Craig y Rhondda Blog

Lawns, a place for us and wildlife

Tue, 11 Jan 2022 21:49:15 GMT

Introduction

A tidy green lawn has become a mainstay in gardens across the UK and we are pushed by glossy magazines and pesticide companies that this is what we should all be aiming for. These lawns are now becoming recognised for what they are: sterile, unnatural and offering little support to wildlife. It's time to let it grow.

However much of your lawn you may wish to dedicate to a wildlife lawn is totally up to you. We realise that not all people may want to go full on Monty Don. The key is to start somewhere, no matter how small. We can all do our bit.

Please read on for some tips on how you can benefit more from your lawn, whilst saving time, effort and money.

The benefits of not mowing your lawn

A 'non-manicured' lawn can provide a home for a plethora of insects that are eaten by birds and other wildlife. Lawns can also provide seed for birds if given the opportunity; annual meadow grass, plantain, buttercup and dandelion are particular favourites. It will also give your mower, and back, a break; reducing the noise and pollution.

Good habits

Avoid using weed killer or artificial fertilisers. There is actually no such thing as a weed . Plants like dandelions are important as an early food source for bees, and some others are beneficial to the health of the lawn itself, like clover which adds nitrogen to the soil. Whats more, these weed killers may well be bee killers as well!

Introduce a variety of plant species. Biodiversity is paramount for a healthy little wild lawn. The more different plants, the better for the health of the plants, and also provides a greater food source for insects which in turn will encourage birds. An easy way to do this is the addition of some wildflower lawn seed, available in all good garden centres or online from sites such as RSPB, or from The Grass People as shown below.

After mowing your lawn, rake up any leftover cuttings as many of those pretty wildflowers grow best in nutrient poor soil. Leaving the cuttings on your lawn will just encourage more grass.

Two options for creating a wildlife lawn

Option 1: Leave a small unmown area

Having some long and some short grass can actually benefit nature. The long grass provides shelter and egg-laying for insects, whilst the short grass gives an area for birds to feed.

This amazing page from the Wildlife Trusts says it all very nicely, so we don't have to.

Option 2: Mow less frequently

Most lawns are cut many times a year, even grass verges are mown four times during the grass growing seasons. Reducing this to cutting just a couple of times a year allows flowers to complete their full lifecycle rather than being cut down in their prime before they are able to set seed. This enables the wild seed bank, restore floral diversity and provide pollinator habitat estimated to equal the size of London, Birmingham, Manchester, Cardiff and Edinburgh combined.

Here is some advice from the RSPB on different methods that you could try:

The temporary meadow. At a beginner level, just let your lawn grow naturally for maybe a month in May or June, and mow as you normally would outside that time. Enjoy the plants which grab their opportunity to throw up some flowers - yes, you can love daisies!
Create a spring meadow . If you want to have an even bigger impact for wildlife, don't mow your lawn at all in the spring until the end of June or early July. Then mow as normal until the grass stops growing in late autumn. This is the kind of meadow where you can plant gorgeous spring-flowering bulbs such as Snake's-head Fritillary.
Create a summer meadow. Mow your lawn once in late March or early April and then leave it until August or September before mowing once or twice until the end of the autumn growing season. If there has been a wet spring, you might need to mow the lawn into May. This will minimise the risk of the grass laying over ('bolting') in mid-summer and looking untidy.

Hopefully you have been inspired to try one of these methods, to give you mower a break, and to enjoy your lawn. If you want some additional information then feel free to have a look at these sites, where we got most our information.

RSPB - Lawns for wildlife

Natural History Museum - How to grow a lawn that's better for wildlife

RSPB - Stop mowing your lawn

Plantlife - SayNoMow

Hedgehogs, the secret Houdinis

Mon, 27 Sep 2021 22:34:37 GMT

Hedgehog in the house!

If you've been reading our other blog posts, you'll know that we are lucky enough to have a near-resident hedgehog

who visits our garden on a regular basis; and if you hadn't read our blogs before, well now you know! As you can imagine this prickly little hog brings us both great joy and we have been lucky enough to catch her (we think it's a her) on a trail camera as you can see in the picture above, and the videos below.

On the night of the 12-13th July we were standing outside enjoying the wonders of an impressive thunderstorm when a quieter noise caught our attention. The rustle of leaves was followed by a small, unusual, but unmistakable cough. Our resident prickly friend could be seen ambling along the hedgerow with her adorable gait, but every now and then she would stop and cough. We thought nothing of it at first, but it persisted, and persisted, until we could ignore it no longer... we needed to check she was okay. Fortunately we have friends from university who have rescued and cared for a number of our native species and so we able to send them a recording of the noise the little hog was making. Both Jamie and Sarah (thanks both!) suggested that we take the hedgehog to the vet in the morning for her to be given a health check. This was especially important as a bad cough can be a symptom of lungworm in hedgehogs, a potentially fatal infection.

PSA! - All vets have a duty of care to all wild animals. If you find an injured or sick animal you can take it to any vet where it will receive the correct treatment and care before given to the relevant organisation e.g. Hedgehog helpline or the BCT, or handed back to yourself (if you request) to be put back where you found it.

The first step was to catch the hedgehog, fortunately our hog was being rather sedentary tonight. As I ran back inside to fetch a towel (do not try to pick up a hog with bare hands, it will hurt!), Alex kept watch to make sure the hedgehog didn't make a run for it, but it didn't, instead she just went over to have a drink from the pond, meaning I could easily scoop her up into the towel and bring her inside. After consulting hedgehog helplin e's advice for looking after an injured hedgehog we placed her in a high-sided cardboard box with a small towel; water; and hedgehog food. We debated the best way to close the box to keep the hedgehog feeling secure, but whilst keeping a plentiful supply of fresh air, and settled on using a tea towel to cover the top of the box. So at approximately 10pm at night we found ourselves putting our hedgehog friend to 'bed' upstairs in the office and returning back downstairs to watch TV for a short while before heading to bed. We decided to move the hog back downstairs again as it was a little cooler and less stuffy.

Skip forward to about 4:30am. Alex wakes from a strange dream in which someone was trying to break into the house and she couldn't go back to sleep. I went downstairs to check that everything was okay, only to hear the noise of a small animal scurrying around the house. clearly we had not accounted for our hedgehog being a young Houdini. She had tipped over her water to make the bottom of the box soft and then dug her way out! Unfortunately the hedgehog, obviously, didn't realise we only wanted to help so hid herself under and behind the chest of drawers beside our front door. Moving them was no small task, however needs must. So with the chest of drawers moved and the hedgehog safely back wrapped in a towel there was only one place to put her. In the bath.

So picture the scene. It's 5am. Towel laid flat in the bath. Hedgehog, water bowl, food bowl, box to hide under all in the bath. Very tired Ethan and Alex saying goodnight. Finally to bed once more.

In the morning I took the hedgehog to the vet at 8am when they opened. Due to COVID they were not able to see me immediately, but took the hedgehog in with them and said they would give me a call once she had been able to be seen. The vet's cursory glance suggested that everything was going to be okay, and indeed that was the case an hour or so later when I went to collect her. Her lungs sounded good, with no suggestion of lungworm, a fantastic result. She was given broad spectrum antibiotics to clear any lurking infection, and flea powder because why not!?

Back home, just over 12 hours later and the hedgehog was ready to be released. Of she went, happy to be released from her little adventure and ready to go back to living her little hedgehog life. We are happy to say that we have seen her since, although not quite as often, and she seems healthy with no cough.

A happy ending to a lovely little adventure.

Hedgehogs in the garden

Wed, 15 Jul 2020 18:52:59 GMT

We have intentionally kept darks spots and areas with overgrown vegetation and ivy for our little prickly friends.

We can't believe our luck that that we already had hedgehogs visiting the garden when we moved here in the summer of 2018. It was first for me and Ethan to have witnessed a hedgehog 'shouting' (what we like to say) at another hedgehog. A bossy little hog, but it made us smile.

We had bought a hedgehog house and the update for summer 2020 is that one is finally using it! There is nesting material around the hedgehog house so perhaps this is a female? We are continuing to deploy our camera trap and will let you know if we see any babies. Fact of the day, I learned that baby hedgehogs are in fact called 'urchins'.

We continue to strive to make it a more hog-happy place so they continue to use our garden.

Water your hogs!

Remember, in this hot weather to always keep a shallow dish/ bowl of water on the ground for wildlife. it is the single most important thing you can do for wildlife in your garden. Hedgehogs are in fact unable to digest milk and this will make them seriously ill through dehydration.

If you want to go further then you could leave out some wet cat or dog food or some biscuits that are especially for hedgehogs. We only give our dry biscuits because we have quite a lot of slugs and he/she can keep them off our veg patch.

Photo credit: Alexandra Kinsey

If you are concerned about a hedgehog or find an injured one, the British Hedgehog Preservation Society recommends you phone 01584 890 801 as soon as possible (or try your local hedgehog rescue if you know of one), rather than emailing or messaging.

Advent of Change

Sat, 02 Nov 2019 19:57:28 GMT

Treat the world and save your teeth this advent!

Photo from Women and Home 2019.

We LOVE Advent of Change!

Before you ask, we are not being paid to say this, we just love it and want to spread the message.

They are non- profit with a mission- to create a fair, equal and sustainable world.

We bought the advent calendar last year, and we are getting another one this year (when we get paid).

Nothing got us into the Christmas Spirit more than opening up a door and revealing the charity that you helped and what your money is doing.

Calendars are Eco friendly, plastic free, sustainable and recyclable.

There are FOUR different ones this year , one for children and a standard one , every door donating 50p to the charity of that day; or there is a premium one which donates £1 a day. There is now also a wall calendar which donates £1 a month. The final awesome one we have just seen is an accessible calendar in Braille !

They list the charities they support (i won't put spoilers here).

Go on- treat the world and save your teeth.

Nut milk

Sun, 18 Aug 2019 21:09:26 GMT

Nut milk has become extremely popular, but you don't need to spend money on the premade stuff. Enjoy some homemade nut milk for a fraction of the price and a far better taste by following these simple steps.

How to make your nut milk

Ingredients:

Your nut type of choice

Water

Optional sweetener. This could be agave syrup, honey, or anything else you fancy to be honest.

Step 1 - Choose your nut. Our best results so far have been with hazelnuts, but any nut will work.

Step 2 - Roast the nuts. Go for 15 minutes at 200 degrees for a fan oven, 220 for a non-fan oven. If you think they look like they could do with a bit longer then put them back in for another 5 minutes, but don't burn them as you can't get rid of that taste very easily.

Step 3 - Soak the nuts. Put all of your roasted nuts (de-shelled if using hazelnuts/peanuts) into a glass and fill that glass with water. Refrigerate and leave for a minimum of 8 hours.

Step 4 - Blend the nuts with water in a food processor/juicer. Use a simple ratio of 1 part nut to 2 parts water for your first attempt, this will give a fairly average consistency and you can modify it from there.

Step 5 - Strain the nut milk. Pour your nut milk through a straining bag (available online just search 'nut milk bag'), and into something like a measuring jug or similar; we would recommend something with a small spout. Alex thought of a clever way to leave the bag by tying it onto a cupboard handle so you don't have to hold it and can carry on your day. Do give the pulp a squeeze inside the bag to get as much of the milk out as you can though!

Step 6 - Pour the milk into a bottle of your choice, refrigerate and enjoy. Your nut milk is finished and ready to go. We recommend using it within 72 hours otherwise it can start to turn and just isn't as enjoyable.

Ecosia

Wed, 14 Aug 2019 10:06:07 GMT

Ecosia is a search engine that uses the profit that it makes from personalised ads to plant trees. The more you search, the more trees they plant, the more carbon is taken out the atmosphere. It's a no brainer. Download the app on android or iPhone, add onto your chrome, and find out more information here .

Time to say bye to Google

Never heard of it? Neither had I, but now its the only search engine Alex and I use. It is quite possibly the easiest way to help the environment and doesn't involve any effort whatsoever.

The premise of Ecosia is that it uses the money that it makes from personalised ads (something all search engines use) to plant trees. Super simple. The more you search, the more trees they plant, the more carbon is taken out the atmosphere. It's great for the environment, even their data centres are run using 100% renewable energy. You can find out about their amazing projects here .

It's also great as a search engine in general, doing all that you could want your usual sites to do, images, news, weather etc. and it also has some top standard morals. They are incredibly transparent, publishing all financial reports, and don't sell your information to third parties.

Overall I think this is probably the easiest decision to make, there's not a single reason to use anyone but Ecosia.

Photo credit: Ecosia site.

Ecosia work in many developing countries to plant trees and educate villages in the methods of environmentally friendly farming.

Carbon offsetting

Fri, 09 Aug 2019 14:34:20 GMT

Summary:

Carbon offsetting is a way to get rid of that guilty feeling we get from flying on holiday. It is essentially paying an organisation to reduce the carbon in the atmosphere by an equal amount that your flight is emitting. There are many companies that will do this, but the one we recommend is carbonfootprint as they are UK based, have effective projects, and are reasonably priced.

Why Carbon Offset?

I have yet to meet someone who doesn't love a holiday. Some time to unwind, relax, and forget about that 9-5 drag that we power through on a daily basis. However, for those who have a brain wired towards the environment, flying to our holiday destination does come with a bit of a subconscious nagging; what to do about the carbon emissions.

Happily, they are ways to deal with that flying guilt; and carbon offsetting your flights is the most convinient and reliable way to do that.

Carbon offsetting does what it says on the tin. It is a way of offsetting the carbon emissions that flights (or other activities) produce. The offsetting itself comes in a variety of guises, but popularly methods include: planting trees; developing renewable and green fuels; or helping develpoing nations farm in environmentally friendly ways. The better sites may well allow you to choose how your carbon offsetting money is spent, but they all have an obligation to reliably offset the tonnes of carbon that they calculate your flight will emit.

Best Carbon Offsetting sites

How you go about choosing which site you wish to use is entirely down to you, but here are a few of my favourites including a massive plug for the one company that had time to pick up their phone and answer my questions!

1. carbonfootprint.com

If it was my flight, this would be the company I would choose. They are UK based (Basingstoke to be exact), and have some outstanding projects as well as reasonable prices.

They calculate the carbon tonnage for UK projects using the methodology outlined by the UK government, so we can trust that they are bumping up your carbon emissions to squeeze a few more pounds out of you. For those who are especially keen you can check out how that value is calculated here .

Their international projects are all verified by international standards on greenhouse emissions and follow strict rules for carbon offsetting companies. Overall I am completely satisfied that they aren't swindling me out of money for no reason!

The one downside is that they are a 'for-profit' company, so I phoned them to probe a little into the percentage of profit that they put back into their projects, and I was pleasantly surprised. For international projects; such as the deforestation reduction prject in Brazil, or the various efficient cooking projects in Uganda and Kenya, they are putting over 70% of profit margin back into these projects. When I asked why this wasnt higher they answered that the money was used to pay wages, find further projects to get involved with, and to invest in establishing the business futher so that they can reach more people.

For their UK project, 100% of money donated to this project is spent directly into that same project. It's a fantastic project and has a twofold effect. Firstly, trees are sent to UK schools so that children across the country can get hands on experience and understand the importance of trees as part of our ecosystem. Secondly, and the real deal-clincher for me, trees are planted in the Amazon Rainforest in Brazil to guarentee that the carbon is reliably offset. For more information on this project and more click here .

2. Atmosfair

This German not-for-profit company is pretty great. 100% of anything you spend goes to carbon offsetting schemes, but you will be spending quite a chunk. I'm not quite sure how they give such different figures to other sites, but they are often considerably more expensive. They do, however, have exactly the right idea when it comes to the work they are doing. They see it as an effective second best, as shown by this quote from their site, which is in English so don't worry.

“Compensation cannot solve the problem of climate change since it does nothing to change the actual source of CO2. It is a necessary second-best solution as long as the best solution does not yet exist. Individual flight passengers are responsible for examining their actions prior to compensating emissions.”

3. MyClimate

Probably the most fun website to use, and definitely the most trendy. The also have a great range of projects, but once again are pretty pricey. You can offset a wide variety of activities with them, and can track their progress with a bar at the bottom of their site.

4. Carbonfund.org

A US based company, but let's try not to hold that against them, these guys have very helpful preset carbon offsetting options. This could be to offset your entire annual CO2 emissions, which seems a bit over the top, or individual flights as I've been talking about today. This company is a lot more reasonable in price than Atmosfair or MyClimate, so that's a plus.

Ecobricks

Tue, 06 Aug 2019 19:04:21 GMT

I had heard of the term but didn't really know what it was about.

I thought I'd have a go and was surprised how simple and fun it is.

Ethan and me are still on our first bottle, but our parents are joining in and we are proposing this with our Church youth group.

Here is a video which explains it better than I can.

Enjoy your eco-bricking!

Living Christmas tree

Thu, 01 Aug 2019 19:17:13 GMT

We bought a living Christmas tree last December, but not before a lot of research. So here's what we did and why we did it.

Firstly, we bought living tree. This is by far the most eco-friendly option, as well as the option that brings joy to any of the green-fingered amongst us. The tree just needs to be planted into a large(ish) pot and then can be placed inside just like 'normal' tree. Yes it is smaller, but it will last you forever if you look after it properly. Think of it as a growing investment that will bring you joy for years to come. Also, it looks adorable in summer.

The species is a native Blue Spruce, this should be available from your local garden centres. It is important to get a native species as this will benefit our native wildlife the most.

Our Christmas tree is enjoying summer as much as we are

With a living Christmas tree we can move it outside during the year, and watch real nature use it as part of the garden. It's also really cool to see the new growth, which is adorable and feathery, and be able to track it so easily due to the big colour difference.

Also, it is a lovely way to help prompt us to remember that the message of Christmas is for the whole year, not just one day.

Photo credit: Alexandra Kinsey