When I looked at this picture later I realised I’d been adding to the blurry line between wild and domesticated.  I’m pretty certain that what passes for ‘grass’ around here is more than 50% clover, the stuff, both red and white is everywhere.  Despite this wild bounty,  I found myself last weekend sowing bought clover seed into bare patches of soil among the vegetables.   It is true it was left over seed which Granny Goo gave to me.  She had sown it on a large patch on her allotment where potatoes had grown previously.  I expect the clover to feel quite at home on my soil and I also expect it to fix lots of nitrogen into the soil at the same time as protecting it from erosion.  My compost isn’t quite ready yet to do the autumn mulch and I’m sure in the meantime the clover will do a good job of preserving and adding to soil health.  Even if you haven’t got any bare patches yet (are you looking at it or eating it?) sowing green manures inbetween crops is also beneficial, especially to brassicas if you’re using a nitrogen fixer like clover.  Not only does it surpress weeds but apparently it will reduce risks from pests and disease.  Time to go wild on the plot!

What's for breakfast?

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Manual lawn mowers are actually better for your grass as well, the clean cut enables grass to recover quickly, making it healthier and improving the general appearance.  And yes the Brill Razorcut Premium  is definitely on the eco-friendly list, not only will you save on fuel bills but you won’t be contributing to the UK’s hydrocarbon emissions, for which powered lawn mowers contribute  a surprising 2.1%.   Find out more about the Brill Razorcut Premium 38 or visit Nigel’s Eco Store for their complete range of hand mowers.

Now I come to think of it, it’s not even our grass The Man cuts.  I wonder if we could persuade British Waterways to start using hand mowers?  I’ll still take their clippings for my compost though!

My kohl rabi sitting pretty amongst lettuce and rocket.

Besides looking unusual and adding welcome colour to the veg patch this crop is easy, easy, EASY to germinate and grow.  I sowed straight into the ground and thinned out as they got bigger.  Kohl rabi matures quickly and this has many advantages not least that you get something to eat early on in the season.  But it also means it lends itself to several successional sowings and is less prone to disease and pest infestation simply because it’s not in the ground for so long.  I’ve found I’m not worrying about cabbage whites laying their eggs.  While the leaves are perfectly edible, I’ve sliced some into a noodle soup, it those swollen roots below you are after so I don’t feel too worried if the odd leaf is home to a caterpillar, they’re not going to burrow their way through to the heart.

Kohl rabi tastes pretty good too, raw or cooked, it has a mild cabbage-like flavour.  I’ve used both leaves and roots in soups.  I’ve grated roots into coleslaw type salads.  My next experiment will be to make something akin to an Indian aloo-gobi type dish.  I’ve decided I really like discovering the more unusual veg that can’t be found on supermarket shelves, it encourages you to experiment and try things out.  I’m determined to try more and more unusual things,  vegetables that make the best of the resources I have.  Kohl rabi fits the bill perfectly and sustainable living gets to be more fun by the day!

Even Greener are currently stocking lovely modular FSC approved wooden compost bins at very competitive prices.  If like me, you’ve discovered the joys of having a compost empire of your own, you can buy add on units that just slot together or you may prefer to gradually increase your capacity and just start with a single bin.  There is something quite addictive about the composting process I must say!  Click on the image below to find out more.

The bin pictured above is an easy-to-assemble handmade composter and it is easy to get at all the goodies inside, just slide away the front panel and you’re in! This is great if like me you’ve become very enthusiastic on the turning front, no bent backs to reach in. It’s been designed so you can add new modules to increase the capacity. Made from solid wood sourced from FSC sustainable forests and treated with non-toxic wood preservative it has a 620 litre capacity. The dimensions are: w 910mm (36″) d 910mm (36″) h 750mm (29″)  The starter bin retails for £76.00, which compares favourably with many similar products, and add-on bins (as many as you like!) are very reasonably priced at £66.00.

I have to say I didn’t recognise the pupae at first, it wasn’t the same as others that I’ve seen, and I wasn’t sure what to make of this spotless, almost translucent looking little bug.  I kept watching them, it seemed the little red ladybird hadn’t quite fully developed and next time I took my camera it had trasnformed into this:

Apparently it is a kidney spot ladybird.  I found this out at The Ladybird Survey organisation who have a very nice child friendly web-site.  They are keen to find out about your ladybird sightings so please visit them, especially if you’ve had experience of the invasive Harlequin ladybird.  I’m hoping that these little black kidney spots, so conveniently located on the raised beds, are as hungry for aphids as other ladybirds.

People Tree is a fantastic place to start if you care about ethical fashion and organic cotton production.  Last year they won The Observer Award for Ethical Fashion and it’s founder and CEO, Safia Minney was quite rightly awarded an MBE for her efforts to promote fair trade organic fashion.  They have a delightful range of organic baby clothes, including the Bee Good tee pictured here.  It has matching trousers and hat, I just love anything bee related so this is what the parents of the ‘fairly-recently-born’ are likely to be unwrapping.  I also like the unisex colourway which doesn’t play to traditional gender stereotypes and it is practical if you are buying for a ‘yet-to-be-born’ baby.  To check out the Bee Tee click on the image, or view the whole organic baby clothes range here.

People Tree is an active member of many Fair Trade, social justice and environmental networks. Accreditation by these bodies, like WFTO, the Fairtrade Foundation and the Soil Association gives you the guarantee that People Tree are doing what they say they are doing when it comes to Fair Trade and the environment.  They work hard to support their producers and suppliers, where certification is not yet in place it is usually because People Tree are supporting small, family run businesses in their efforts to meet certification standards rather than abandoning them to preserve a brand.  People Tree deserves to grow bigger because you know that people all over the world are growing with them.

Wild raspberries have a fine flavour but when compared with their cultivated cousins (which we still haven’t planted in our garden) they do lack that ‘plump fruit in mouth’ sensation, for alas they are only half to one third the size of a cultivar.  But this is the only disadvantage and as I gathered I mused upon the many advantages of gathering wild fruit. 

I have made absolutely no effort to ensure these delicious fruits have turned up outside my house, nor have I had to part with a single penny.  I have not for one minute worried about whether I’ve staked and tied in correctly or cut back the canes sufficiently to ensure a maximum harvest.  I have not lost sleep fretting about whether they are diseased or not.  I have not felt the need to net them against birds and other wild life.  Other than pinching the fruit, I’ve not intervened in nature’s inclinations in any way, and arguably it intended that something should pinch them.  In terms of energy in/energy out I feel like I’ve done pretty well. 

Other than the ones I nibbled on the way to keep me going most of my horde is now safely in a pot of jam.  I’ve made two batches now, one with a softer set for immediate consumption, generally I prefer slightly runny jam but it doesn’t keep so well, so I made another batch with a firm set which should still be good in the winter months.  I nearly didn’t get my horde home safely, I thought I would drop the lot when I just missed, by centimetres, treading on this quietly curled up grass snake.  It did more than make my heart sing.

There are times when I don’t think it is possible to improve on nature.  Look at that cascade of rose blooms below  tumbling down the bank, you would struggle to contrive something so elegant and yet natural looking in the garden.     

But of course roses have been the subject of cultivation and breeding for thousands of years.  In fact, I even have a rose bred and named after me.  (Funnily enough it is not called Rosa Goo!) This was the work of my grandad, who was an engineer by profession but a keen amateur rose breeder in his spare time.  Some of my happiest childhood memories are of his rose and apple tree filled garden. I was struck when watching the roses on the Hampton Court flower show a few weeks ago, just how much they can be mucked about.  Some bear little resemblance to the species roses.  I’ve never understood the desire to produce blue roses, or more recently black roses, but I guess my objection is simply aesthetic, it’s a question of taste.  Some of the lovely modern English roses I do happen to like,  those of old fashioned appearance but have the advantage of being disease resistant and repeat flowering, must have undergone similar processes. 

Our ingenuity when it comes to cultivation of plants has certainly served us well.  It is unlikely we could have fed our growing populations without the aid of cultivated crops bred for certain advantageous characteristics, among other advances afforded to us by the ‘green revolution’.  I am wondering though if we have overstepped the mark with GM crops.  My objection to GM is not a hippy, knee-jerk reaction to Frankenstein science and provocative headlines alerting us to tomatoes that have been crossed with crocodiles.  (No, that hasn’t happened, but it’s way more interesting than blue roses!)  I am a little nervous about plants that have inbred herbicidal or insecticidal genes such as those from the bacterium Baciullus thuringiensis (Bt): Will this have a negative effect on desirable insect life?  Will undesirable insects eventually become so resistant that we will have nothing left to fight them off with when we need it most?  But I think my main worry is our dependence upon technology, and in the case of GM, the private corporations who wield that technology.  I feel there must be socio-economic and political implications here for all of us, but my sneaking suspicion is that the poorest people in the world will benefit the least from such technology. 

In the meantime we have already lost forever some wild species of staple crops, this is dangerous, these are our building blocks, our primary colours if you like.  We need to maintain breeding stock, GM may open up some interesting options, but the greatest diversity is still to be found in the orignal species which continue to be dynamic and evolving.  There is a great article on Thai rice farmers here if you are interested.  Now how did a pleasant ramble about roses turn into a rant?  

As usual we’ve been enjoying watching the birds in our garden and the surrounding landscape.  When I’m weeding in the veg patch a pair of surprisingly gregarious goldfinches seem to be human watching!  Last year Goldilocks sowed teasels and now they are magnificent plants almost seven feet tall.  I hope the finches will hang around to feed on the seeds in the Autumn.  The guelder rose, though a long way from producing any berries, already seems to attract bull finches to the patch.  But guess who the villain of the piece is?  This crow has been getting too close for comfort.  The swallows who are nesting in the eves keep up a constant dive bombing exercise when he’s around. They swoop to within centimetres of him, teasing and taunting.  The crow’s efforts to snap at them look clumsy and foolish.  But this is no playground game, the swallows have young in that nest, this is survival and they are letting him know they are not dropping their guard.  The wagtails nesting in the generator room adopt a slightly different strategy.  Their aim is to conceal and confuse.  You never see them flying directly to their nest, they hop from one spot to the other and it is very hard to keep track of them.  We obviously lose concentration before they do.   We are not sure how successful their efforts have been and whether they have lost any young.  The swallow’s nest still seems to have four eager beaks awaiting their next fast food delivery, swallows have not heard of the slow movement!  The wagtail nest is more hidden and we can’t see into it at all.  Next year we would love to install a nest box camera somewhere in the garden so that we can watch more closely. 

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Our Green Shop has a range of nest box cameras and indeed other wildlife cameras, on offer.  Our favourite so far is this black and white multispecies nest box camera at £100.  The Man from Salford is writing a letter to Santa!    It is made from durable FSC timber and has a unique hinged, separate camera compartment that allows for easy access and adjustment without disturbing the nesting birds.

With simple focusing and integral infrared lights, the camera records high quality black and white images by day, and infrared by night. We also like the quick release camera clip which allows you to easily remove the camera and use it for other purposes (badgers we’ll be on to you!) around the garden once the nesting season is over.

The multi-species nestbox comes with 3 access options to suit preferred species ie With copper hole protector on: Bluetit, Marsh Tit, Coal Tit or Wren. With copper hole protector off: Great Tit, Sparrow etc. With front panel removed : Robin, Wagtail or Spotted Flycatcher.

The nest box comes complete with a long extension cable (30m), low voltage power unit and scart adapter to plug directly into your TV or recorder and view.  The dimensions are:  410mm x 225mm x 190mm and approximate weight 3.69kg.

If you want deluxe bird watching options there is a colour version availble with the additional advantage of an adjustable timer switch so that the birds normal day/night pattern is not disturbed and power is not used overnight! Visit Our Green Shop by clicking here to find out more.

Obviously you need to make sure your nest box camera attracts some tenants, so give some thought to the siting of the box.   Your bird box should be  positioned a minimum of 2 metres from the ground.  A wall or a tree is fine, but preferably in a quiet part of the garden and away from bird feeders and predators.  You might not be able to do much about crows, but you can make sure they are not accessible to cats.  Preferably site the box with the entrance hole between north and east. This provides some shelter from the worst of the weather and prevents the box and its tenants overheating in warm conditions.  Don’t forget to visit Our Green Shop for lots of great gifts that will attract wildlife to the garden.

A closer inspection revealed little webs all over the house covered with ensnared greenfly.  An even closer inspection of beans and veg revealed that, as yet at least, there was not a sign of aphid infestation.  I hope Bernard and her pals enjoy a very well deserved dinner. 

If you want some help in identifying spiders you can visit the common spider identification  page on the Natural History Museum’s website and I really enjoyed the FAQ on the British Arachnological Society’s site including the ‘Are Spiders Useful?’ section.