back to the future...

September was a very busy month.

As well as the wonderful period we spent in Malvern at the Autumn Show, we also spent a fantastic (if not very short) spell back in the last century...

Goodwood. As a Sussex lass, a place very close to my heart, and the setting for the immense undertaking that is the Goodwood Revival Festival every September - a celebration of classic cars, engineering and fashion.

As a self certificated eco obsessive, many of you will wonder why I adore a festival that praises the motor car, and motor racing...

Well, the sheer fact that a lot of these beautiful cars are still running is testament to the fact that THINGS WERE BUILT TO LAST. Our own 1962 Morris Minor has her grumbles, but she looks stunning and does the job she was built to do - nearly fifty years after her birth. How many of the new cars rolling out of the factories will be able to do that, whether they are well maintained or not?

Also, a lot of the cars had small engines and ran incredibly efficiently - the Morris Minor again being one of them.

Ok - a lot of them have taken a massive amount of work and cannot be put into the 'efficient' category (the cobras for starters), but we should celebrate our design and engineering history, lest we forget how good we were (and indeed are) at making thing in the UK.

History is also something that can be learnt from - the ideals of thrift were of course brought about by the needs of the war and are as important now as they were then, albeit in updated manners.

Another element that I love about Revival is the intricate attention to DETAIL - something that I am also passionate about as a designer. Tea wagons were not those terrible plastic affairs that you usually get at shows but beautiful, original vehicles and service transporters, security people were dressed in vintage Police uniforms and even the contractors emptying the bins wore brown overcoats reminiscent of 'open all hours'.

Visitors are also encouraged to dress up and the crowds wore a throng of vintage outfits, service uniforms, prom dresses and sharp suits. It really was a sight to behold - a 40's serviceman talking to a bare footed hippy. Plus, those who had NOT dressed up were in the minority.

I wore my full circle 1950's dress I had made to an original pattern last year, a cardi and pearls, topped up with matching shoes, bag and gloves and back seamed tights. A slick of eyeliner and I was complete...

Entertainment was period based and varied, and I enjoyed shopping for vintage dresses whilst listening to a fantastic lady singing Vera Lynn and playing a ukulele.

There was also a man dressed as a comedy dog, who made me jump then laugh so hard I nearly fell off my heels. Fantastic.

My little meeting at the festival went well (hopefully more of this at a later date and thank you to those at Vintage), and I had a wonderful afternoon people watching.

Stick it in your diary for next year - believe me - it is really worth it.

growing urbanism...

Growing food in the city is thankfully no longer an alien concept, with huge nationwide waiting lists for allotments, guerilla gardener escapades and tomatoes springing off balconies and windowboxes in abundance.

This is to be celebrated in all forms, and we at the ecospot were delighted to find a link to the MetaboliCity site recently.

The little description on the site is short and sweet, but sums up the aims wonderfully:

'A vision of a city that metabolizes its resources and waste to supply its inhabitants with all the nourishment they need and more'

Who can possibly argue which this as a mission statement (regardless of whether you agree with 'mission statements' or not)?

And in celebration of the current London Design Festival, you can do a little tour of some of the urban growing sites - have a look here for more info on times and locations.

an Autumn abundance...

Firstly, apologies for the incredible lack of bloggage over the month of September. Despite how much I prepare, plan and pack, the showgarden upheaval always renders me somewhat unable to blog

So - what occurred over the bright and sunny month of September in the studio?

Well, amongst other things, we went to Malvern. As there is SO much to report, this will take the form of a series of posts...

Even though Autumn is my favourite season, I have a particular love for the wonderful Malvern Autumn Show at the beautiful Three Counties Agricultural Showground, and it was here that we tootled in the middle of the month to create two projects for the event.

The first was our small and quite conceptual showgarden, The Honeybox. Based on a series of concepts around beekeeping, the garden took its form from bee communication behaviour, its planting from good bee stock and featured a modern beekeeper's folly based on the idea of a large 'exploded' hive (three modern National hives were also included).

We were quite happy with the garden, although I was not happy with the planting at all. I had one of those nightmare times when you get completely fed up and try and find something else to do instead of tackling the problem head on. After a rejig I was happier, but I was the first to admit, it was not my favourite scheme at all. This is probably because the colours were a lot brasher than my usual palette, but 'taste' was somewhat secondary with the scheme - the needs of the bees and educating the viewers being more pressing in my mind.

That said, there were some combos that worked really well, and ones that were duly photographed for future use. The wildflower turf against the neat turf path was one element I really was pleased with - the rawness of the long grass with our perception of a 'perfect' lawn was very interesting. The beautiful oak fencing also set the garden off fantastically - thank you to Quercus...

The second project we were undertaking at the show was the Good Life Pavilion stage itself. We discussed at great length the concepts we wanted to base the stage on, and we were delighted when the Three Counties Agricultural Society approved our ideas.

As the concept of the 'good life' is pretty broad, we wanted to include many elements on the stage rather than concentrate purely on the grow you own side, but the stage was awash with fantastic plants from both Hooksgreen Herbs and Rebekah's Unusual Veg.

So, the stage itself was the hub of container growing, with an island unit sprouting from a raised cabbage filled bed and apple crates and florists buckets filled with herbs and edible flowers. The next 'ring' was a small reclaimed brick wall which mirrored the shape of the stage (an expertly built by James Steed and his crew) and represented 'plot' growing, being filled with veg and herbs. The final ring was the foraging area, where wild turf was interplanted with readily available and recognisable UK wild herbs.

Apple crates filled with fresh bread, apples and vegetables, beautiful knitted and corn dolly sculptures, a beehive, hops, a 'wine' demi john water feature and reclaimed glass bottle screens completed the scheme. Seating was also linked to the stage, with two rows of straw bales being placed in the pavilion for visitors to park themselves on.

We were REALLY pleased with the stage and were delighted when we were presented with the Best in Show Award for a Feature from The Three Counties Agricultural Society.

And the garden? We got a Bronze, which was a little frustrating given that some of the key concepts were not completely understood by the judges, but hey ho, I agreed with a lot of the comments on the planting...

A massive thank you goes out to everyone who assisted with both the garden and the stage, for those who came and helped, and to those who came and said hello.

Now for the recovery - and planning for Spring...

toot toot...

I have never been comfortable with blowing my own trumpet. I can talk for England, but I actually despise talking about myself and what I do, have done or achieved. And the bigger the thing is, the worse it can be.

When I had to do my 'speech' on stage in front of the public and the panel at the Malvern Spring Show I tried desperately not to talk directly about myself, but about something I am passionate about.

Poor James Alexander-Sinclair practically had to surgically remove the microphone from my steely grip as I got on my soapbox and talked about sustainability and responsibility.

But, when it comes to running your own business, and the monster that is PR, you have to blow your trumpet, trombone and tuba until you are red in the face.

If you do something, you have to tell all and their dogs as soon as you can. Purely to inform. Never to brag. But it is blinkin hard.

But all of this aside, we have some very nice news.

We have won a Green Apple award for Environmental Best Practice from the Green Organisation. Chuffed? Doesn't even come close. Blinkin fabulous.

AND it was for the very controversial 'Electric Urban Orchard' project that was installed for the RHS London Plant and Design Show in February this year.

So there you go - a little toot on the PR trumpet. And now I have an excuse to get a posh frock and some tasty shoes as I have to collect the award from the House of Commons in November...

the true price of a posy...

I love to receive flowers. Not only do you have the thought that went into getting them, but the wonderful colour and scent they bring to the darkest corners of the house. They are fleeting, but I enjoy every minute of them.

But, what is the true cost of a bunch of flowers? In monetary value, anything from free up to the hundreds, but the environmental cost? The truth can be a little hard to stomach.

The UK cut flower industry is worth about £2billion – almost the same as our music industry, and yet we are responsible for growing only 10% of them on UK soils. The remaining 90% is imported from areas as far flung as Colombia and Kenya.

In an age where ‘food miles’ are on the tip of everyone’s tongues, surely it seems a bit contradictory to have lovely local cheese, milk and meat in your basket alongside a bouquet of Kenyan roses?

But there are some who argue for the case of buying a Kenyan (or other imported) posy.

It has been widely published that the carbon omissions of an imported bouquet are lower than those of a northern hemisphere grown rose, as less lighting and heating is required in the growth period. But what about the travel, pesticides, packing, even the omissions from decay – the complete life cycle of the flowers – does this still ring true?

And even though the carbon omissions are a very large part of the argument, there are also the issues with worker welfare, wider environmental impact (draining of water from lakes to feed the floriculture industries), and the use of pesticides long banned in the EU countries.

Fairtrade flowers do try and address some of these issues, and of course you are given the reassurance that your pennies are not going to feed some fat cat whilst the workers suffer, but there are still a very low percentage of the imports registered under the scheme.

So, if you are not going to buy an imported bunch, where can you get your hands on some of the 10% that we do actually grow here, and why should you?

The first stop for many will be at the supermarket. Despite how I tend to bang on about how I detest the whole supermarket experience, there are a few that are least trying to support our UK growers.

Waitrose has a great raft of UK suppliers that it works directly with to produce a range of seasonal blooms over the year, and they are so proud that you can read all about it on their website.

Tesco, Sainsburys and Marks and Spencer also have a reasonable selection, and most are marked by a Union Jack or similar. Some even have the county that they were grown in marked on the wrapper.

Otherwise, there are some fantastic suppliers that you can purchase your scented and seasonal lovelies from – mostly directly from the farm itself. Check out Wiggly Wigglers, Country Roses and Scent from the Islands.

So why should we buy British blooms?

It stands to reason that the shorter the time between the picking and the displaying of the flower, the longer the vase life will be. Also, the large scale overseas growers tend to ditch scented varieties of flowers as they are not as productive, so lovely flowers, no smell. The UK growers also tend to be on a much smaller scale than their overseas counterparts, and so are hugely affected by market demand. If we want them, the supermarkets will get them. And, in times of hardship, we are keeping our own economy going. Never a bad thing.

Please don’t just sling a bunch in your basket next time you are shopping. Take a few seconds to look, and see if you can buy British.

a tale of a Brighton terrace...

We all have spots in our gardens, balconies, plots and pots that can be a real pain. What you want to grow won’t grow there, what you want to sod off stays around happily. Too dark, too light, too dry, too wet – you know the spots I mean.

And so, we were full of intrigue that we went to look at the rear terraced area to Jamie’s Italian in Brighton a week or so ago.

As a Brightonian, it is always fascinating to see how the buildings I know and love so well sit beside, amongst and within each other from a different viewpoint to that you see from the street.

This building was no exception. The new building that Jamie’s Italian occupies in Brighton is nestled between some wonderful old buildings. The front view is cramped, yet the rear opens out into a huge internal light well between the new and the existing spaces.

It is a real shame, however, that the terraced area is tucked right in alongside the new and the existing, thus offering a nice enclosed albeit shady spot for alfresco dining. An overhead covering of trellis and reclaimed oak timbers provides even greater shade and makes for a tricky little area.

The whole ethos of the restaurant is on fresh and tasty, local and authentic food, but given the orientation of the terrace (no sun till about 3 and none in winter) the obvious herbs wouldn’t have fared too well.

There was also the problem of maintenance and ongoing care – nothing too needy could be used lest it put a real burden on the staff.

So – easy to care for, can cope with semi shade or a bit of sun (in areas), and will provide year long interest with minimal ongoing costs. Solution?

We were not going to go the same route as a few other restaurants around the area and put in PLASTIC plants (shame on you – you know who you are), so what did we come up with?

Well – our final planting list comprised…
An assortment of Bergenias – evergreen, will grow like the clappers and can cope with a bit of sun or shade.
An assortment of ferns – British of course – for the really stubbornly shady bits.
An assortment of honeysuckles – both evergreen and deciduous, to provide shade when required in summer, but to open up the light in winter, nice smells and lovely flowers.
And for the structure – no plastic, but a few clipped box spheres.
Nice.

When we had finished, the terrace was awash with lushness, that hopefully (with a little care) will flourish into a right proper jungle over the next year.

I will keep you posted on the progress – just another excuse to nip out for a sneaky meal…

the eco home...

There are many ways to a green home. Some are a great deal easier than others, some are quick, some take patience, but all combine to create a space that is as green as the grass outside.

But, when faced with a redecoration project, where do you start to ensure that you are being as green as possible?

This little series of introductory postings will look at different elements of the ‘eco’ home, how and why should and where you can get things from.

This first post will look at…….wallpaper.

Now very much in vogue, the statement wall and the mix of patterns is back. The ‘white box effect’ is long gone, and over the past few years, we have been reacquainting ourselves with the wallpaper section of our local DIY stores.

But regular wallpapers are not particularly inspiring on the eco front – most use virgin wood fibres, chemical inks and plastic wrappers to tempt us. Textured blown vinyls are another beast of the wallpaper world, and should never be considered for the green home. Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC's) are rife with the use of solvents as well. Plus, there are the adhesives…

But if you are looking for good eco alternative to the regular wallpaper on offer, fortunately there are many to choose from, and they are not heard to find. Some are probably sitting right next door to the usual suspects above.

Things to spot include recycled paper content, FSC approved sources, water based and vegetable based inks and compostable packaging.

And wallpaper also comes in guises outside of the large DIY sheds – many young craftspeople are now coming to the fore with beautiful hand printed papers, also bearing FSC marks and using vegetable inks.

Of course, patterns, taste and price will pay a great influence on your final choices, but expect to pay anything from £7.99 to £45 a roll from the DIY stores and specialist decoration centres up to £100 or more a length for a hand printed covering.

Remember to use a water-based adhesive, and you are well on your way to creating a green papered wall…

Have a look at these for some ideas…
Focus DIY - FSC and recycled content - reasonable and good, solid colour range
B&Q – FSC paper, water based inks and biodegradable packaging - nice patterns with an expanding range at a good price.
EcoCentric – machine and hand printed - great pattern range and ticks the eco boxes.
Biome Lifestyle – wonderful patterns using water based inks, so no VOC's.
Graham and Brown - plains and patterns - all responsible with water based inks, compostable packaging and FSC content.

the feet of eco...

I have blogged before about the perils of consumerism and whether it is better to consume and support fair trade, organic and responsible suppliers or to stick your hands in your pockets and save the valuable pennies.

But, eventually, we all have to buy things - some useful, some practical, some necessary, and some just because.

And, all of us have our weaknesses when it comes to consuming - bags, seeds, plants, books, shoes...

I have a distinct weakness for seeds, plants and books, but shoes and bags sort of missed me as a collection. I wear the same boots every day (except when it is REALLY hot, when I revert to nothing at all), and I love them to bits. They are comfy, worn in, and are made so they can be resoled for ever more. They are not footwear to me - they are part of me. I feel as odd without my clompy boots and knee high socks on as I probably look with them on.

But even I have my girly moments, and there is one company who I adore for their beautiful, elegant footwear. They are responsibly made from recycled materials and if I had enough money I would buy a pair in every colour.

So imagine how excited I was when I was waffling through Brighton town centre the other and found a new store dedicated to the glistening heels...

I swiftly found my little sister and educated her in the ways of Terra Plana and converted her to the precious as well.

It is also a joint store with the responsible clothing label People Tree (who also made my favourite dress in the world, but more of that in another post), so now there is another location in Brighton where you can find a whole green outfit in one place.

Fantastic. Just need an event to warrant a posh frock and heels now...

food for free...

Not many self respecting eco foodies are without the bible of hedgerow tasties, Food for Free by Richard Mabey.

As I have an obsession with books, I have two copies (different editions and different covers) which move their way around the house, into the car, out and about and back again.


If you have not come across this book before, please seek it out - it really is a classic - full not only of the descriptions and pictures to correctly identify your dinner, but the history of uses and a smattering of other wonderful, mastermind type gems of information.

But, despite the title of this post, I am not going to talk about the book of the same name.

I am going to talk about other food for free.

It is quite right to say that the current recession has left a great deal of people at odds with the super technological, remote and automated world. People are now wary of invisible investments and appear to be reawakening the sense of self responsibility.

Because of this there has been a boom in the crafts trades - knitting, making, mending, thrift. Eco cleaning - scrubbing your taps with a lemon and some bicarb instead of a luminous pink spray bottle with a name fitting a cartoon punch up sketch. Staying in is the new going out, and good clean (and cheap) fun is being made - flying kites, walking, foraging.

And of course, growing your own.

From free seeds given out with magazines, to television programmes and the lifetime wait for an allotment - the grow your own bug has bitten and most of us have been nibbled in one way or another.

Maybe I have never noticed before, but as I was walking the dog the other day I spotted a lone tomato plant in someones porch. One. But the care and attention given to this sole specimen was incredible. It was smothered with tasty looking fruits.

And as I wandered along the road, other edibles sprang up - runner beans up a side wall, lettuces in the front garden, strawberries in hanging baskets, artichokes to die for - all grown on a small patch.

We are all growing our own, and we love it.

But what happens when we grow too much? Well, this is where the title of the post kicks in.

Go into the country and you readily see little roadside stands with produce on and an honesty box. Do you ever see this is in the city? Probably not. So imagine my delight when, on walking the dog once more, we came across a box at the front of a house labelled:

'lettuces. grown organically. free - please help yourself'

The box was full of freshly pulled, wet and tasty little gems. A few slug holes, but hey - free and succulent.

When things are offered for free you do not have to ask me twice, so we picked up two of the little gems to have with some mackerel for tea. Perfect.

This got me thinking - if we are all growing a bit too much, how fantastically we could minimise our food miles by going back to our old swapping, bartering, or, as displayed by a resident in Wish Road, Hove, giving away for free?

Community spirit would be reintroduced - people would talk to one another once more and share not only stuff but conversations. Imagine that.

To waste any food is criminal (apparently we throw away a third of all the food we buy?) but to waste food that you have grown yourself seems to be the worst type of food crime.

So - give it away - have a chat, and just think - you could gain a new chum as well as a free feed.

and the carnival swayed in the sun...

It is not until you are actively involved in an outdoor event that you really take notice of what our weather system has up it's varied sleeves.

We all know the weather has been described as 'changeable' over the past week or so, and therefore it was with distinct trepidation that I looked out of the window on a sunday morning a little while ago (at 5.45am) to see if the sun was out.

It wasn't, and my heart sank.


Why? This particular sunday was the Brighton Carnival.


A day of whistle blowing, massive costumes, rum and fresh coconuts was planned to be a day basking in the seaside sunshine, and instead it looked as though it was going to be washed into the gutter with the remnants of the saturday night revellers.




But, as I believe that everything comes right in the end, I trundled up to the workshop where I had been making green bunting until 1am the same morning to finish off the 33m I had set to achieve. I also made a green union jack to add to our stand (and on that front, look here for the most ridiculous and infuriating story I have heard in a while).

After an hour of bunting making in the grey halflight cast inside by the drizzle, I looked up to see a single shaft of light piercing through the window. All was to be well...



The day ended up being glorious, if not a little breezy (which we Brightonians are very used to - the sea gale we call a 'small tidal breeze').

We had booked a stand on the Madeira Drive strip in the eco festival section - The Green Wave Festival, and we had wonderful neighbours, including Herbal Haven, The Eco Garage and Nicola Thompson Architects.

Our stand was showcasing our little eco teardrop trailer, The Green Bean on it's official launch in the sun, and was a picture of green and eco loveliness on the beach, bedecked with my bunting.

We had a massive amount of interest in the Green Bean and were rushed off our feet from around 12 midday until we closed up shop at about 8pm, collapsing back at home too tired to eat.


The day was wonderful - busy, sunny, with fantastic live music, brilliant costumes and the eclectic mix of characters that fill our brilliant city. If you did not come this year, save the date for next year - you will have a ball...





PS - the green bean now has it's very own website - AND blog - campfire stories! where we will be posting our adventures, tours, trips and tips, recipes and hidden UK gems...come with us as we reclaim the Great British Holiday, the eco way!