The ghostliest night of the year is over and what are you going to be doing with the pumpkin that you carved to delight the trick or treaters in your neighbourhood.  You can let it fester on the front doorstep until it turns into mush and is rather difficult to scrape into a plastic bag or similar to put it into the bin, or you can put it in your composter and make it into nutritious compost for your garden.  It wouldn’t be a bad idea to smash your pumpkin up a bit (Smashing Pumpkins, I always wondered where that name came from) before putting it into your composter to increase it’s surface area exposed to the air which will help it break down faster.

Don’t own a composter?  Here are your options:

1. Dig a hole.  Put your smashed pumpkin in it (and other compostable material).  Cover with soil and plant something over it.

2. Try the Berkley Thermophilic Compost method for super quick compost.  Watch the video for how to do it.

3. Make a composter.  Here are some plans to get you started.

4. Take your pick from the great range of composters available to buy.

Bat habitat is fast disappearing, so why not give a bat a home this Halloween.

Install a bat box in the eaves of your house to avoid bats being bothered by people or cats, or install it in a tree, either around 1.5 metres high for long-eared bats to use, or high up at 5 metres for the pipistrelle bats.

The Chavenage bat box is made by Wildlife World, who use green energy, FSC certified wood and carbon offsets to ensure that their operation is as eco-friendly as possible.  This natural, attractive bat box is made of strong cedar or alder timber, ensuring longevity, great insulation and together with it’s narrow entrance, protection from predators.

Photo credit (bat in flight): Bistrosavage

Hands have to contend with cold weather, as well as water and hard work on the allotment (or in your veggie garden) in Autumn.  So it’s important to find a hand cream that can help repair and moisturise rough, chapped skin.  This Gardener’s Hand Cream is a wonderfully earthy mix of patchouli and lavender essential oils mixed with calendula oil and beeswax.   To me patchouli is one of the most amazing smells on earth, so slathering my hands with it is not just a treat for my hands, but for my nose too.   A soothing therapy for hands, made in the Lake District.

Wherever you turn people are talking about the credit crunch.  Most of us are feeling the pinch in one way or another, and so we’re coming up with clever ways to save money.  Most of these ideas have been around for ages, but because of a consumer economy that brings us goods at prices that don’t reflect the real costs of manufacture, and because of cheap oil, many of us have not had to scrimp and save like our parents or grandparents may have had to.

1. Buy in bulk

Here’s an idea that’s been around for a while.  Buy in bulk.  Get together with friends and do it, or if you have the space, just do it yourself.  And if you think that those organic or eco-friendly products are too expensive to afford these days, buy them in bulk to save.

2. Turn your thermostat down

Okay, it’s not time to switch the heating on yet, but you can turn down the heat of your water in the meantime.  And when it’s time for the heating to go on, turn that thermostat down a couple of degrees.  Put on a fleece or a jumper and be toasty warm.

3. Shower, and keep it short

Showering saves lots of water (and also energy used to heat the water), but only if you keep it short.  Keep showers under 5 minutes, and take a navy shower.

4. Make do and mend

Before you buy something new because the old one is outdated, think about it.  What values are you supporting by buying into mindless consumerism based not on what you need but what you desire?  If something breaks, see if you can fix it, rather than buy a new one.  And if something is no longer suitable for one job, perhaps it can be repurposed to save you money somewhere else.

5.  Stay organic by growing your own

It’s not the best time of the year to start doing this, but there is still time to plant winter and spring crops like cabbages, broad beans, garlic, lettuce, rocket, spinach and potatoes.  When you grow your own, you can afford to stay organic.  For the price of some compost and a few seeds, you can have fresh, local, season produce all year round.  And you don’t even have to pay for the compost if you make your own.

Photo credit: René Ehrhardt

September is the time for the Chinese festival of Zhongqiu Jie, or Lantern Festival.  Next to Chinese New Year it’s the most important dates on the Chinese calendar.  It celebrates the harvest season and Chinese families traditionally gather together to admire the harvest moon, eat mooncakes and pomelos, and carry brightly lit lanterns.  That got me thinking.   Because Autumn is when we need a little extra light in our lives to counteract the shorter day, why not use eco-friendly lights and lanterns to brighten up our evenings instead of heading for the light switch.  One such eco-friendly light source is the Firewinder.

The Firewinder Wind-Powered Outdoor Light harnesses the wind to create a beautiful upward spiralling light.  When the wind blows at night the Firewinder  creates a silent mesmerising wind-powered firework show, illuminating an amazing ‘never-ending’ twirl of light.

Tom Lawton developed the Firewinder to bring to attention the power and endless resource of the alternative energies that encircle us,  and hopes that it will become an international symbol of sustainability throughout the world.

A Buddhist teacher who took interest in the Firewinder’s creation suggested that the Firewinder be made to turn clockwise ‘to evoke the good spirits’.  Tomo Tom re-engineered the mechanical design so that every Firewinder now spins in a clockwise direction to call forth good spirits every time the wind blows.

Make your home a sustainable beacon of light, welcoming your visitors and making your outdoor areas visually enticing.  Solar lights are a fantastic use of a natural and renewable resource.  Here are a few ideas for lighting up your outside areas.

Make sure your visitors are able to find you, day or night.   This solar powered house number is apparently easy to fit, costs nothing to run and needs no wiring or professional skills to install.  It comes complete with everything you need to fix it to a wall, rechargeable batteries and a comprehensive set of numbers and letters to suit any combination. The light is made of high quality stainless steel, and automatically turns itself on at dusk. During the day the solar panel on top of the light fitting converts daylight into electricity to recharges the integrated rechargeable battery.  At dusk, when the light turns on, it runs on the electricity stored during the day.

Stay safe and keep baddies (and global warming) at bay with a solar security light.  The duo-security light provides bright light with twin white LED lamps and a passive infra-red motion sensor.  Because of its hinged mounting bracket, it can be positioned on the corner of a fence or wall, and each individual lamp can be swivelled up or down and from side to side.  The duo-security light illuminates for 30 secs when movement is detected, and when fully charged will come on over 500 times without further sunlight.   It’s easy to install (my sister has one and put it up herself no problem), and as is the beauty of these solar gadgets, once its going there are no running costs.

Brighten up your late summer garden parties with this rich red solar powered Chinese style party lantern.  As with the other lights mentioned, this lantern is powered by sun energy, it needs no wiring and will automatically switch itself on at dusk and off at dawn.   During the day the solar panel on top of the lantern converts daylight into electricity and stores the charge it the integrated battery.  In the evening when the light comes on it uses the electricity stored during the day.

I’ve written about composting with worms on this blog before and I pointed out a wormery that while perfect as far as function goes, isn’t something that you’ll want to show-off as a style statement. But never fear, because here is the wormery that you’ve been waiting for. Never before have I seen a wormery with such style, such elegance. Now you won’t have to hide it round the side of the house, out of site. You can make a feature of it, grow your herbs in it, perhaps some pretty flowers, or salad leaves. And all the while it will be working away, efficiently turning your kitchen and garden waste into compost and liquid feed for your plants.

It’s made from 100% recycled plastic, can be used inside or out and it doesn’t take up much space at all.

How does it work?

The bottom layer of the wormery is an urn with a tap, which collects and drains off the liquid plant feed. The next level up is the first layer for food scraps; when you’ve filled it, add the next composter and so on. Once the first composter is full simply start adding waste to the second composter and the worms will work their way up through the holes in the bottom to where the food is! By the time the second composter is full most of the worms will have left the first composter leaving it full of worm casts which are the richest natural fertiliser. Empty the first composter, use the contents on your garden, and then use it to put on top of the second composter tray once that fills up. The top level of the wormery is a planting tub, designed to make your wormery an attractive feature of your garden.

Rather strange question really. Most trees are great when they’re in the right place. So, being in the right place is one of the characteristics of a great tree then? What else makes a great tree? According to Trees for Cities, who are looking for nominations from Londoners of their favourite trees to help them find the Great Trees of London, a great tree is accessible to all, historically significant (remember, yesterday’s history too), situated somewhere special, or of notable physical character.

Do you know a tree like that? If you do, pop on over to the Trees for Cities website and nominate it. Every nomination goes into a prize draw to win a newly planted urban tree dedicated to yourself or a loved one at one of Trees for Cities’ urban greening projects.

While you’re at it, why not plant your own tree, to leave a great tree behind for the next generation. It’ll soak up some of that carbon you’re emitting, and if it’s a fruit tree, it will feed you too.  Plant some vegetables too, to reduce food miles.

Photo credit: markhillary

It’s been a whole year since the last National Allotment Week, a week to promote the awareness and availability of allotments and to show the public and the local authorities the strength of support and interest for the heritage of allotment culture. This year, the week runs from the 11th to the 17th of August, and many allotments across the UK will be hosting events and throwing open their gates to the public to experience just what allotment life is all about. To find out about an event near you, have a look at these four pages.

If you are planning to get your hands on an allotment, or turn part of your garden into a food garden, here are some useful bits and bobs to get you started.

Rocket Garden “Instant” Vegetable Garden
Perfect for would-be allotmenteers lacking in time. This quick-fix instant garden will have your patch looking tops in no time at all. The large “instant” vegetable garden (small available too) contains everything you need to fill a patch the size of 20 sq-m, a total of 268 young plants, all grown in biodegradable pots and hardened-off, so their ready to plant out as soon as you get them. If you’d still like to plant them this season, you’ll have to hurry, mid August is the cut-off time to get them in for a harvest this autumn. But you can plan ahead and buy a voucher for delivery of your “instant” garden next April if you prefer.

Fair Trade Recycled Tin Watering Can
As stylish as it is sustainable. This watering can is probably not big enough for watering your allotment, but it’s perfect for potted herbs on the patio.

Slug Stoppa
Stop slugs eating your precious produce without harming wildlife. Slug Stoppa is made of English clay, and does what it says on the box.

Paper Potter
Recycle your old newpapers into biodegradable plant pots, perfect for starting off your seedlings. The newspaper rots away once you’ve planted the seedling out, making it easy to transplant without harming the roots.

Photo credit: Jon’s pics 

Ingredients for the perfect sustainable warm summer evening under the stars with good company:

A seasonal organic meal made of fresh, locally produced food.

A jar of Sunita Organic Black Olives to have with drinks.

Recycled wine glasses, made of repurposed drinks bottles rather than melted down glass.

Wine, plenty of it.  Organic and/or fairtrade, of course.

A couple of beautiful solar-powered LED lanterns to set the mood and cast patterned light across your table.

Sit back and enjoy the summer.