PESKY CATS

Some people love cats. Others, like an old friend of mine, would rather put them on a one way, 200-mile train journey and never see them again! But whatever your feelings about felines, chances are you probably don't want them digging up your garden. So, what do you do?

With the exception of a few plants, catnip being the main one, cats really aren't out to destroy your beloved perennials or garden vegetables. What they really like is the soil. Most cats think the outdoors is their litter box, and a patch of dirt is an invitation to come do their business. It also makes a great place to play or roll.

If you have cats yourself and find that they are bothering the neighbours, you could try to keep them in your own boundaries to keep neighbourly relations on a friendly footing. One way to keep your own cats from roaming into the neighbour's garden is to make your space attractive to them. In an out of the way corner of the garden, plant a patch of catnip, the aphrodisiac of cats. Spread some sand for sleeping nearby. Or, if your feline companions prefer to keep you company in the garden, leave a cat-sized play area in one part of the garden. Make sure you plant or mulch the rest of the garden so your cats have no other place to roll and will stay in their designated area.

If you don't want your neighbour's cats in your garden, you will need to take more drastic measures. Try spraying the intruder with a blast from the hose or a washing up liquid bottle. Most cats will turn and run although some actually enjoy water, especially on a hot day. For these, you must try other tactics, like planting rue. The blue foliage makes this an attractive garden accent, but cats can't stand the odour and will make a wide berth around the planting. Thorny roses also deter cats. There are many other herbs that cats don’t like to be around, including lavender, geranium, absinthe, and lemon-thyme


HOMEMADE REMEDIES

Some gardeners use homemade remedies. Although I can't personally confirm the success of these methods, it won't hurt to try them.

Sprinkle your plants with crushed pepper. Cayenne is also said to work though you will need to reapply it after every rain. Or try ground-up grapefruit and lemon rinds. Or make a tea of rue, hot pepper liquid, or lemon juice to spray on plants.

Commercial products like predator urine and cat (and dog) repellents also are available at many garden centres, I have mixed reports of these and some people claim that they actually attract the cats. Try to get rid of unwanted cat visitors with devices that use sound and light to scare them away. These can be expensive though.

Another possibility is to lay down mats, which have soft upward facing points. It won't hurt you--or the cats--to walk on these, but most cats don't like to step on them.

If you have bird feeders near your garden, move them to a new location or hang them higher than a cat can jump. Otherwise, cats may continue to visit your garden in hopes of catching birds.



JUST SAY NO

Finally, remember that cats are not daft. They can be taught. Sometimes a stern "no" is all it takes to teach a cat to stay out of the garden.

Here are some other ideas that will keep you (or the cat) out of therapy for a while. Try putting a length of hose pipe and in the flower bed. The cat stays away because it thinks the pipe is a snake. There is a plant on the market called Coleus canin, which is said to repulse cats from your patch. Cats don’t like tea leaves either; so empty your used ones onto the garden soil. Cat owners are similar to dog owners in the respect that they have to consider others when they let their animals out of the house. If you are responsible about your pet, it will not only live longer, but you will also be on better terms with your neighbours!

TIDY ALPINE PLANTS

Alpines are great for giving us a burst of early spring colour. They sometimes go unnoticed because unless they are large clumps you need to be up close to get their full beauty. Some of the earlier varieties will have finished flowering and will be in need of a bit of a haircut. Lightly trim off dead flowers of moss phlox, saxifrage and aubrietia once they have faded. Excessive growth should also be trimmed to keep plants tidy. Rooted portions can be potted up separately and if you would like to increase your stock levels, most alpines take brilliantly from small cuttings

Environmental-household-horticultural

UNITED FRONT

Here is a letter I received a while ago concerning the development of the shore front in Buncrana Co. Donegal.

Re: Developer blasts residents. Headline in last weeks Inish Times

I am one of the people on the street, an ordinary person that Paul Doyle from Jansu was talking about last week in his attack on the residents of Buncrana. I also live in a very small terraced house as well so I don’t seem to fit into Paul Doyle’s stereotype when it comes to the Buncrana Shore road development at the old Fruit of the Loom site. I personally do not feel that “people in big houses”, as Paul claims, are dictating what to think, as I am quite capable of making my own mind up about inappropriate developments in residential areas and places of natural importance. Paul Doyle appears to be using the very old sneaky trick of Divide and Rule. If he can get the residents of the town to argue for long enough then Jansu can come along and have a free run constructing their money making venture before heading off into the sunset, leaving the townspeople to deal with the aftermath.

This reminds me of a Doctor Seuss story -The Zaks, featured in a book called The Sneeches and other stories. In this tale of exploitation the North facing Zak came face to face with the South facing Zak in the desert. Neither of them would move aside and whilst they were arguing the developers came in and built a city around them. It appears Mr Doyle sees the residents of Buncrana as Zaks.

Compromises can be made in finding a far more suitable location for a revised development in the town. Let us not fall into the trap of being divided. I feel accused of being anti development and holding back the progress of the town just because I question this development. Buncrana should be able grow without alienating the residents. Tourism will play an important part in the attraction of the town in the future. Poor planning on areas of natural beauty for short-term profit isn’t going to help.

Environmental

THE END OF SUBURBIA

Click the title for a link to GM free ireland

There have been a couple of films doing the rounds recently. One that I have mentioned before is The Future of Food, which gives us a bit of an insight into the damaging effects of intensive farming and especially the anticipated consequences of introducing Genetically Modified products into the food chain. The other one of interest is called The End of Suburbia (Oil depletion and the collapse of the American dream). It focuses on the fact that the world oil industry had reached a Peak Oil stage and the supply is in decline and getting harder and more expensive to obtain. The American Dream is, amongst other things, the wave of the population that moved out of the towns into the suburbs for what was seen to be a better way of life away from the slums of the cities. What made this possible was the rise in cheap oil and the push for the country to rely on the motorcar in their everyday lives. Suburban towns initially seemed to work. Suburbs stated to be built, just outside the city and had public tram systems that took the residents into work so the people did not need their own transport. They could shop locally as small outlets were put in place to cater for their everyday provisions (they were villages in other words). The need for cars increased though because with highways being constructed and suburbs moving further out of the city, more and more people became reliant on car to get to the large out of town shopping centres that were being built. With the increase use of the car, public transport declined. Houses in these suburban areas were built on a large scale and used up large quantities of fuel to keep them going, and of course the dependency on cars used plenty of oil based fuels too.

Most of these issues came about in America in the post war years and The End Of Suburbia shows many clips from films made in the 1950’s and 1960’s that highlighted the joys of having such a life. It seems strange then that it is the very same stuff that we here in Ireland are experiencing today. The effective transport system (the train line) that was in place is now long gone and we have sprawling developments, large, expensive to run houses that have a reliance on oil, motorcars and massive investment of our money into sprawling road networks. Out of town shopping that more and more rely on products that have been shipped half way across the world to be competitive. It’s all there. What the film highlights is that this way of life is not a sustainable one. They ask what will happen when the fuel runs out. Will the populations have to move closer to the cities or have to live in smaller houses that are more energy efficient and fitted out with natural energy producing devices, do without the car and start living in a localised sustainable way like our ancestors did? It is a very thought provoking film. I have only watched it the once but I think it will need a few viewings to get all of the information to sink in. Let me know if you would like to see either of the films.



SUSTAINABLE BUILDING GLOSSARY

Ian

You have talked about alternative building materials over the last couple of weeks. I am a bit confused what they all are, could you explain them. Thanks D.W. By e-mail.

Reply.
Here is a glossary of terms; I hope this clarifies things a bit.

Cob - a traditional mixture of earth, sand, straw and water mixed by hand or machinery. Formed into lumps and pressed together to form the walls of a building, rather like building a giant clay pot. Cob structures are load bearing. Excellent thermal mass, which is necessary for passive solar design.

Adobe - a mixture of earth, sand straw and water mixed by hand or machinery, formed into bricks, which are then left to dry out in the sun. These are used in a similar way as conventional fired bricks to build walls. Adobe is load bearing.

Wattle and Daub - A woven willow or hazel framework (Wattle) is then daubed with a Daub plaster mixture of earth and dung and sometimes horsehair. Used as infill in a timber framed building.

Straw bale - Can be used as an infill to timber frame structures, straw bales are used as a very effective insulator. They can be load bearing if they are pretensioned. Bale walls are then sealed with a earthen or lime plaster.

Timber - Uses large diameter/section timber posts and beams to form a framework of a frame building. The gaps between the timbers require another building material to infill the walls.

Light straw - Shuttering is created to ram straw dipped in a clay slip as an infill to a timber clay frame structure. Very good insulator.

Earthships - Using discarded tyres, earth is rammed into them, they are then secured into a bank of earth and daubed with a cement or lime plaster.

Rammed earth - wooden shuttering is created then a mixture of earth, sand and water sometimes stabilised with cement. The mixture is rammed between the shuttering often using hydraulic machinery. The forms are removed to leave load-bearing walls, sealed with an earthen or lime plaster.

Check out http://www.sustainable.ie/resources/greenbuild/index.htm for more information.

Environmental

COB HOUSES

COB HOUSES

Ian
You have mentioned straw bale housing a few times. Is this the same as cob houses? Thanks G.S. Carn.

Reply
Straw bale houses and “cob built” houses are similar but there are certain differences. The straw bales and stacked around a wooden framework to create the walls of the house. The structure is erected very quickly and the finished walls are pressed together with wire and then a lime plaster is put on the surface the keep the water out. Cob houses use a technique that was perfected centuries ago and some are still standing that are well over 500 years old. A cob house is made of clay, sand and straw. The mixture is “kneaded” like dough before it is put into place by stomping on it with your feet, which injects life into the building, or using a cement mixer for larger scale operations. The clay acts as the glue, while the sand gives strength to the mixture and the straw gives the walls tensile strength once hardened into place. Unlike straw bale houses the cob wall can be load bearing so the house doesn’t have to have a wooden frame. Because cob is very flexible to work with, the builder is free to create just about any shape, so you won't find too many cob homes that look similar to each other. The cob can also be used for all of the shelving and seating in the house as well as the staircases and the cooker.

A cob house provides a large amount of thermal mass. This helps keep the house cool in the summer and warm in the winter. The walls of the home are made entirely of natural resources that are available under your feet. This brings up a good point about natural building in general; use the natural materials that are prevalent in your area. Clay is abundant in most areas of the world and the grass sods that you dig up to put down the foundations can be used on the roof to blend in with the countryside. Although these types of houses have been rigorously tested they have certain disadvantages over the conventional builds we see. The first will be planning. I am very pleased to say that most planning offices around the country now see these types of buildings as a serious alternative to the norm as they are far more energy efficient. Insurance companies also recognise these homes and some will insure the properties in the same manner that they insure thatched cottages. With any other alternative house building types, you might have a problem reselling a house that is “different” from the norm. If you need to sell, it may take longer to find a buyer. Cob homes are quite unique to say the least. Uniqueness is not a word that lending institutions like to hear. But why would you want to finance a cob house in the first place? It's probably the least costly house you could build and the cash outlay is minimal. Cob does need to be protected from the elements though. A large roof overhang will protect the walls from all but driving rains. All in all then the finished products could look and cost the same, but cob houses might be better than straw bale at keeping the damp out. it all boils down to how well they have been made I suppose (like all houses!)




STACKWELL CONSTRUCTION

As I am on the subject of alternative building techniques, have a look at the idea that was pioneered in America called cordwood construction (also known as stackwell construction). This utilises short, round pieces of wood, similar to what would normally be considered firewood. For this reason this method of building can be very resource efficient, since it makes use of wood that might not have much other value. Cordwood building can also create a wall that has both properties of insulation and thermal mass. The mass comes from the masonry mortar that is used to cement the logs together, and the insulation comes from the wood itself and the central cavity between the inside and outside mortars. Like straw bale walls, it will require a post and beam or similar supporting structure and then using cordwood as an infill, even though the cordwood method creates a very strong wall that could support a considerable load. This method produces a look that is both rustic and beautiful. The process of building is similar to laying rocks in mortar, where the logs are aligned with their ends sticking out to create the surface of the wall and mortar is applied adjacent to each end of the log. Typically the logs are not coated with a moisture barrier, but are allowed to breath naturally. It is possible to include other materials into the matrix, such as bottle ends that would provide light to enter the wall, just like in the book, Stig of the Dump.
Recent experiments with the use of cob instead of cement mortar to join the logs have been encouraging and this method may provide a somewhat more ecological approach to cordwood building

Environmental

NO BUTTS

I found 20 cents outide a shop the other day, which started me looking out for loose change dropped on the streets (it’s not very exciting but it kept me entertained for half an hour). I figured that if I averaged finding around 60c a week, (€31.20 a year) that in twenty years I would have €624 -enough to buy a really good neck brace! One thing I did notice though, were lots of cigarette ends. The streets do seem to be accumulating more butts than before the smoking ban was introduced as some pubs, offices and other retail outlets neglect putting out ashtays for staff and customers. Cigarette butts are one of the moxt toxic things that are thrown on the streets but most smokers don’t even realise that they are causing an environmental problem.

Globally, approximately 4.3 trillion cigarette butts are littered every year and in most Western countries, butts account for around 50% of all litter. Almost 1 in 3 cigarette butts end up as litter and most offenders do not even realise that they are doing it! Butt litter dramatically increases when indoor smoking bans come in, as you will see when you walk the streets of Inishowen.

Cigarette butts can leach chemicals such as cadmium; lead and arsenic into our marine environment within an hour of contact with water and the chemicals take 12 years to break down. Cigarette butts have been found in the stomachs of fish, whales, birds and other marine animals, which are poisonous to them.

Smokers in many countries can be fined for flicking a lit cigarette. A friend of mine once had one land on her lap as she drove her motorbike; luckily she managed to pull over to brush it off. My latest experience was when I put my shopping bag on one outside the Supervalu supermarket in Buncrana. The burn went through the plastic bag and damaged my new socks. Not the greatest of tragedies though I must confess, but a bit annoying.

In Dublin, they have a campaign highlighting this problem and warning offenders that they can get a fine of €125 for a dropped cigarette end.

Environmental

IAN GOMERSALL INISHOWEN

Hi

Thanks for taking time out to skim through the Inishindie site.

Most of the articles here were for the Inish Times, a local newspaper in Inishowen.

I have now left the Inish Times and have moved to the Inishowen Independent. The Inishowen independent have no website at present but there is one planned for mid 2008.

I do have another blog site called GARDENING MATTERS, that has the weekly gardening pages on it.

MY LATEST PROJECT IS THE gardening.ie SITE

The local radio station is Inishowen Community Radio (ICR)

Inishowen tourism: www.visitinishowen.com

Inishowen online: http://www.inishowenonline.com/

Discover Inishowen tourist site: http://www.discoverinishowen.com/

I welcome any feedback and contributions to site

Thanks

Ian Gomersall