Sunday 19 October 2014

Autumn Gardening Tips: By Stephanie Summerell

Autumn is such a busy time of year in the garden. The list of tasks seems endless and on top of that the trees are shedding their leaves, creating yet another one. It’s easy to regard the collection of fallen leaves as a nuisance and consign them to the wheelie bin in irritation. But I would like to encourage you to view them as a valuable resource that is not to be wasted.

If left to decompose, leaves turn into leafmould. Nature’s patient, unseen decomposers set to work and together with time produce a wonderful compost. I think of it as gardener’s gold.

Oak, beech and hornbeam leaves make the best quality leafmould and break down the quickest. Thicker leaves such as sycamore, walnut, horse chestnut and sweet chestnut take longer. Conifer and evergreen leaves can take 2-3 years to decompose, so are best avoided unless you’re very patient!

Collect leaves when they are wet, or sprinkle with water to dampen them and leave them in a shady spot in an out of the way corner. If you have the room you can buy or make a wire mesh container for your leaves. Otherwise you can buy purpose-made sacks made from loosely woven jute from most garden centres now. They hold an amazing amount of leaves and have the added advantage of being bio-degradable. Or place your leaves into a large, black polythene sack such as a bin liner. You will need to punch a few holes in the sides and bottom of it or your leaves will become a slimy mess. Tie the top loosely. Bear in mind that the volume of leaves will reduce to between a quarter and a third as it becomes leafmould. You can’t possibly overdose your soil on it though so make as much as you can! Bags can be stacked if you’re short of space.

The leaves should have decomposed after about a year and you can use the resulting leafmould as a mulch. After another year it can be dug in to improve your soil or even used as a seed sowing compost.


With autumn leaves in such plentiful supply why not work your own bit of magic? Turning nature’s discards into leafmould does feel a little like alchemy!

Friday 3 October 2014

Climate summit and marches around the globe

Over 675,000 people marched from over 2000 communities around the world on 21st September. It was a beautiful expression of our love for creation and all that climate change threatens, and our hope that we can save this world and build a collaborative society powered by 100% safe, clean energy. 

Click to see more pictures from the day: https://secure.avaaz.org/en/climate_march_reportback/?bDxIsab&v=46379

Historic Climate Summit Opens New Chapter in Global Efforts to Tackle Climate Change
New York, 23 September – New commitments, new ideas, and new financing for significant actions to address the challenge of climate change dominated the announcements made by more than 100 Heads of State and Government and leaders from the private sector and civil society at the Climate Summit hosted  by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. An unprecedented number of world leaders attended the Summit, including 100 Heads of State and Government. They were joined by more than 800 leaders from business, finance and civil society.  
Delegates reaffirmed the need to take urgent action to limit global temperature rise to less than two degrees Celsius. Acknowledging that the world was not on a pathway to reach that goal, they also committed to significantly ramp up climate action. Many speakers made it clear that taking action to reduce emissions could be achieved without damaging prospects for economic development and efforts to fight poverty.
There were many promises, but no firm pledges. Most notably, China’s vice-premier Zhang Gaoli promised his country would peak its carbon dioxide emissions “as soon as possible,” and President Obama said that next year he would publish a plan to cut US emissions after 2020. Major corporations trading in agricultural commodities grown on former rainforest land joined with governments in signing a declaration promising to halve net deforestation by 2020 and end it by 2030.

The summit was never intended to conduct detailed negotiations for a new climate treaty. Those talks will take place between now and the UN conference in Paris at the end of next year, which is intended to deliver the legally binding national commitments that a similar event failed to deliver in Copenhagen in 2009. 
For the full UN report see http://www.un.org/climatechange/summit/
Marshallese poet Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner spoke on behalf of civil society during the opening ceremony of the Climate Summit. Check out Kathy’s poem with footage of climate action around the world. Kathy, 26, is a co-founder of an environmental NGO and a teacher and a mother. She is also a journalist, poet and spoken-word artist. She was selected from hundreds of people to address the opening ceremony