This is a contributed post and may contain affiliate links. The need for sustainable gardening is more important now than it ever has been before – carbon emissions are at an all-time high and modern gardening practices are stripping resources from the environment without making efforts to replenish the land. As an alternative, sustainable gardening focuses on improving the quality of …
Upcycling Projects For Old Window Blinds
Image by Jan Mateboer from Pixabay This is a contributed post and may contain affiliate links Before throwing out your home’s old blinds and replacing them with new blinds, you should look at ways you can repurpose and upcycle the materials in your old blinds. By repurposing different parts and materials of your window blinds, you save them from ending up in an …
Grow some salad and reuse plastic
Today’s free worksheet is from Sustainable Summer. Written with The Frugal Family it has 42 eco-friendly, planet saving worksheets. Available as a printable PDF or in glorious colour paperback. If you don’t have a packet of seeds try something from the store cupboard. Mustard seeds sprout well and coriander seeds grow into delicious leafy additions to salads or toppings for …
Free personalised online veg garden planning calendar
In a nutshell – gardenfocused.co.uk have a free grow your own fruit and veg planning calendar that you can personalise. It even helps you plan crop rotations Unless you are growing indoors under lights you will need to pay attention to the seasons. I forget from year to year what I need to do in the garden and when. Books …
Starting a compost bin in a tiny garden
I have a very tiny garden for growing fruit and veg and relaxing in. I’ve just got a second compost bin and this is how I’m getting it started. I’ve got a pretty good system going with composting at home. Old teabags, leftover food and veg peelings go into a container during the week as I cook. When it’s full …
You don’t need a garden to grow your own with IKEA Live LAGOM
What is Live LAGOM? Three years ago I was chosen at random because I answered an email from IKEA asking me if I’d be interested in learning to live more sustainably. I was interested to hear how a brand would be able to help me save money, simply by sharing their advice on day to day routines at home! Live …
Fresh salad all year round with this easy hydroponics unit from ManoMano
If you spend £1.50 a week on bagged salad you could make your money back on this in 6 months. Bagged salad is wasteful in terms of the water used to produce the leaves, the non recyclable plastic it is bagged in and it is one of the most common food items left to rot in the fridge. And there …
Stop food waste with a menu planning chalkboard (tutorial)
This summer I spent a lot of time scraping off chip paper, replacing it with smooth paper and creating an office space I want to work in. On my office walls I have 2 long strips of chalkboard in an amazing blue colour. I bought a big tin of special chalkboard paint thinking I’d need to use loads of it …
Hydroponics v Soil v Light Growing Comparisons
In a nutshell – I’m testing different growing methods to see which comes out best. This month it’s spinach. I love my Ikea Vaxar Hydroponics unit but I wasn’t very impressed with the taste of the lettuce that came out of the first crop. To see if it makes a difference I’m trying (not terribly scientifically) to see if soil …
Ikea Hydroponics 3 months on, tips and hacks.
In a nutshell – I bought the Ikea Vaxar hydroponics unit as part of the Ikea Live LAGOM project. This is how it is 3 months after setting up with some growing tips and hacks. As a Live LAGOM participant I had to come up with resolutions that would help us live more sustainably. I chose growing salad all year …
First indoor salad crop from hydroponics kit
In a nutshell – 7 weeks ago I started some seeds off in a hydroponics unit bought through the Ikea Live LAGOM project. This is our celebration meal with the first crop. I’ve been growing 3 different types of lettuce in the grow house for the last 7 weeks and today we started eating it. We can kiss goodbye to …
7 weeks from seed to salad – indoor hydroponics
In a nutshell – how quick it is to produce your own salad indoors, even in mid winter. 48 days after planting seeds we have a good crop we can start eating this weekend. They are growing in the darkest room in the house, under Ikea VAXAR lights, bought as part of the Live LAGOM project. You can read about …