Katrina & Clayton share their daily life in the garden *sometimes* the DIY in the home (that is getting neglected) which is also something Clayton enjoys getting stuck into.
Hope you enjoy following what we get up to and how we incorporate #permaculture, #nowaste, #sheetmulching #ecoswaps & #MilkCartonGrowing into our daily life.
All blogged about for more photos & details twice a month….so don’t forget to sign up so you don’t miss a thing.
Thank you as always for your love & support – Katrina & Clayton 😘
Using 1 pallet we cut up the wood to make several usages, first some lawn edging, I say some because we have a large section to cover and will need maybe 3-4 more pallets to finish this off. Secondly we made a window style box that holds 22 10” pots and with all the scrap pieces we made more stakes
What Did We Use?
Just 1 Pallet: no other fancy equipment used, I am always so worried that Clayton will plug something in and get hurt so we only have basic hand tools.
We had left over fence paint so everything gets painted black, not only to preserve the wood but to help keep some heat in for the evenings and it always looks great as a backdrop for plants.
Free Pallets: These pallets do take some time to get apart & remove the nails, but worth the effort. Always make sure when you are collecting these to use around your garden you check the stamps.
NOTE ON PALLET USUAGE:
Check your stamps on the side and only use HT KD or DB
HT : Heat Treated or KD : Kiln Dried
Heat treated or kiln dried pallets are great for DIY work because the wood has been hardened and is less susceptible to swelling and shrinking.
DB: Debarked, EPAL or No Stamp
Untreated ‘national’ pallets – you can tell these because they either have no stamps, symbols or codes on them, or the stamp just says EPAL.
No fancy equipment. Hand saw to remove endsHammer to lift off the planks
How Did We Do It?
On the fence line we have just planted out Cherry laurel, and while this section we started at doesn’t have grass up to the edge because of the large tree, the rest of this fence line does (and will add cardboard to suppress it at the bottom)
I didn’t want to have grass growing around the Cherry Laurel, I didn’t want to be weeding around AND I also when cutting the grass didn’t want to catch them and end up cutting them off
Decided to use a pallet and make a start to the edging on this slope and hilled area. Think we’ll need 3 pallets to finish the line.
Is it perfect? Nope! But shop bought log rolls or edging wouldn’t have been either on this slope!!!
Does it do the job? Yep! Certainly does and looks really effective, look forward to it all growing this year.
Did it cost me anything? Nope all stuff I had (saw, hammer, screws, fence paint, free pallet, no fancy tools here)
LAWN EDGING
Ends were sawn off the end sections (which were a bit split) and removed the nails from the centre to give us sections of planks.
Stakes were made from some of the scrap pieces and pieces that split while lifting the off. Make a section to screw into each length of plank and a small piece to drive into the ground to hold it in place.
PAINTED
Painted using left over black fence paint to cover it all. Eliza spent the afternoon with me doing this & Clayton popped some marigolds in to add some colour while the hedging takes shape.
USING THE END PIECES AS WINDOW STYLE BOXES
Screwed them straight onto the fence
Painted & filled them with 22 10” pots! Easy
These would be great filled with herbs or strawberries. Just added some left over marigolds for a pop of colour here too
Katrina & Clayton and family live in East Ayrshire and share their daily life in the garden on instagram. They practice permaculture principles in the garden, reducing & repurposing waste whenever they can. Katrina shows how home educating in nature has helped Clayton thrive.
Clayton Completed The Grow and Learn Course with the Royal Caledonian Horticultural Society Last Year. This year he started the Level 2 Nurture Course. Clayton is 15, Autistic, Non Verbal & has been Home Educated for the last 5yrs.
They featured on BBC Beechgrove Gardens Ep23 2022. They will be returning to the show later this year. Katrina & Clayton are also columnists for ScotlandGrows Magazine and Author of the new children’s book: Clayton’s New Garden Journey: A Story of Autism and Growing available on Amazon
Top 3 things you could do this year in your outdoor space
The Soil
The Air
The Bees
No 1. The Soil
Enrich your soil by adding nutrients back in. Lay some cardboard on your borders, mulch with leaves and grass cuttings. Work with nature at replenishing not removing.
Give Back To The Soil.
No 2. The Air
Plant a tree. Dwarf trees you can grow in large pots, in borders or as features. We take so much from the air everyday.
Give Back to the air.
No 3. The Bees
Plant some flowers. Add in a pot or create a new space. Think about those bulbs you could plant for that huge winter gap they have. Without the work of the bees we wouldn’t exist.
Katrina & Clayton and family live in East Ayrshire and share their daily life in the garden on instagram. They practice permaculture principles in the garden, reducing & repurposing waste whenever they can. Katrina shows how home educating in nature has helped Clayton thrive.
Clayton Completed The Grow and Learn Course with the Royal Caledonian Horticultural Society Last Year. This year he started the Level 2 Nurture Course. Clayton is 15, Autistic, Non Verbal & has been Home Educated for the last 5yrs.
Built a cold frame from scrap. So this was my Easter break. This project was everything we had collected over the years and 2 clear shower curtains
What Did We Use?
Old Metal Bed Frame: We’ve had this outside for 3yrs now, we picked them up for free snd used them as beds for 5yrs before they got moved outside. They are perfect for putting plants on so they drain freely.
Scrap Wood & Pallets: Wood left over from fencing & part of the large fruit cage that was never used & free pallets we’d collected from around the village. These pallets do take some time to get apart & remove the nails, but worth the effort.
Using Clear Shower Curtains: Picked these up cheap from Amazon, heavy duty thickest ones I could find, thought I’d only need 1 but actually had to get a 2nd. Prices of polycarbonate sheeting was just out of budget!
How Did We Do It?
BUILDING THE FRAME
Built a frame around the bed, out of the wood I had available so very mixed, but I knew I was painting it all black anyway so wouldn’t really be noticed.
Screwed onto the back, sides & front bottom part of the frame with pallet wood. Getting the wood off the pallets took much longer than the build!!
PAINTED
Painted using left over black fence paint to cover it all. Eliza spent the afternoon with me doing this.
ADDING THE SHOWER CURTAINS
Taped together with waterproof double sided tape down the edge to form a larger rectangle. You can see this white strip down the middle
Stapled onto the wood all round the top/sides with heavy duty staples like you’d use for furniture upholstery.
Cut off the excess at the side and the triangle to leave just the front flap.
FIXING TO THE SIDE & BOTTOM
Hair bands looped through the shower curtain holes that attach onto hooks, this will give it a bit of movement in the wind but stable enough not to rip. Fingers crossed!!
Velcro strips of heavy duty waterproof velcro put on the sides and on the shower curtains to close it up tight enough to have a seal (stuff I had already but can be picked up cheap)
FLOORING
Black sheeting was put across the whole area that we were given for a few reasons.
1. This has really coarse slabs here so you can’t go barefoot. I like to be able to just quickly nip out & not have to go find my shoes first
2. There is constant weeds growing through and I just can’t get the time to constantly weed them AND don’t want to have to move this to do underneath
3. This is the MAIN REASON. The black attracts the heat, like our black fences it keeps this area warmer and holds the heat into the evening.
Katrina & Clayton and family live in East Ayrshire and share their daily life in the garden on instagram. They practice permaculture principles in the garden, reducing & repurposing waste whenever they can. Katrina shows how home educating in nature has helped Clayton thrive.
Clayton Completed The Grow and Learn Course with the Royal Caledonian Horticultural Society Last Year. This year he started the Level 2 Nurture Course. Clayton is 15, Autistic, Non Verbal & has been Home Educated for the last 5yrs.
We had a go at Propagating Cherry Laurel Hedging For FREE last summer because we have such a large space to fill. Over 100meters!
We picked Cherry Laurel as it stays green and thick all year round and we need a wind barrier to protect the garden more than anything else. Our perimeter is full of trees & bushes all of which lose their leaves in winter leaving us exposed to the cross winds from the fields either side.
We followed Mike Kincaid on YouTube to learn the process and got to work filling up a tub.
WE FAILED THE FIRST TIME!!! The first set of 100 we did was left outside when we were away in that hot summer week we had and all burnt with the tub lid on. So we had to do it again, only did 40 in this one incase it didn’t work again.
Fast forward 6mth and from the 40 we have 25 potted up here ready to grow!
How Did We Do It?
Step 1: Cut Below First Node
Make sure your tools are clean before doing this. Rubbing alcohol or hand sanitiser works well
Step 2: Keep 3 Leaves & Cut Down
Remove all the extra leaves down the stem, leaving just 3 at the top. Cut the leaves in half, this gives more space in the tub and allows more air flow between them.
Step 3: Slice A Little To Open The Stem
Scrap a section 1-2” at the bottom of the stem to open up to make rooting easier.
Step 4: Dip In Water
We use a rooting powder, dipping it in water helps it stick so it doesn’t rot in the soil & helps it root.
Step 5: Dip In The Rooting Powder & Plant
And repeat until you have what you need.
Step 6: Water In
Step 7: Pop On Lid & Let Them Root
Remove the lid to get rid of any condensation & water when needed, we only did this once a week and left the lid off after a few months to give them air. They’ll sort themselves out with the weather.
Katrina & Clayton and family live in East Ayrshire and share their daily life in the garden on instagram. They practice permaculture principles in the garden, reducing & repurposing waste whenever they can. Katrina shows how home educating in nature has helped Clayton thrive.
Clayton Completed The Grow and Learn Course with the Royal Caledonian Horticultural Society Last Year. This year he started the Level 2 Nurture Course. Clayton is 15, Autistic, Non Verbal & has been Home Educated for the last 5yrs.
GETTING YOUR SEEDS STARTED WITH ITEMS FROM AROUND YOUR HOME
Reusing & repurposing items to use to start seed sowing
What Did We Do?
If you are a beginner to sowing seeds it can all seem a little daunting, when to sow, what seeds to buy, when to plant out and then there is all the equipment you need.
Even those that have been gardening for years need to replace their items often. We are here to give you some ideas on what we use that you probably have around the home.
Use whatever you have, our simple Ideas for starting your seeds
Collect your toilet rolls, they are ideal for planting in, there are several ways you can do this. You can crunch some used paper/packaging paper in the bottom to stop the soil coming out, you can cut 4 slits 1” long at the bottom and fold them up to make a bottom or you can, like we do, just simply fold them to make them square & fill them straight up in your container. Making them square stops any soil going down the sides.
Clayton folding the toilet roll inserts to make them square
Save your cartons, we use soya milk cartons as we have the most of those, but juice cartons will work just the same. They need to be something waterproof as you’ll be bottom watering (putting water in the bottom of the tray only, this encourages the roots to grow down for the water) in the container.
How Did We Do It?
Using the toilet roll inserts & cut cartons to make planting space. Making them square makes them easy to fill
These little growing cartons, because we are using toilet roll inserts & bottom watering this means no drip tray & can be located to even the smallest window sills
You’ll be surprised once you start looking, what you can find going into your recycling bin that you could use this season to get your seeds started.
Use whatever you have, our simple Ideas for propagation mini greenhouses
Keep your seeds warm & moist by covering your new seeds. Remove as soon as the plants have germinated to allow air to circulate & get the best light.
1. Propagation tray lids that fit the trays
These are the lids that come with the trays, they look & work great but are not necessary to get going.
2. Cut up bottles, plastic cups, glass tubs/jars
We cut these fizzy water bottles up to use the bottom half to plant in & the top half make perfect mini greenhouses for pots. We’ve been using these for over 4yrs now, always come in handy for many projects. (No need to remove screw lids we just used them for another project)
Plastic cups & glass jars work great too.
3. Bread bags, roll bags, old bits of cling film
Using any packaging that would be thrown out to keep these seeds warm & moist is ideal. We are using bread bags, roll bags & used compostable cling film
4. Cake boxes, packaging, plastic tubs
We kept these bags that our heated bedsheets came in they are ideal zipped up & left. Cake boxes or any storage box works perfectly too. We propage right in these storage boxes that stay outside (with drainage holes) & tie another one on top with string as a lid.
Katrina & Clayton and family live in East Ayrshire and share their daily life in the garden on instagram. They practice permaculture principles in the garden, reducing & repurposing waste whenever they can. Katrina shows how home educating in nature has helped Clayton thrive.
Clayton Completed The Grow and Learn Course with the Royal Caledonian Horticultural Society Last Year. This year he started the Level 2 Nurture Course. Clayton is 15, Autistic, Non Verbal & has been Home Educated for the last 5yrs.
LAST OF THE FRUIT TREES GOING INTO THE FOOD FOREST AREA
Getting Started
We were gratefully gifted our last set of fruit trees for this area from Direct Plants
They sent Clayton out
1 Pear – Pyrus Beth Pear
2 Apple -Malus Cox’s Orange Apple
1 Plum – Prunus Victoria Plum
We also just planted out 3 more Cherry varieties in this area too bringing it up to 15.
3 in each section.
Now we have finished extending this area, added in the boarders to deepen the mulch & stop it moving down the slope and added the paths in, so now we can concentrate on filling this area up
Where Is Each Tree Located?
Along the bottom section, our NEW EXTENDED AREA there was a tree added in each section. The further two trees added next to the large square fruit cage section
We planned it out so there are different fruits in each section and next to each other but still in close enough proximity to pollinate if required
🍆 represents a plum as there wasn’t an emoji
What Is Next To Plant Out In The Food Forest Area?
It is very exciting now we can start properly adding in more fruit bushes, herbs & beneficial flowers
Everything from now on will be grown from seed, divided from other plants we already have or propagated from what we have to start doubling, tripling our yield. To fill the rest of this space will be from zero to pennies.
So far we have in here
Strawberries
Raspberries
Blackberries
Honeyberries
This year we will be adding
More Blackberries that we have propagated from our 1 plant
Moving the Redcurrant & Blackcurrant from the top of the house to down here too
More strawberries runners & crowns that are in the vertical garden right now will be moving down here
Herbs: Chives, Coriander, Rosemary are all being grown from seed atm to move down here
Flowers: Lupins for nitrogen fixing, Sweet-peas to attract more bees are all being grown from seed atm to move down here too. Daffodils have been dug up & moved into this area from other locations in the garden to deter the Deers
Lots going on in preparation for Spring/Early Summer placement
For any of your plant needs check out our affiliate link and friends at DirectPlants who without them we wouldn’t have got all our trees finished so fast.
New Fruit Trees Delivery From Direct Plants Video Reel
Katrina & Clayton and family live in East Ayrshire and share their daily life in the garden on instagram. They practice permaculture principles in the garden, reducing & repurposing waste whenever they can. Katrina shows how home educating in nature has helped Clayton thrive.
Clayton Completed The Grow and Learn Course with the Royal Caledonian Horticultural Society Last Year. This year he started the Level 2 Nurture Course. Clayton is 15, Autistic, Non Verbal & has been Home Educated for the last 5yrs.
Temperature Blanket 2023. The idea of a temperature blanket is to crochet (or knit) a number of rows on a blanket each day for a full calendar year. The colors used each day correspond with the temperature outside.
I started crocheting last year with my daughter, we share our makes on instagram @ourcrochetlife, usually use super chunky & size 15mm hook. Using 2 strands of DK & a 10mm & HDC for this project as I love the rhythm of the stitch.
Picked just 5 colours as temperature doesn’t change much in Scotland. There are so many ideas you can do with these blankets so fun to see how the temperature changes in the garden over the year.
Pick your colours & decide on a stitch
As the first permaculture principle is to Observe and Interact, I feel we’re covering that with the weather this year.
Using 2 strands of DK yarn with 10mm Hook and HDC – Half Double Crochet stitch as I love the rhythm of this stitch . Picked just 5 colours as I wanted to be able to look at a glance at what range it was next year.
Under 0° White (cold/snow)
1-6° Grey (winter)
7-13° Duck Egg (spring/autumn)
14-20° Vintage Peach (summer)
Over 21° Mustard (hot)
Taking the highest temperature from each day and using that as the temperature colour I use. For example if the highest temperature of the day was 6° then I would do 1 row of Grey
Adjusted my scale a little on the white though, to the average rather than the highest as some days it’s been -7° at night, then -3° most of the day, but for an hour or 2 its 1°, which would make it grey and I don’t feel that would represent the day.
I want to look back and see the days that were solid frozen ground outside that we couldn’t plant outside- these will be white days.
It is a really fun way to see the whole year of weather, looking forward to seeing patterns that come up too.
Are you doing a temperature blanket or recording the weather of any kind?
Katrina & Clayton and family live in East Ayrshire and share their daily life in the garden on instagram. They practice permaculture principles in the garden, reducing & repurposing waste whenever they can. Katrina shows how home educating in nature has helped Clayton thrive.
Clayton Completed The Grow and Learn Course with the Royal Caledonian Horticultural Society Last Year. This year he started the Level 2 Nurture Course. Clayton is 15, Autistic, Non Verbal & has been Home Educated for the last 5yrs.
As when I decided to go Vegan back in 2013, I started with the food, gradually as I did the next shop I swapped over the milk and butter and cheese, we obviously stopped eating or buying any meat but finding substitutes didn’t happen over night.
My husband Peter then joined me a few months later as he felt better not eating meat every day, every meal as it was me shopping & cooking the food we all ate.
Our kids were young at the time 3, 5 & 6 so swapping the younger 2 over wasn’t a big deal as they were at the stage of trying different food out all the time anyway. We also found after eating dairy they would throw up later in the day, so it was easier to just look for the V vegan sign on food than to keep checking for non dairy products for them.
Clayton, being Autistic had (and still has) a self limiting diet of dry brown or beige finger foods only so he wasn’t included in our switch, getting him to just eat was a struggle in its self.
Anyway…..my point is, nothing happens over night, going Vegan we started with food, it then progressed onto products, clothing, shoes, coats, linen, furniture, now we chose items without a second thought.
This progressed onto what was happening on our land and led us to permaculture, principles & design. Permaculture principle No6 is: Produce No Waste. This is the overall aim.
Just making 1 swap starts to make a difference to our planet. What could you do today?
Simple swap of Plastic Wrapping Paper
So here are 5 ways you swap out your plastic wrapping paper
1. Just swap out your plastic paper to a recyclable one
Paper
There are lots of different options in most stores right now, paper based. Check to see if it says recyclable, anything with glitter, sparkles, high shine, foiling is not. Keep it simple!
You don’t even have to buy dedicated Christmas paper, there are beautiful birthday designs OR just plain brown parcel paper is very effective & festive when you add a ribbon
There is also sooo much brown paper you can just reuse that comes in packaging nowadays, no need to even buy, just need to be savvy over the year to collect enough….this goes straight back into our soil once we’ve finished with ours
Selection of what we have in the house atmBrown packaging paperCheck out our blog post to see how we use scrap cardboard & paper
Any gift bags we have been given go straight out the house for others gifts. I’ve kept these fabric bags from Amazon gift wrapping service over the years to use in the house for each of our birthdays.
We’ve collected several sizes over the years to use. They just get packed away for the next birthday.
3. Tissue paper
Use & reuse tissue paper
Over the years I’ve also collected tissue paper, it comes in so much!!! I just have a box where I store it & it comes out every time.
What I love about tissue paper is
1. That it looks great all crinkled up, so you don’t need to worry what it looks like.
2. I don’t even bother using tape, just roll the gift up, tuck the ends in & add a ribbon if needed. These are great for using in stocking or all those little bits that you can then pop in a box.
3. It is so much quieter than using actual paper, with Clayton struggling with noise even with his ear defenders on this is my go too for wrapping in the house.
Tissue paper
4. Use tote bags
Last year I got off ebay a huge stack of plain tote bags that we tie dyed for gift wrapping
If you saw last months -12 Months- 12 Eco Changes- Making An Eco Swap Of Fast Fashion you’ll have seen we tie dye every year so we just added these in too. We even made our own gift tags from keyrings & beads with the persons name on for another usable gift
4. Use Pillow Cases or fabric
If buying tote bags is too much for you, try pillow cases or fabric. Cut up old bed sheets, old worn out tshirts, anything that would usually be thrown out, try finding a solution for anything leaving your home.
I’m sure there are some of you rolling your eyes now thinking what are you on about, pillowcases!!! Well let me tell you….
If noise is an issue for your child then this creates a beautiful calm situation and not just for Christmas
If sticky tape or the touch of shiny paper causes sensory meltdowns then with pillowcases you don’t need to worry, you just pop the gift in & fold it over.
Believe me unless you have tried it you won’t know what you are missing, when you have 5 people opening gifts, talking, laughing at the same time the noise is too much, this softer approach changes the whole event AND there is no mess to clear up afterwards either!
Gifts in pillowcases for a birthday in our home
And don’t forget if you are using sticky tape there are other alternatives
Plant based 0% plastic sellotapeSkip the tape all together and use string or off cuts of yarn or look out for ribbons on your items you can keep & re-use
So there! 5 different ways to remove plastic wrapping paper from your home & gifts
There is only 1 reason this month to make some swaps
1. The whole reason is to stop plastic waste coming out of the household.
🌳Permaculture Principle No6 – Produce No Waste
🌱Vegan Living- To Do No Harm
👣🌎Small steps is better than none at all! What small change could you make this year? Could you look into your items too?
As when I decided to go Vegan back in 2013, I started with the food, gradually as I did the next shop I swapped over the milk and butter and cheese, we obviously stopped eating or buying any meat but finding substitutes didn’t happen over night.
My husband Peter then joined me a few months later as he felt better not eating meat every day, every meal as it was me shopping & cooking the food we all ate.
Our kids were young at the time 3, 5 & 6 so swapping the younger 2 over wasn’t a big deal as they were at the stage of trying different food out all the time anyway. We also found after eating dairy they would throw up later in the day, so it was easier to just look for the V vegan sign on food than to keep checking for non dairy products for them.
Clayton, being Autistic had (and still has) a self limiting diet of dry brown or beige finger foods only so he wasn’t included in our switch, getting him to just eat was a struggle in its self.
Anyway…..my point is, nothing happens over night, going Vegan we started with food, it then progressed onto products, clothing, shoes, coats, linen, furniture, now we chose items without a second thought.
This progressed onto what was happening on our land and led us to permaculture, principles & design. Permaculture principle No6 is: Produce No Waste. This is the overall aim.
Just making 1 swap starts to make a difference to our planet. What could you do today?
Simple swap of fast fashion & looking at other alternatives
We (I) have always been very savvy with clothing & shoes especially when you have 3 kids in 3.5yrs, they pretty much all end up the same size which means there are rarely hand-me-downs and 3 sets of the same things bought all in the same sizes every year!!
Here’s a few things we do, not really just this month it’s an ongoing lifestyle we’ve been living for over a decade because you can only wear 1 pair of shoes, 1 coat at a time! But certainly worth taking up an eco swap month to talk about it.
So here are 3 ways you can look at the way you buy & wear items
First: You don’t need to have loads of items
Limited Clothes & Shoes
I’ve always kept shoes for everyone to 4 pairs. Shoes only get replaced when they grow out of them or in our case as adults when they wear out.
– Smart – School/Work or Social
– Trainers for Sports
– Wet shoes -Wellies or Snow boots
– Dry shoes – Sliders or crocs
Every pair of shoes in the house for 5 of us. Peter literally only has those 2 pairs on the top!
Clothes are kept to a minimum too. Key is keeping it basic & just add layers
What’s in Clayton’s wardrobe right now
Second: You don’t have to buy everything new
Buy from ebay & sell them back on ebay
Ever since the kids were tiny I would buy bundles from ebay, use them & put them back on, to sell. They were barley in them for 6mths & still useable. I’d use that money to buy the next set of items
I still do this with hoodies & zip up hoodies. There are always GAP hoodies on there for £3.00-£5.00 & the next year when we need to size up they go back on & next ones bought or I just buy larger over sizes ones now that last a few years before I change them up
This style of recycling-reusing not only saves money as you are selling to buy the next ones, it saves being part of the fast & disposable fashion cycle.
Wearing their GAP coatsYounger wearing GAP coats
Third- You can make your own clothes
Tied Dying & Crocheting
We’ve been tie dying for a good 4-5 years now. I get the £1-£2 plain white tshirts either from the back to school packs in supermarkets, primark or ebay.
We then buy a pack of coloured dye & the kids all make their own tops for the year. YEP THE WHOLE YEAR. They have 6 each and that’s all they wear. You’ll see these all across our instagram accounts
Here’s some over the years, which they love wearing as they made them themselves. Great way to be creative too.
At the end of the year they get either gifted to friends & family if no holes in them & ones that are no longer wearable get cut up to make other things like hair scrunchies, ties for the garden to hold things up, long ribbons to tie up gifts. We can always find uses for them, they are never wasted or thrown away.
Clayton doing his own tshirts a few years agoKids this Summer out at the park in their tshirts
Eliza & I started Crocheting this year to make wearables
The thing about making your own clothes out of yarn is:
1. You can make them to fit yourself perfectly
2. When you’ve grown out of it or just had enough of it, you just unravel it & make something else
You can see a section of cardies & jumpers we’ve made this year on our instagram OurCrochetLife
As when I decided to go Vegan back in 2013, I started with the food, gradually as I did the next shop I swapped over the milk and butter and cheese, we obviously stopped eating or buying any meat but finding substitutes didn’t happen over night.
My husband Peter then joined me a few months later as he felt better not eating meat every day, every meal as it was me shopping & cooking the food we all ate.
Our kids were young at the time 3, 5 & 6 so swapping the younger 2 over wasn’t a big deal as they were at the stage of trying different food out all the time anyway. We also found after eating dairy they would throw up later in the day, so it was easier to just look for the V vegan sign on food than to keep checking for non dairy products for them.
Clayton, being Autistic had (and still has) a self limiting diet of dry brown or beige finger foods only so he wasn’t included in our switch, getting him to just eat was a struggle in its self.
Anyway…..my point is, nothing happens over night, going Vegan we started with food, it then progressed onto products, clothing, shoes, coats, linen, furniture, now we chose items without a second thought.
This progressed onto what was happening on our land and led us to permaculture, principles & design. Permaculture principle No6 is: Produce No Waste. This is the overall aim.
Just making 1 swap starts to make a difference to our planet. What could you do today?
Simple swap of not buying fizzy drinks in plastic bottles & switching to cans
All our cans get the tabs removed & crushed to go to a local charity that collects them for cash. So nothing goes into our recycling bin
As much as I would love to just stop buying them Clayton actually drinks fizzy drinks, think he likes the feel of the bubbles on his tongue. It means we can guarantee that he has drunk enough during the day too by counting the cans finished.
*BUT* here are 5 Ways You Can Use In Your Plastic Bottles in the Garden before putting them in the recycling
This month I have concentrated on what we have done with plastic bottles before we switched over to cans this year.
First Use- Using Plastic Bottles To Plant In
What did we do?
We took the 1ltr flavoured fizzy drink bottles and cut them in half. Added drainage holes by drilling holes in the bottom and wrapping some brown paper around them to protect the roots. These lavender were in here for a good 4mths before planting out.
Second Use – Use The Tops As Mini Green Houses
What did we do?
The tops of the bottles we used as mini greenhouse or cloche to allow the seedlings to have a humid environment to get started. They were used inside in our seed pots and outside in our vertical garden milk cartons
Using them outside to protect from the coldUsing them inside to help seedlings grow faster
Third Use – Use The Middle Sections To Stop Slugs Eating Small Plants
What did we do?
Made cuffs with a middle section to stop the slugs on small seedlings. Cut the middle of the fizzy water bottles. Put sticky copper tape around the top & used pinking scissors to cut around the top so its sharp for slugs to go over.
Fourth Use – Using Them For Protection In The Garden
What did we do?
These were a double usage, the bottles either full or just the tops were put on the bamboo poles, firstly for health & safety to protect our eyes so we didn’t hurt ourselves but secondly they moved in the wind and rattled against the poles and scared away the birds and Deer away, so a win win.
Fifth Use – Using Them As A Watering Can
What did we do?
♻️Using Bottles as Watering Cans.
💧🌿Clayton struggles to use watering cans as he tends to tip them too far & the misses where they are suppose to go. Ending up with frustration especially inside the house.
💧🌿Using these he can aim the water and the flow just where he wants & it is much lighter & easy to hold.
💧🌿We always have 2 on the go. One with large holes “lots” for a bigger flow & one with smaller holes “little” for a smaller, more lighter flow.
💧🌿They are ideal to keep in your car boot too for washing hands or shoes. We use them to wash the sand off our booties when we Stand Up Paddle board ✨Full bottle of water with a lid with no holes for travelling, then swap the lid to one with the holes in when needed 👌🏼
Building a Food Forest -Scotland 