No reason for this treason. You don't have to be an activist to agree
Greta Thunberg is making us take note, wherever we are on what I call the ‘Climate Change Acceptance or Denial Spectrum’. Extinction Rebellion have announced a mass demonstration day on 23 May 2020.
I am …
What am I doing? Hmmm … I’m certainly thinking. Always a good start. To tell you the truth, I have been more ‘armchair activist’ than ‘actual’ activist for any cause lately, putting the world to rights from the relative safety and comfort of …. the proverbial armchair, or my bed.
I have had my moments though. In the early 80s before ‘We are the World’ I put an A4 sized photograph cut out of a newspaper of a severely malnourished Ethiopian child on the last page of my photo album, as a sort of ‘shock shot’. I would encourage the unsuspecting to enjoy the pictures (laugh at them, even … the bad Afros!) and then BAM!, I’d sieze my opportunity to talk about the plight of people starving in Ethiopia and on our very doorstep, even.
In the late 80s, I hovered gingerly around the margins of a demonstration for Australian aboriginal rights in Brixton. More of a listener, just being there, than a chanter. I stood outside the South African Embassy in Trafalgar Square ONCE (ok!) during the apartheid years before Nelson Mandela was released. I did the entire route of the great march protesting against the UK’s involvement in the second war against Iraq. Alone, but amongst many, including some celebrities that I spotted along the way.
That was then.
The world has continued to move on for better and for worse. Some things remain the same.
I haven’t participated in any demonstrations for a while now. I have walked and ‘done’ in spirit, if not in body. For financial reasons, I have sadly and unwillingly had to stop my decades long monthly standing orders to great organisations such as Medecins Sans Frontiers (MSF) and Plan International. I have forever been trying to reduce food waste. For a number of reasons it’s been 1 step forward then 2 backwards. Joining my allotment society has opened my eyes to a whole new facet of waste. As it happens, ‘life’, as opposed to Greta Thunberg and Extinction Rebellion, is making me try even harder - again - to do better with regards to food waste.
On the surface, allotments and similar garden communities sing ‘BEAUTIFUL IDYLLIC GREEN HARMONY!’ to the lay person and the unknowing. Visiting an allotment in high growth season can feel like stepping into a Nirvana. But beware, hazards do lie within …
I’m pleased to read that the horticulture industry is working to be kinder to the environment. New products and initiatives to tackle plastic waste are brilliant.
I have zillions of plastic pots of all sizes, relics of plant purchases over the years. I have always kept them all, and reuse them until they crack and can be used no more. Then they go into my blue bin for recycling. A big thing for me last year was sowing brassica and other ‘unfussy’ vegetable seeds in a seed bed. It was my first time doing it so I was a little nervous. It worked brilliantly and I’ll definitely do it again this year. It certainly saved me having to source fresh seed sowing media.
Transportation miles are an issue in the horticulture industry. I have always grown a proportion of my vegetables from seed so that’s economical, and rewarding too. I sometimes buy vegetable seedlings from UK suppliers like Suttons, Marshalls, Mammoth Onion and Organic Plants (Defland). I confess that I have racked up some serious transportation miles with some of my woody perennials and large ornamentals though. They say the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. I do cheat here and there because I want to be around to see them mature and bloom. Clocking up the miles for some of the more exotic ornamentals (if you want them) will be inevitable. I have two Dicksonia antarctica tree ferns. I assuage my conscience with the knowledge that they were responsibly sourced by a reputable UK supplier (Seagraves). I do try to keep them alive and healthy in the hope that there’ll be no need for repeat purchases and more miles.
Going back to hazards at the allotments, there is a practice that allotment societies across the land advise against - the laying of old carpet on plots as a means of weed control. It might have seemed a good idea decades ago, and more recently when consumers started switching to other forms of floor covering in their homes. It actually does do the job to a degree - for a while. The problem is that it is often left in place for YEARS and begins to slowly leach constituent chemicals into the soil, taking decades to disintegrate. Plant roots may eventually grow through tears and the whole thing becomes an intertwined, contaminated mess. It can be very difficult to remove. I have dulled or broken countless knife blades trying to remove meters of double- and triple-folded (why?) carpet from deep within the soil, covering vast areas of my plots! Incredible but true. Its not much better when bits of carpet do disintegrate and come loose. I actually feel disgusted at the sight of carpet pile and flakes of rubber matting in the soil. I could spend all day picking each bit out and the job would never be done. Not right.
Prohibition of the use of carpet to control the growth of weeds is now enshrined in my allotment society’s Terms and Conditions. Hear, hear!
Some things are clear cut. There’s no reason for this ‘carpet as weed control’ treason.
