recycle

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March 12, 2009

Lettuce boxes

Posted by glanbrydan under gardening, recycle, vegetable garden
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Just hanging around

Just hanging around

As part of the big spring planting we will do a box or two of lettuce. T-W-O like Romain and I’m not even sure this is technically a lettuce but it is very tasty compared to a flat leaf lettuce (and it’s one of the only ones he’ll eat). We have a bit of a wet climate out here at the foot of a mountain (hill for US people), refer back to the precipitation diagram you drew at school. The sun over the sea, the land and the mountain. The water evaporates from the sea and makes a cloud that gets blown over to the mountain. The cooler air makes the cloud into water again which falls on us!

The slugs love our garden and despite the best efforts of Donald duck to eat them all even he is defeated by the shear numbers. I confess that I do resort to slug pellets every now and then, usually when I’m on my second lots of seedlings as the first lot have been devastated by the beasts at which time I will have lost my temper. The problem with pellets is that I have to keep the chickens and Donald off them so I then cover the plants in chicken wire. It all gets very complicated and they are not good for the wildlife either.

After all this I decided to plant my lettuce seeds in a box in the greenhouse. After a bit of thought and some luck I found that our local supermarket leaves old wooden apple boxes for customers to recycle as food carriers. I was elated (really I was, it strange the things that please me) and I secured one by filling it with shopping.

The boxes are made of thin strips of wood and stapled together. To help retain moisture I lined the boxes with old news paper or cut down layers of chicken feed sacks and filled them with a mixture of shop brought and home made compost. I scattered the seeds onto the compost and finished it with another fine layer of earth. Left to germinate in the greenhouse they quickly sprouted. The lettuce box only works if you remove lettuce to eat at various stages of development. Take small juicy young lettuce from the box to eat and let a few well spaced heads mature.

Once the weather has improved a bit the box gets moved outside. I either set them down in front of the greenhouse where I have a bit of a graveled area or by the side of the path. on a few stones. The idea is to stop the slugs making the climb into the box somehow, the gravel helps enormously and I also grow my courgettes in this area.

The boxes are not unattractive for a recycling idea although I appreciate they are not quite pretty terracotta tubs. The best bit is that once the season is finished the boxes starting to rot and then they can be used again. I empty the spent compost and paper onto my compost heap. Then if the bottom of the box has rotted away I brake it up a bit more and chuck that on the heap as well. It does take a while to rot down but it’s already on it’s way remember. 

Any wood that is ok I brake up and use as fire lighters or kindling on the wood burner. The bits of metal staples drop into the ash box and can be removed then if you wish.  I have collected a couple of boxes in preparation and I am considering planting spinach in the same way as it has become so expensive in the shops and again would suit the growing cycle where you take young leaves first.

 

October 19, 2008

a good weekend and how to make a cheap compost bin

Posted by glanbrydan under gardening, money saving, places to visit in Wales, recycle, vegetable garden | Tags: , , , , |
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This weekend has seen some play but mostly work.

Yesterday we stole half a day at Aberearon and (not) totally in line with our diet we feasted on fish and chips for lunch. The sometimes sunny, breezy autumnal day and slightly choppy harbour made a perfect Saturday morning out. We keep saying we are going to have an overnight stay there in a B & B but so far that luxury has escaped us.

Returning home we started to tackle the big list of jobs awaiting us. I emptied, sorted and refilled the greenhouse whilst the Wilf one was trying to recover from Watford F.C. winning a match!

Today has been a long day, I am aching from the small amount of gardening I have done. Through the week I have been snatching half an hour each evening to prepare and lay the weed barrier material on three quarters of one of the veg beds.

T-W-O fixed the gate to the dogs area and finally fixed the fire tools in the dining room – we have only had the for around six months!

This morning the Wilf one (T-W-O) and I went off to the tip where they sell shredded wood for £1.50 a bag, they supply the bags and the shredded wood, all you have to do is fill them yourself. We did have a second reason for the trip and that was to dispose of the evidence of some of our wine consumption. On the way we called into Martin and Aura for a coffee and a chat, he is off to North America tomorrow, we added the evidence of their wine consumption to ours. We were saddened to see they had consumed a bottle of Baileys but we had seen none of it. What are friends for I ask myself!

We filled the back of the car with six sturdy bags of chippings and returned home, then carted the bags across the garden (or sodden bog as it rained most of last night) and tipped them out to cover the black weed suppressant material. I have requested a new wheel barrow for Christmas from T-W-O which would make this task much easier on the back. Job done we had another totally (none) diet friendly lunch – roast rib of beef with all the trimmings (yes that does include yorkshire pudding which I hadn’t made for ages).

This afternoon T-W-O has tackled the mountain of ironing I created in my cleaning frenzy, he does it while watching the football on the telly and I carried on in the garden. Opening up two trenches for next years runner beans I went to the ‘resting’ compost heap, half hopeful of finding the sweet soft black stuff. Success, the compost is crumbly, not smelly in any way and looks the part, the best I’ve ever produced. I lined the bean trenches with a few shovel loads as this compost has to stretch a long way. I will be adding to the trench mix until spring.

Inspired I moved on to the tyre veg bed. It was in some need of weeding and I worked away pulling, twisting raking and swearing at the brambles that creep in from the field next door. In between this I cleaned out the chickens house. As payment they came to help me tidy the beds, the funny little things always work around me when I’m gardening. Sometimes I have to shoo them away from the shovel so I can dig and other times I have to tell them off for weeding the seedlings not the weeds.

My compost bins are the cheapest on the market. If you have a corner that isn’t too much on display all you need is 4 old pallets – try asking at your local tip if they can save you a few – some string and something to put on top. I have an old piece of corrugated roofing but I have heard that old carpet is very good.

Stand up 3 of the pallets in a u to form the back and sides of your compost bin. Tie the sides to the back with string at the top and bottom. I find this makes them quite rigid. Then put the front one in place as your gate. As you fill it cover it up with the old carper or whatever you put on top. I like this type of bin because you can wheel in the barrow and tip. My composters have now lasted three years.

 

September 10, 2008

recycling

Posted by glanbrydan under recycle | Tags: |
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If you ask anyone what tog quilt they have on their bed they all seem to know. In fact I believe there to be quilt snobbery! Try it and see what response you get. We use a summer 4.5 tog quilt all year and add a wool blanket for spring or autumn (or summer just now) and a quilted throw for winter.

Now ask people what they can and can’t recycle using the local council collection so many of us have now. I bet more people know what quilt they have on their beds than exactly what they can stick in their weekly recycling.

Some councils make it simple. Glass, paper, newspapers and card. Some don’t collect glass, some collect plastics, some use green bins for garden waste. This may seem straight forward but did you know;

- If you recycle paper they don’t usually want envelopes because of the glue used on them

- Books are not wanted either (unless it’s telephone books). Give them to charity shops.

- Some authorities will accept drinks cartons such as orange juice and some long life cartons have a small percentage of aluminium in them.

All in all very confusing. You can see what your local authority accepts using this link http://www.recyclenow.com and entering your postcode in the appropriate box. The site also gives information about composting for those who have the space and are not yet converted.

There are also sites growing where we can recycle unwanted goods rather than throwing them into landfill or letting them build up in the back of the garage or shed, one is  http://uk.freecycle.org/. I have not used one of these sites yet but our son-in-law, Iain swears by them as great places to give away unwanted things.

We now only have a small bag of rubbish left each week which goes into our bin but we are lucky as the cats eat any cooked chicken, fish or meat left over. The dogs are less fussy and happy to have the cooked vegetables, gravy or pasta as well as their share of the meat. The chickens get the veg peelings (their waste goes onto the compost). The council collect paper, card & plastics. While we take glass bottles into the town centre recycling when we go shopping. I dish wash and keep plastic tubs to use in the freezer. I don’t remember the last time I threw away a pair of shoes and clothes that no longer fit go to the charity shops. We use larger pieces of cloth as dog blankets or cleaning cloths. I’m sure we could do so much more.

 

July 31, 2008

Using clingfilm

Posted by glanbrydan under recycle
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I am sure most of us are now using our shopping bags wisely. Re-useing them or better still buying or making stronger fabric bags. I bought a few when we were in Germany on holiday, they sell them at a couple of Euros each for cotton bags and I’ve been using them for about 4 years now.

I have added to the collection over time with the odd giveaways that the supermarkets do and I did treat myself to one with a picture of a dog on it from the national trust shop. I’m still not sure I can justify the £5 it cost, but it does have it’s own little bag so I can fold it up and keep it in my handbag nice and neatly.

Recently, when cooking our dinner, I considered how much clingfilm and foil I get through. I insist on all food being covered up if it’s defrosting or the left overs in the fridge and I get through loads of bags, foil & clingfilm.

I looked around a few Internet sites, including country living who are campaigning against too much packaging and I see nothing referring to our own use of packaging food once we get it home.

I now try and use my plastic containers for things that go in the fridge and pop a plate over bowls left on the side in the kitchen. I haven’t worked out what to do about freezing food as I never have enough plastic containers for that.

My friend has access to a large amount of plastic clover tubs, the big ones, which she uses to neatly stack in her freezer full of cooked meals. This is fantastic but we don’t use clover and our lighter lurpak tubs are mainly made of card and disintergrate when washed in the dishwasher.

So I’m looking for further inspiriation on how to cut down on my clingfilm, foil and plastic bag use.

 

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