Get off your arse Thursday – week 9
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What a naughty bunch of zero wasters you were last week. Only two of you took part in my favourite weekly feature!
While John was busy being chased around his house by gone off milk, Poppy was being given the run around by Tesco’s and their increased tablets packaging.
Kira was noting dates of her frozen food to make menu plans in order to prevent future food waste.
Meanwhile I was busy sowing seeds and hoping for a day reaping the rewards in the garden. Alas it rained, so I sorted out some stuff indoors instead for recycling.
This week I’m not only getting off my arse, but I’m about to purchase a new butt. A water butt that is. We have our eye on a recycled number which will help us gather rain water to water our seeds. I’ll tell you all about it next week.
So how about you? It may well be lovely weather outdoors, but that’s no excuse not to see you ALL taking part in Get Off Your Arse Thursday this week. The planet needs you, remember?
So come in from skiving in the corner of the garden and let me know what small act you performed today to reduce your landfill waste.
Kira gets the prize this week for taking her freezer inventory. This is something I’ve been putting off for a L-O-N-G time myself, so I applaud her efforts in tackling the mountains of ice and unidentifiable packages.
Your prize Kira, is this special igloo. Not just any ordinary igloo, this one has a notice board all around the inside for you to write your menus on. When you need some inspiration, you just pop inside and take a look at what’s for dinner.
It also provides you with some space for a little ‘me time’ if ever you should feel the need.
Right, jump to it then, my lovelies! What are you going to do to reduce your rubbish today?
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I am going to be having a sort out in the corner behind the computer desk.
It is my hiding place for parcels and things which I don’t want Dh and the boys to find.
I have had a few parcels come recently and have just put them there for sorting later.
Later has arrived.
Master P’s bedroom has had a blitz and any worthwhile unwanted items have been put to one side for the June Fair at his school. Also spent some considerable time this morning going through our little junk corner trying to find a key that Mr P has lost, but also (In a ‘while I’m there’ kinda way)identifying various bits and bobs that needed to be rehomed elsewhere around the house.
I’ve been stuck indoors today waiting for a replacement for Mr P’s mobile phone. The one he had (less than a month old!) kepps switching itself off, so the company are sending a replacemnet and want the old one back. Luckily, the box was broken down and put for recycling, so I was able to retrieve it and it’s all gone back together 🙂
Master P has a friend coming around again today, so I’ve been wiping out any signs of normality in the house in the hope of convincing said childs mum that I’m an organised domestic goddess!! Ha ha!!!
Ohhh okay, okay 😛
Right lessee – got up off my backside quite early this morning and did the washing up ( by hand at the sink, using my nice refillable Ecover washing up liquid ! )
Avoided some food waste by turning half a carton of tomato juice whose end was night into delicious tomato, lentil & veg soup ( which also made use of a rather sad carrot which cheered up enormously once it was splashing around joyously in the soup )
Rotated the tins and jars in my storecupboard so the shorted dated stuff was at the front. This leads to todays failure – tin of Baxters chicken and veg soup, BBE Oct 08… I’m afraid that although I can recycle the tin, the soup itself will have to go ;_; if it was something I was likely to use ASAP I might ignore the BBE date but I detest tinned soup and think I must have bought it in a moment of flu addled madness.
Hi Mrs Green,
With the ground saturated, I decided to start with inside window pots for basil, lettuce and kale. The south facing upstairs bedroom get plenty of sun. To heat up I use my window radiator. A tray of onions is also ready for planting.
Outside, between showers, 2 large and 2 smaller raised beds have been stacked, ready for the next dry spell. I may try both indoor and outdoor planting to see what works best. Of course, if the weather becomes really hot everything will go outside.
My backdoor is a real suntrap. This might suit the basil in particular.
@maisie dalziel: Well done Maisie; I hope you didn’t find anything scary there and now your corner is neat and orderly.
@Poppy: Sounds like a busy day, Poppy. I hope the phone arrived ok – I wonder what they will do with the old one 🙁
@greenlady: what a great day Greenlady; I love the sound of your soup. Would the chicken soup make for a casserole sauce do you think? If not I’d give it to a friend to use up 🙁 (or invite someone for lunch, feed them the soup and say you’re not hungry yourself LOL!)
@John Costigane: Hi John, I’ve grown kale for the first time this year and it grows SO quickly! you’ll have shoots in no time. The basil will love the backdoor suntrap. I have to take care of mine indoors usually. Best of luck with everything. Do you usually grow things or is this your first year?
Just a couple of spiders, and a whole pile of padded envs, which are now stacked neatly in a box.
The presents/parcels I thought were there were all there so have now been secreted away into the other hidey hole in readiness for Father’s Day and DS2 birthday both in June.
Other than that there were some papers which have been shredded and added to the compost, and a bag of spent ink cartridges which school collects.
Hi Mrs Green,
Thanks for the advice about basil and kale. Growing indoor and outdoor will be good for comparisons. The weather might force mostly indoor but there should be some good weather.
Gardening has been a longterm interest but growing vegetables and herbs has been a small part of the pursuit.
The idea now is to take up the challenge to improve garden output, especially with the yearly compost bin addition.
Learning from experience, and from others’ fine efforts, should help build technique. Crop rotation is one trend I hope to perfect, with soil improvement practice eg lime, manure or sand, another aspect.
After a week of sun powered growth the kale and lettuce plants are about an 1″. The basil is much slower but clearly taking form. A sunny window location is fine but you cannot beat the outdoors. When sunny the pots have been placed outside, tipped towards the moving sun. A dose of sunburn is my reward for persistence. A cap will be required for hotter days.
Next stage is to re-pot and thin plants for further growth, with some to be planted outside later.
Another productive day for you, Maisie – well done on dealing with the spiders and the muddles!
John, you are doing brilliantly. Things have suddenly taken off over here as well. It’s wonderful to watch 🙂
@Mrs Green: Mrs Green, the beauty of a good number of us growing from seed/bulb is that we can all share our experiences and improve techniques. My neighbours are interested in gardening and will get a pot or 2 from the good growers.
As basil is my main concern from the Zero Waste viewpoint there will be plenty of those plants. I hope to grow a year’s supply but will settle for 1 good plant.
@John Costigane: Good luck with the basil, John. We’re trying to grow lots of herbs too. Chervil and tarragon are doing great. Basil and parsley are still tiny seedlings and the corriander is middle of the road. It will be good to compare notes. Perhaps I’ll start up an article for us to share our news.
This is into my second week for growth, Mrs Green, with the brown stalks of about 4 basil plants just visible. 3 weeks is the germination period on the seed pack. I will probably do 6-7 pots with 2 plants in each. Planting in the garden in July might be the best up here.
The Kale and Lettuce are shooting up. with the latter slightly quicker growing, as suggested by the instructions. Kale is my preferred planting choice, with June the probable start.
An article is is a fine idea which should encourage others to contribute. This year’s efforts can be built upon in future years for everyone’s benefit.
@John Costigane: It sounds as if you are doing very well John. My basil seedlings took longer than that to appear. Although the temperature fluctuates quite a lot in our home. The kale is shooting up, but alas the slugs like it.
@Mrs Green: It has been plain-sailing early on and I hope that continues. There are about 20 basil shoots emerging which seem good enough. I will try to repot as many as possible, with some outdoor later. The season lasts until October which will allow many top leaf removals, not forgetting the removal of flowers to maintain growth.
Sorry to hear about the slugs. I plan to use a bucket of beer and tweezers to pick up as many as possible during a night hunt, with torch. The shaped card inners have a part to play. The 3, so far, will be used for kale before planting out. There is a space immediately outside the back, covered by a motion sensitive light, which might be the best place to locate them as they will be easy to check.
Cloches could be used to cover plants overnight. Plastic bottles, tops slice off could be a handy alternative for coverage.
I had to wait till the weekend to get off my rear, but I have potted on all my tomato plants to their final containers, and gave some to my neighbour too as I had loads! They are now out on the landing outside the flat getting used to slightly cooler air, before being hardened off outside. They are patio/trailing toms so no staking needed and hopefully lots of little sweet cherry toms in a couple of months or so.
The basil has come up a treat and I have already used quite a bit of it in my cooking.
@John Costigane: Night cloches might be an idea John – I’ll look into it – thanks for the idea!
@Carole: Well done Carole – your streets ahead of us! It feels good to be growing all these things though; doesn’t it?!
Ahhh, I can’t wait to get up to my beloved’s house with his nice, just waiting to be further developed garden! I’ve already measured up the side bed so that I can get some railway sleeper type things to start off the raised veggie beds. He just won’t know what’s hit him!!
@Carole: Sounds wonderful, Carole. I can’t remember if you have a date for moving??
@Mrs Green: Hi Mrs G,
First I need to make sure I have a job to move up to. So I have been busy applying here, there and everywhere. The flat has had several viewings, but no offers as yet. I don’t mind, if I have a job, moving up to my beloved’s place, and if the flat has to lie empty for a while, so be it. At least it won’t be costing me quite so much to run!
I will see my first raised veggie bed tomorrow evening when I pop up there to see how things are doing.
Carole
Hi Mrs Green,
Another sun-drenched week has passed with steady growth in Sweet Basil and Kale. The 5 remaining kale, all with 3-4 leaves have been planted outside, 4 with their card wrap and 1 from a pot. There are 4 further plants germinating fast. 1 for a big pot and 3 for card holders.
Sweet basil, my main concern this year, is developing well, with all plants gaining height and width. The 4 largest are comparable with 1.5-2″ width and slightly less in height range. A second set of leaves are the big difference from last week These, at right angles to the first pair, are taking form.
@Carole: How was the raised bed, Carole? We made one this year too – we have baby sweetcorn in it. It will be interesting to compare it with plants put into the ground.
@John Costigane: All is going well then John. Hopefully you still have warm weather; it has turned colder here, but nothing has suffered as it is all well established.
@Mrs Green: Ahh Mrs G, I got to dearly beloved’s and yes, the frame IS there, but so far, it’s sitting on the ground with nothing in it! Also it’s not in its final position, so I can’t even start filling it as I’ve got to haul out some shrubs first.
Next weekend then…
Carole
@Carole: Hi Carole. Ahhh, hope this weekend proves more fruitful. I’m so excited, I have to tell you – as I type, Little Miss Green is tucking into her first new potatoes from the garden – such joy!