Gardening – a great way to start going green
If you have a small plot of land spare, perhaps an allotment or garden, you may want to consider getting your fingers green this summer. Despite a worldwide economic downturn, the cost of living continues to rise. Indeed, many shoppers have noticed that their weekly food list is costing more than it had been when the economy was experiencing a stable inflation. Fortunately, for those who are also interested in doing their bit to ’save the planet’, financial savings can be coupled with a greener way of life.
Growing one’s own supply of vegetables, fruits and herbs may seem like a mission impossible to the uninformed, but actually it is relatively straightforward to get started. Depending on your local climate and the physical space you have available, growing your own produce can be sustainable throughout the year and offers a wide variety of fruit, vegetables and herbs. If possible, erect a greenhouse in order to stimulate
regular growth, especially in relation to produce that would not normally grow during the UK’s colder months. However, do ensure that your greenhouse is eco-friendly by using materials that do not require excessive winter heating and, for the summer, develop a capillary watering system that supplies the plants with rain water, which can be collected in an external reservoir. Also ensure that produce is grown organically – the Earthmaker compost bin could come in handy for this – and that insect repellent plants such as Sweet Woodruff are used instead of pesticides. Finally, unless you want to feed the birds, do not forget to cover your produce with sufficient netting!
And to keep all of your gardening green you can find a great selection of green and ethical seeds, plants and garden accccessories at green retailers greenfingers.com , Nigels Eco Store and Biome
Earthmaker – the Porsche Turbo of Composters?
I’m sure composting is high on your tick list for living the green life – but if you’re like me a lot goes into the top of my composter but not enough compost comes out of the bottom!
The Earthmaker is a new composter which is quite possibly the Porsche Turbo of the composting world. The Earthmaker is arguably an attractive composter which uses a three step process to turn your kitchen and garden waste into high quality compost ready for the garden.
The manufacturers say that it’s gravity not you that does all the hard work needed to turn waste into high quality compost. There’s no need for messy digging and turning over of the contents of your compost bin- just the Earthmaker three step process.
Fresh kitchen and garden waste is placed into the top chamber of the Earthmaker and it takes just a few minutes each month to move the contents from chamber to chamber – until great compost appears in the bottom chamber of the compost bin. It’s a quick and easy process and doesn’t take any physical effort – so it’s ideal for those of us with busy lives and gardeners of all ages and levels of mobility. Earthmaker is also kinder to the planet as it produces less methane than traditional anaerobic composting methods.
So far Earthmaker has had some pretty good reviews from gardeners. Following a 26 week long trial of a number of compost bins, Garden Organics said that the composter was easier to use and faster and more productive than other composters. The Earthmaker is easy to assemble as it just clicks together – so no screws bolts or long and hard to understand instructions to follow. The Earthmaker is 1.2 meters tall and 0.75 meters wide and the composter chambers have a total capacity of 466 litres.
I really like the look of this composter. I think it’s a bloke thing – I just like the combination of technology and process coming together to produce great compost. So I’d say The Earthmaker really is an earth maker and I’m off to buy one. At £139 the Earthmaker costs a bit more than your run of the mill composter but hopefully the results will be worth it.
Where can I buy the Earthmaker Composter Bin?
You can get hold of an Earthmaker at online green retailer Even Greener for £139 and take advantage of their current offer of FREE Delivery on all orders over £50.
