PURE DRINK OR PURE HYPE?

After a strong storm, some years ago, we lost all of our services for the house. The phone, electricity and water were out of action for two weeks. The thing that we missed the most was that the water stopped coming out of the taps. We were in a very lucky position to have a well a short distance away.

This situation did make me realise how much a good quality water supply is taken for granted. In some cities it is claimed that the drinking water has been in direct circulation through humans and the sewage treatment plants about forty times. Water has probably been passed through living things millions of times, which makes it the worlds most recycled product!

The drinking water around Inishowen is mostly excellent and we can enjoy drinking it straight from the tap. Why then has bottled water become so popular around here? Ten years ago if I suggested that I was going to buy a bottle of water you would think I was a pint short of a gallon. I think one reason for the popularity of the bottles is that manufacturers have convinced people that the water has beneficial properties beyond the water that comes out of the tap. Another clever bit of marketing is that bottled water has been made into an image thing. Like designer clothes and footwear it is now cool to have a certain type of bottle as an accessory.

WATER, WATER, EVERYWHERE

There are nearly 700 different types of bottled water. A staggering 40% of these companies filter their water straight from the tap. I lived near a brewery in England that stopped producing beer and concentrated on bottling water by simply tapping into the mains supply. At the time I thought this was strange, but it is common practice. One of the biggest drinks companies in the world has started selling their own water on a global scale. They source the water locally, depending on the country that they are in. The English supply is tapped from the mains in Sidcup, Kent. (They don’t tell you that on the bottle!) There are no reports of an increase in health properties in the water. Some companies add traces of minerals (so it can be called mineral water) but that makes little or no difference to the benefits of the product.

RUNDOWN OF THE COST
There is very little value, cost wise, in any bottled drink, but even less so in water. It costs 0.03cent to fill a bottle that costs €1, that’s not a bad mark up. The biggest cost for the manufacturer is the bottle, top and label. Millions of the empty bottles will end up as landfill every year as most bottles are consumed on the move and end up in a bin.

ALTERNATIVES
Think ahead when you go out anywhere and take a bottle of tap water with you. There are home filtration systems you can buy if you don’t trust your water supply. Simple jugs with a filter are readily available and there are more advanced devices, which fit straight onto the taps.

If you feel that there is chlorine in the water and the smell puts you off there is a solution. Fill up a jug and put it in the fridge. After a few hours the chlorine gas will have disappeared.

Some people boil the water and leave it to cool; this could destroy harmful bacteria if it was present.

Thankfully we are not totally gullible. A journalist tried to sell bottles of fresh mountain air as an experiment. He priced it at one euro and spent the day trying to convince members of the public to buy it as a pick me up. There was only one taker, a schoolboy who managed to get two bottles for10 cent! There’s hope for us yet.

Environmental.

SPRING JOBS TO DO

Photo: It is getting a bit late for the removal of large limbs.

Complete major pruning or removal of trees and shrubs before birds begin to nest. It is getting too late in the season for the removal of the larger limbs.

Finish any other pruning of evergreens, including hard pruning of holly and yew hedges

Privet hedges that weren't pruned in autumn can be done now. If very hard pruning is needed, do just one side and the other side next year, so as not to stress the plants. Then mulch around the hedge with some well-rotted compost to boost the growth

Plant runner beans in 3in pots of general-purpose compost under glass, for planting out next month.

Leeks can be sown in short rows or in pots, for planting out in rows later on.

Plant onion sets, 6in apart, and pushed into the soil until just the tip shows.

Horticultural.

NEW ONLINE INISHOWEN NEWS SERVICE

Check out the new website covering Inishowen news.

www.InishowenNews.com

(Click on the title for a link)

SEDUMS-STONECROP

We took advantage of the lovely weather last week and went to Glenveagh National Park to enjoy the fabulous gardens there. The information centre has a wonderful roof covering which has been planted to blend perfectly into the countryside. The plants have been chosen well to complement the local flora, and from a distance the place is practically invisible. Included are plants which have obviously self seeded, like gorse, which adds to the naturalised effect. These sorts of roofs have to be well reinforced, as the weight of them is considerable once the soil and plants are put on. The weight increases too when it is wet. With good reinforcement, there is no reason why we cannot all have green roofs on our houses and the peninsula would be a more attractive place because of it although Inishowen might see a jump in their goat population in order to keep these roofs looking neat and tidy!! The council offices in Letterkenny are leading this natural roof revolution with their roof made from the alpine plant called Sedum.

SEDUMS-STONECROP.
Sedums are remarkably resilient plants and will survive most conditions except total waterlogging. I had one growing in a hole in a building brick for years. It survived although it was always on the small size.

There are lots of different sedums and if you were to cover the roof with them it would be wise to mix different types. This will hedge your bets if disease or adverse weather strikes, as some will be more tolerant of conditions than others.

To cover a roof you will need hundreds of plants. The recommended amount of plants is around 25 per metre squared. If you were to buy them from a garden centre you would be looking at the roof costing more than the rest of the house. There is a company in England that will sell you mats of sedums already grown and ready to put into place. These mats can cost about €40 per square metre. They are also very useful for dry slopes. The mats will give a thick covering to protect against weed infestation. The cost is high unless you grow them yourself. Sedums are really easy to propagate. The leaves of the plant come off easily and if they are put onto soil or compost they will root in no time at all. This method of propagation mirrors what happens to the plant in nature as animals knock the leaves off when they walk past them. . They also grow from seed but this is a far slower method of propagation

Horticultural.

FAIRY RING

Q. I have a ring of toadstools on my lawn, how do I get rid of it? Thanks CT Malin.

A. A fairy ring is a fungal growth of toadstools on the lawn which grows wider and wider each year. There are three types of fairy rings. The first has only a ring of toadstools and the grass isn't in any way damaged or changed. In the second type the grass at the outer edge of the ring is a very dark green. The third type is the most persistent, with two dark green rings of grass either side of the toadstool ring with the space between them bare and riddled with moss.

Treatment Make sure there is no decaying matter under the lawn, old pieces of wood, which the fungus lives off. With the second type of ring, the single darker green ring can be disguised by feeding the rest of the lawn with a high-nitrogen food so that the whole lawn becomes a dark lush green and the ring doesn't stand out. The third ring is very difficult to get rid of and there is no chemical cure. The only real answer is to remove all the earth to a depth of 30cm (12in) and to 30cm (12in) beyond the ring. Fill the hole with clean topsoil and then re-turf. Be careful not to spill any of the excavated soil onto the garden or the spores may contaminate a new area.

Horticultural.

MAKE YOUR OWN SPRING PLANTFOOD

Photo: Get steeping that manure!

Now that spring has sprung we are starting to see lots of new growth everywhere. Most of your plants will benefit by a bit of food at some stage of their development. What better way to satisfy their needs than to make your own feed for them to enjoy.


MAKE YOUR OWN PLANT FOOD
You can make your own liquid plant feed for free using a range of materials including grass clippings, stinging nettles, various manures and comfrey. This not only saves money but it is environmentally friendly too. Although the resulting feed cannot be targeted to produce particular types of growth like the specifically formulated manufactured liquid feeds and fertilisers, they will promote plant growth and increase flowering and crop yields. They are ideal for giving a boost to hungry crops such as tomatoes and to pep-up flowering displays of summer bedding in containers and borders during mid-summer. You don't need a lot of fancy equipment to make your own feed – a couple of large buckets and a sieve would be sufficient for small amounts. You could invest in a bucket with a tight fitting lid. I made comfrey juice last year in an open drum and you could smell the rotting leaves a mile away! For small amounts of feed an old brewing bucket is ideal, but for larger volumes use a water butt. Always wear waterproof gloves when handling manures and concentrates, as the liquid can be a bit hard on your skin.

Nettle and grass liquid feed
Lay nettles on the lawn and run over them with a lawnmower fitted with a grass collector to chop them up. There is no need to measure the quantities really accurately but as a guide add about 1kg of finely chopped leaf/grass clippings to a large 10-litre (2 gallons) bucket filled with water. Leave to soak for about a fortnight, then strain and dilute one-part feed to five parts water. For large amounts, add approximately 18kg of chopped leaf/grass clippings to a 37-litre waterbutt, or 25kg to a 50-litre waterbutt. Dilute to make the feed by adding one-part concentrate to five-parts water before use.

Steeped farmyard manure.
Fill a sack or pair of old tights with dried manure from the field or use well-rotted farmyard manure. Use half a bucket of manure (5 litres/1 gallon) for a 50-litre waterbutt. Tie the sack to a bamboo cane and suspend in the water. Steep the manure for a few days until the water is a light brown colour. Use without diluting on mature plants but add an equal amount of water for younger specimens



Comfrey liquid feed
Fill a brewing bucket with comfrey leaves and let them decompose. You will need several kg of leaves to produce a meaningful amount of feed concentrate. This should be no problem as comfrey growth is prolific. When a dark brown liquid collects at the bottom of the bucket, draw off into a separate container. Dilute to make the feed by adding one-part concentrate to ten-parts water before use.

Worm compost bin feed
If you have a wormery then drain off the liquid at the bottom and use as an effective plant food. I have found this particularly effective on houseplants. (There is very little odour from it!)





Horticultural.

JOBS TO DO IN LATE SPRING

Photo: brighten up your garden ornaments.

Deadhead winter flowering pansies and primroses. Keep a few seed heads intact though to increase your stock later in the year.

Your garden ornaments will be looking a bit sad at the moment after being outside all year. Give them a scrub to brighten them up.

Check your greenhouse plants for aphids. As the weather warms up, they will begin to breed on soft shoots and under leaves. Ventilate greenhouses well on sunny days or the temperature will soar. Clean all greenhouse window and cold-frame glass to ensure seedlings receive maximum light. Also, of course, windows indoors where plants are being grown. Start over-wintered geraniums (pelargoniums) back into growth, potting on into fresh compost and watering well. Prune back over-leggy stems. Apply liquid feed every 10-14 days and take cuttings from the new shoots when they are around 3in long.

Water African violets from the bottom; avoid getting any water on the leaves. Dust the leaves with a small, soft brush.

Take cuttings from new shoots on fuchsias and potted-up dahlias. These cuttings root very easily and will flower this year.

Watch out for mice taking beans and sweet peas in greenhouses. I lost all of mine one year and it’s very irritating.

Horticultural.

WILDFLOWER MEADOWS

Wildflower meadows are becoming a popular choice for people wanting a colourful, low maintenance lawn. There are many benefits to planting wild flowers. They re-seed themselves and the flowers are very beneficial to wildlife. The other great advantage is that the meadows only need cutting once a year when it is established. Throwing wild flower seed on to your existing lawn will probably end in failure as some preparation work will be needed to give the seeds chance to germinate. The favourable time to prepare an area is now and autumn, however most wildflower seeds will germinate in summer if they are kept moist. Here are a few pointers to get you started.

PREPARATION
Wildflower plants generally require poor soil so the first job is to scrape off all the topsoil. The grass will crowd the seedlings, stopping them germinating. The grass will also be full of weed seeds, which would suffocate the young plants. (This job alone is enough to put everyone off before they begin; this is why creating large meadows is sometimes best left to the professionals!) Don’t despair though if you only have a small area you won’t need to hire a digger!

Wildflower seeds should be mixed with grass seed. The percentage of wild flower seed to use depends on the amount of colourful flowers you require. Some people will put as much as 50% wild flower seed in the mix, while others put in only 10%. The seed for the flowers are expensive (about €135 per kg) so the main factor is cost when deciding on the percentage.

Rake the seed in to save them being eaten by the birds. Use old C.D’s that newspapers give away as free gifts for scaring the birds. Tie them on to string and let them catch the sun. You might have to do a bit of weeding as the seed establishes. Keep an eye on any weeds that look as though they are going to seed and pull them out.

The lawn will need cutting about three times in the first year, do this when it looks untidy. Take away the cuttings, as this will add to the fertility of the soil. Don’t consider using fertilizer on the lawn this will cause the grass to grow too rapidly and will kill the flowers. After the first year the grass should only be cut when the flowers have set seed. This will lead to a self-sustaining area.

You can use wildflower seed in window boxes and planters; the seeds can fall to the ground where they will quickly spread where you want them. They can be used to enhance beds and borders by filling in the bare patches. The seed can be sown directly outdoors or treat them like perennial seeds and sow them in trays or pots. Most of the wildflower plants flower in their second year so don’t despair if there isn’t much colour in the first year.

PONDS
Wildflowers grow well by the side of ponds if the ground is damp or wet. Remember that some of these seeds can take a few years to germinate and can lie dormant for many years until conditions are favourable.

GETTING IT RIGHT
Some wildflower seeds require winter chilling, such as the cowslip. Some need spring temperatures to germinate such as the poppy to break their dormancy. This is why I think it is a good idea to sow the seed directly outside and let nature do the rest. If the conditions are right from the outset then the rest will be easy. Some of the best wildflower gardens have been created on rubble topped off with crushed chalk or crushed concrete!

Horticultural.

HOUSEHOLD TIPS

We’ve been wading through the e-mails this week at Clean and Green this week. We thought that this weeks ideas could come straight from people who have great environmentally friendly cleaning tips. There were some that were totally unsuitable for publication though. Whilst I’m on the subject; No, Ms. B. from Moville, we don’t think that shaving your cat is a good long-term solution for keeping animal hairs off the settee. We would recommend brushing it once in a while instead and invest in a vacuum cleaner.

Here are a few interesting ideas from around the peninsula: (Most of these are untested at the C+ G centre, so proceed with caution!)

Burning potato peelings on the fire keeps the chimney clean.

If you have a microwave, put some rice into a cotton sock and cook for a minute or so. Use it as a hot compress for aching limbs and sinus headaches.

When cleaning vinyl upholstery, use a strong solution of cider vinegar, then rinse and dry well.


Stain removal ideas.

Ballpoint: As soon as this happens, sponge with methylated spirits, and then flush with cold water.

Blood: Soak in cold, salted water for 10 minutes and then wash with soap. For really stubborn stains, apply a mixture of cornflower or talcum powder mixed with water. Allow to dry then brush off.

Coffee: Wash out with cool water then vinegar and rinse. Or mix egg yolk with lukewarm water and rub on the stain.

Glue: Many glue stains can be removed by dabbing with eucalyptus oil.

Some ideas from days gone by.

Sheets were given a new lease of life when cut in two; the unworn sides were then sewn back together. When these wore out they were cut up and used as napkins. Then eventually they would be used for cleaning cloths.

Flour bags were sewn together to make handy sheets –not the modern paper ones!

Shoppers went to the bakery with a pillowcase in which to bring home the bread.

Dry cleaning clothes is hard on the material. Chemicals used in this process are harmful to the environment. In days gone by the clothes were washed in lukewarm water then hung up to dry without wringing.

A goose wing (detached from the goose of course!) was great for dusting- they were free from chemicals too!

Greaseproof paper was used to wrap food. This worked just as well as harmful tin foil or clingfilm.

Although we endeavour to test all the ideas in this article, we ask you to practice with caution.

Test on a small area first.

Household.

SPRING JOBS

Photo: Some old perennials are destined for the compost bin.

I’ve wanted to do an article on Hydroponics for the last few weeks. This is the art of growing plants without the use of soil. The thing is that there is just too much going on in the garden to fit it in. There have been so many sunny days over the past two weeks that I seem to spend all the daylight hours outside doing one thing or another. Hydroponics will have to wait…

I’ve set up wire netting for the peas in new raised beds that have been built in the back garden as part of my expansion plan for this year; it’s left over chicken wire that I used when making the run for the rabbit. It’s just the right height at one metre to allow the plants to grow and keep the pods off the ground so the pesky slugs don’t get them. I’ve created some very sturdy (I hope) structures for runner beans, broad beans and mange tout. They are made from sturdy hazel rods and reach up to about three metres high (I’m an optimist when it comes to how high the plants will grow). It makes them very handy when collecting the pods though, as I can walk inside the wigwam. These cover the paths in between the raised beds so they take up the minimum amount of room. My carrot seeds are planted and onion sets are firmly pushed into place. I am waiting a week or two yet to put the spuds out as the frosts are still quite bad and the seed potatoes haven’t really “chitted” as much as I would like. The shoots need to grow a centimetre or two before they are ready.

Jobs to do in the garden.

I find gardening very therapeutic, but for some reason I have never come to terms with weeding. Maybe I haven’t learnt how to be patient enough to bend on my knees for hours picking away at a few inches of soil, pulling up the roots of creeping buttercup. That’s why I mulch heavily with anything I can get my hands on. Luckily, Julie actually likes this time consuming job, which is just as well as a majority of plants in the garden would also be under two feet of mushroom compost. I tend to give up on small plants when they get swamped by weeds and bury the whole lot. This is where Julie saves the day. She has been patiently digging out alpine strawberries in a bed that is full of couch grass. Polyanthus are also being saved as well as snowdrops. If you have snowdrops in the garden and want to split them, now is a good time while they are “in the green” in other words there’s not much point trying to move them when the leaves have died down as you won’t be able to remember where they are planted. When these are taken out its mulching time!


We have some other beds that are also in need of a bit of patient work. Some perennials in the front garden really need digging up and dividing as they have spread too much and are cramping the style of other plants. If the middle bit of the plant is dead then it is best to introduce it to the compost heap. The new growth on the outside can be planted in to their new spot.





Horticutural.