July in a Sustainable Home.
July… A real summer month. School holidays are in sight, the sea temperture it warm enough for me to have frequent dips and the evenings continue to be long. It’s also a month when your Instagram feed will be filled with plastic free swaps as “plastic free July” runs wild in the zero waste world.
Maybe July was the month you had some lovely holidays planned but corona virus has taken those from you and your looking for ways to make this month a good one, even if your not sitting by a pool sipping mojitos.
Here’s whats going on in our sustainable house hold this month, some ideas to help you do the same.
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Get on board with plastic free July.
Not usually one to jump on the bandwagon of these things, (you’ll never see me getting on board with dry January), until last year when I posted an eco-swap a day for the month of July. It was a really interesting experience for me to see if I could find 31 ways we had changed our habits for the better, and turns out we had!!!
1 year on and things are some what different. We haven’t quit any of these great eco-friendly swaps, far from it, if anything we’ve taken on more. However, most of what we have taken on are not always the plastic free ones you may be thinking of. Over the last year I have learnt more and more, discovering we need to go far beyond “Zero Waste” before we consider ourselves doing right by our planet. From our electricity to the clothes on our backs, we need to make more ethical choices. Buying a stainless steel lunch boxes is not a sustainable choice if you brought it from Amazon and already have a million plastic lunch boxes pouring out of your cupboards. We need to look way beyond the fancy plastic free alternatives. I’ve outlined 5 things we can do to help climate change in this post from the beginning of the year.
This doesn’t mean I think Plastic Free July isn’t worth it. In fact I see it as I brilliant gate way into living a more conscious life. Why not throw yourself in to this month. You could pick one of my 31 options to reduce your plastic waste, or you could follow them all and pledge to go Zero Waste in a month.
Fill your home with wild flowers.
This as quickly become my new favourite hobby. Forget a supermarket bunch of flowers to lift your spirits, get forging, even if it’s in your own garden. I loving it so much I really need to invest in some mini scissors I can pop on my belt of something ridiculous of the sort so I can pick whenever I see a good spot of wild flowers on our walks.
I’ve planted lots of wildflowers in the garden too. The ones in the front garden are taking over slightly, which is fine by me, more little jars of flowers all over the house.
It’s not just wild flowers we’ve been picking from all corners of the allotment to the local woodland, it’s roses too. I brought Mum a rose bush for cut flowers a couple of Christmas ago. A Gertrude Jekyll Rose to be exact and good old Gerty has been given us a beautiful splash on pink among the wild.
Don’t forget it’s sweet-pea season too. I always think I don’t have enough room for sweet peas in my little back garden and then kick myself for not planting them anyway. Lucky Mum has my back and plants loads for me to pick and dot jars of them all over the kitchen. Heaven is a kitchen full of flowers.
Back Garden Festival.
We watched some of the highlights of past Glastonbury’s this weekend. Oh it made me want to go to a festival. I’m sure many of you have had tickets that could not be used this year, or maybe a muddy field isn’t your thing. Either way creating your own back garden festival will lift anyone’s spirits. Fill a bucket of ice and cold beers, dot your camping lights around the garden, get some music out and have some socially distanced friends over. Hey if you’ve got the space put a tent up in the garden and get the fairy lights out.
If you want all the festival feels going on at home Spencers Arc has you covered from music to pom poms.
Fill the freezer with Passata.
Oh tomato season, how I love you. I’ve got 5 tomato plants slowly getting there in the garden, no where near ready for picking yet but at this time of year tomatoes will be everywhere tasting sweeter than ever. We often buy too many from our local green grocer and Mum has them coming out of her ears on the allotment. Any we can’t manage to eat will quickly get turned in passata and frozen for the coming winter months.
I simply pop whole tomatoes in a bowl, cover with boiling water and let them sit for 10 minutes. This makes it super easy to remove the skin, which should just slide off. Add the skinned tomatoes to a pan and leave to simmer for 20 minutes. Blend, freezer, defrost when needed, take your spag bol to another level.
Plant some more lettuce in the garden.
The lettuce seeds I sowed in April, planted out in May and have eaten for the last 6 weeks are now coming to their end. Luckily I sowed a second set 3 or so weeks ago that have done quiet well considering we’ve had some very warm weather. They are now ready to plant out. I found I have had most success when I put my lettuce in troughs. Keeps them (a little more) away from the slugs and I’m able to get them in the sunniest spot. Hopefully this lot of lettuce will keep us going into the end of August.
If you haven’t sown you seeds yet it’s not to late to get a late Summer crop. Remember to once their big enough to continually pick the outer leaves for eating. This will keep them growing outwards and keep your salad bowl filled for as long as possible.
Keep calm and carry on watering your garden.
The gardens going to be thirsty with all this lovely weather. Especially your pots. Even if we’ve had rain I still water my pots because they dry out quickly. For my seedlings in the greenhouse I try to water earlier in the day rather than the evening. That way their roots aren’t sitting in water over night. Not always practical if your at work during the day I know. Perhaps in this case water as soon as you get home.
DEAD HEAD ALL YOUR FLOWERS.
If you’ve got lots of bedding plants (I’ve got a fair few geraniums), make sure you dead head them when flowers die. Pinch off the wilting flowers to encourage more flowers to grow. Get the secretes out for the roses, here’s a great guide on cutting back your roses to keep them blooming all summer.
Let the house get a bit messy and enjoy.
I don’t know about you but when there’s a bit of heat EVERYTHING gets dropped and it’s all about the beach. Last week was glorious, the nappies were left unstuffed, the washing left in the basket (although the washing was always hung out first thing, got to love it being drying by the time you get home), the bathroom desperately needed a clean but all was left. Housework doesn’t matter when A, you not at home to see it and B, you can be on a Fakecation in your home town, (click here to find out what the hell a fakecation is).
Make your beach days as easy, cheap and zero waste a possible by packing a picnic, all the snacks and filling those water bottle. Ice cream cones still allowed.
Have a wonderful and sustainable July, and keep me updated on any Plastic Free July successes over on Instagram.
Much love
Hannah
xxxx
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