You can read a comment made by me in one of the last year's Gardeners World issues when I mentioned the environmental impact of storing what we harvest in a freezer. It needs all to be considered under a wider aspect. What food mile do we generate if we store our food into a freezer where we leave it for weeks and months. Is it environmentally better to transport fresh food across the country or even continents and eating it fresh than having it harvested in our gardens but we need power stations to keep the freezers working? We would have to change our habits and only eat what grows seasonally.
I try to store fruit/veg in jars. But I'll admit that I have to stew the fruit and veg first. However, it saves on the freezer costs, and capacity.
My freezers run, mostly, on solar panel energy form our roof but I do also burn a lot of gas to reduce tomatoes to a purée to conserve them for winter soups and sauces - recycled storage jars and lids and no other food miles tho.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
All of our bills are of a minimum, we don’t use much of anything, water rate £28.00 per quarter, electric £45.00 per month. We don’t run a hose, water doesn’t get up the hill, we have our own pumping station of which the electricity costs to run that is paid by SW Water. We put our rubbish out once a month and that’s only in a small compost bag.
I used to have 50+ pots and 25 hanging baskets, all watered from water butts. I’ve cut that down now as I got fed up with the work involved. Pots are ok if you don’t have a garden to look after as well.
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
I wish I could get rid of our freezer respectively turn the freezer off and leave the fridge. When we bought it, I didn't check that believing it's possible.
It's all a balance though. We could tie ourselves up in knots constantly - worrying about every tiny thing we do. I don't fly anywhere, and haven't done that much in my lifetime, so I'm damned if I'm going to feel guilty because I drive a car. I recycle and re use as much as possible, so I'm not going to feel guilty about buying a few bedding plants if I want them. Not that I do- but I still remember the angst a forum member had because everywhere she looked, she was being made to feel guilty about buying some for her pots, due to all the nonsense surrounding their production. Same with a lady wanting to put in a pond and worrying because she was buying a plastic liner, for similar reasons. They were both getting some grief from forum members. Utterly ridiculous.
The constant barrage about everything in a garden is becoming ludicrous, especially when you consider that the vast majority of those who garden are improving their surroundings, not destroying them. The lady with the pond is a classic example.
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Guilty then. For Mothering Sunday I persuaded OH to buy me a 60cm wide and deep heavy duty plastic tub to make a small water feature in the veg plot to help birds and insects. There are frogs and toads about too so there'll be an escape ramp but I expect it to last years and do more good than bad. It'll have a solar powered pump to keep the water aerated and a couple of aquatic plants for shelter.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
Absolutely @Obelixx - it's a great thing to do. There was a couple of folk in particular that were always banging on - constantly up on their soap boxes about what folk should be doing. They seem to have disappeared - fortunately.
You only need to look at the amount of queries we get from people about how to attract all sorts of wildlife into their plot, to see that most folk are very keen to do what they can. I get quite angry about it all, but also quite sad. If someone wants to have a garden full of bedding plants - fine. Who are we to say no, they shouldn't, because even those bedding plants have their uses in the grands scheme of things. I passed the garden today that I mentioned that's everything I'd hate to have - loads of shaved grass and bare soil, and little pots and wheelbarrows of multi coloured pansies etc....but...if they like it.... The thing about water is - if you're in a very dry part of the country [ or anywhere else ] how are you supposed to collect enough to see your plants from spring and through the summer? Unless you have the room to have loads and loads of tanks to collect it, it's extremely difficult to ensure enough, even if you don't have loads of plants. I know some people on the forum regularly struggle with the management of it - @Topbird has frequently mentioned the long dry spells - even in winter/early spring, that she experiences. Unless the 'powers that be' [the polite term] start addressing the continual waste of water through leaks, properly invest in the infrastructure and efficient storage etc, then nothing will change, and those responsible gardeners will keep battling away trying to do the right thing, while getting p*ssed on from a great height.
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Posts
When you don't even know who's in the team
S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
We don’t run a hose, water doesn’t get up the hill, we have our own pumping station of which the electricity costs to run that is paid by SW Water.
We put our rubbish out once a month and that’s only in a small compost bag.
I used to have 50+ pots and 25 hanging baskets, all watered from water butts. I’ve cut that down now as I got fed up with the work involved. Pots are ok if you don’t have a garden to look after as well.
I wish I could get rid of our freezer respectively turn the freezer off and leave the fridge. When we bought it, I didn't check that believing it's possible.
I ♥ my garden.
I don't fly anywhere, and haven't done that much in my lifetime, so I'm damned if I'm going to feel guilty because I drive a car. I recycle and re use as much as possible, so I'm not going to feel guilty about buying a few bedding plants if I want them.
Not that I do- but I still remember the angst a forum member had because everywhere she looked, she was being made to feel guilty about buying some for her pots, due to all the nonsense surrounding their production. Same with a lady wanting to put in a pond and worrying because she was buying a plastic liner, for similar reasons. They were both getting some grief from forum members. Utterly ridiculous.
The constant barrage about everything in a garden is becoming ludicrous, especially when you consider that the vast majority of those who garden are improving their surroundings, not destroying them. The lady with the pond is a classic example.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
When you don't even know who's in the team
S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
There was a couple of folk in particular that were always banging on - constantly up on their soap boxes about what folk should be doing. They seem to have disappeared - fortunately.
You only need to look at the amount of queries we get from people about how to attract all sorts of wildlife into their plot, to see that most folk are very keen to do what they can.
I get quite angry about it all, but also quite sad. If someone wants to have a garden full of bedding plants - fine. Who are we to say no, they shouldn't, because even those bedding plants have their uses in the grands scheme of things. I passed the garden today that I mentioned that's everything I'd hate to have - loads of shaved grass and bare soil, and little pots and wheelbarrows of multi coloured pansies etc....but...if they like it....
The thing about water is - if you're in a very dry part of the country [ or anywhere else ] how are you supposed to collect enough to see your plants from spring and through the summer? Unless you have the room to have loads and loads of tanks to collect it, it's extremely difficult to ensure enough, even if you don't have loads of plants.
I know some people on the forum regularly struggle with the management of it - @Topbird has frequently mentioned the long dry spells - even in winter/early spring, that she experiences.
Unless the 'powers that be' [the polite term] start addressing the continual waste of water through leaks, properly invest in the infrastructure and efficient storage etc, then nothing will change, and those responsible gardeners will keep battling away trying to do the right thing, while getting p*ssed on from a great height.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...