land in the last 30 years - but there's still time to reverse the decline and scientists have some good ideas how to do it - but I think eating more organic food and planting more trees would definitely help too!

Sign 1010's petition asking the government to make sure all new buildings have solar installed as standard. 

I REALLY want one of these all in one vertical planters and worm composters, but sadly don't currently have a spare £300 lying about!  There are a few DIY versions about on the internet, and I'm trying to work out a way to make my own plastic-free version.

If you have a few spare pennies and are feeling kind would you please think about donating to this Crowdfunder appeal to create a vegan hub in my little hometown - it would be lovely if you did. 

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Diary of a Permaculture (ish) garden, March 2018.

You can have enough of snow, right?!

I definitely have, and there's more forecast for next week (which is typical as I've taken a week off work to sort the garden!).  

Sometimes the only thing to do is to sit inside and organise your seed tin.  I think it's rather beautiful now with these new card dividers I made. 

We've had a couple of sunny days in-between the rain and snow.  Last week I even slapped some suncream on my neck, it was that toasty!  I'm trying to get on top the of weeding early this year, before they take over!  They're coming out of the woodchipped area really easily right now, which is a big help. 

My raised beds still have some growth despite the sub-zero, freeze-y temperatures.  I'm really pleased with my perennial Siberian onions, they've grown loads since last month and look really healthy. 

I picked a couple of carrots that had overwintered in the raised beds, and a brilliant comedy leggy one which sadly went in the compost because slugs had eaten it!

I ordered some bare root trees and they came really quickly and were a lot bigger than I expected!  I got a cherry tree for the front garden (the variety is 'Sweetheart') and some Cherry Plums (Prunus cerasifera 'Myrobalan'). The cherry plums only cost £1.95 each and they're huge.  They're supposed to grow fast, which is what I want to cover some of the fence and block the neighbours a bit, as nice as they are I like my privacy while I'm gardening in my PJs and the one side feels really open since the new neighbour cut down all the trees.  

I don't know if you can tell from this photo, but I moved a few plants around, a Physocarpus 'Midnight' that didn't seem very happy over the other side of the garden, a Rowan tree and one of the Poundland roses my mum bought for me. 

I planted one of my cherry plums down the side garden too, there are privacy issues there too, again nice neighbours, but their garden is at least a foot taller than ours (we live on a slope!) so we can see their heads bobbing along over the fence, and it perturbs me!   I've also been weeding down here and pruned all my autumn raspberries down.  You can see I've cut the raspberry canes into smaller pieces and left them on the ground there, to kind of mulch the ground to stop weeds and so they'll rot down in situ and return their nutrients to the soil.   

I still have 2 more cherry plums to plant (they only sold them in multiples of 5!  I hope I like them!) and the cherry tree too, but currently the front garden looks like this so they'll have to wait!

I transplanted a patch of wild strawberries to the back of the garden between these two cobnuts, and planted a tiny wild garlic plant I bought (at the same time as my fruit trees) right at the back of the garden for future years harvests.

The heated propagators I bought have been working quite well, one seems better than the other, I don't know if that's down to the seeds or the propagators themselves.  I've popped my red onion seedlings in the greenhouse outside (scuse the messy greenhouse, it needs cleaning!). They were getting floppy in the conservatory so maybe it was too warm for them in there.

  

I bought some new blueberry plants too - these ones have pink berries, the variety is 'Pink Lemonade'.  I've got about 8 blueberry plants now, so I should probably stop buying them!

And here's the whole garden.

And here's a really big worm too! 

In 2017 there was a lot less snow in March, and in 2016 I was building my little greenhouse and planting potatoes and in March 2015 I still had my balcony garden! 

How's your garden this month?  I sincerely hope you have less snow than me, and I wish you lots of warm spring days. 

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