The Organic Garden. Allan Shepherd

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СКАЧАТЬ they use and how they grow and harvest their materials and plants, I know I am getting an environmentally sound product. Mail-order catalogues and websites do not always brand products with a logo but use words such as 100 per cent recycled or made with organic materials. If you’re not sure, ask the supplier which standards they meet and decide on face value whether you want to buy the product – with or without the logo.

      Wherever possible in this book I’ve tried to make suggestions for new products to save you the trouble of doing all the research, but products and companies change all the time so please use the information I have provided as a guide rather than an absolute recommendation. Also I am one writer working alone. If you have any doubts concerning a product or a company then you should refer to those organisations whose job it is to monitor standards and provide information (see above).

      When you’re looking for a supplier, use these questions to know if they really are what they say they are. Ask them where do their products come from? What is their policy on recycling? What are they doing to reduce CO2 emissions? There are plenty of great ethical companies now who share your values. It takes time to find good suppliers but often the rewards are much greater than the effort. I get an enormous buzz from discovering a new company selling a new range of well-thought-out products.

      Where to go for independent information and advice

      CAT provides one of the best information services in the country. It has a huge database of contacts working in the environmental sector. CAT does not set standards or review company performances but will act on complaints made about companies, which can result in their removal from the database. Phone their information line on + 44 (0) 1654 705 989.

      

      Ethical Consumer magazine is the single most important source of information about products, services and companies available to the average consumer. Each month it analyses a different set of products for their environmental and ethical performance. A must read.

      Gardening Which? magazine does not necessarily focus on environmental and ethical considerations so much as quality and performance of products, but sustainability is also about how well a product performs and lasts. It does have special environmental features and as a general read for the average gardener it is extremely good.

      The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) has extremely strict buying criteria for all of its products. Each supplier has to fill out a ream of forms before the organisation will stock its goods.

      

      Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth both produce wide-ranging reports on ethical and environmental standards and whistle-blow the illegal activities of polluting companies worldwide.

      

      Other magazines: Organic Gardening, Permaculture, The Organic Way – the magazine of Garden Organic (HDRA) – The Ecologist, New Consumer, Free Range, Growing Green International from VON and Clean Slate – CAT’s membership mag – are all good sources of information.

      Useful websites include www.ethical-junction.org, www.greenguide.co.uk and www.reuze.co.uk.

      Buying tools – used or new?

      Before you buy anything new go along to a local car boot sale, ask around your mates and check on www.freecycle.org. Don’t buy anything until you’ve exhausted all these secondhand options. Apart from secateurs – which have to be clean and sharp to prevent the spread of plant diseases – and some specialist tools (of which more in a moment), all these tools are just as effective secondhand. Tools need to be rigorous and tough. Check that handles are strong and that the blade or prongs do not bend easily. Some cheap hand forks and trowels bend easily. Press them onto a surface to test them.

      There are thousands of unwanted tools cluttering up sheds all over Britain and some companies are getting into the recycling spirit by reclaiming, reconditioning and selling them on. These ‘vintage’ tools are sometimes difficult to get hold of and have special features not normally available. I curse the day I missed an opportunity to buy a reconditioned Victorian daisy grubber from Wales-based group Tools for Self Reliance Cymru (www.tfsrcymru.org.uk). It was a lovely piece of work that would have made my weeding a lot easier. Buying secondhand tools saves energy and materials and avoids difficult ethical questions about where the tools came from.

      When to buy new

      In some situations it’s worth buying new. People with back problems or disabilities that prevent them using run-of-the-mill secondhand tools can access good ergonomic tools at www.carryongardening.org.uk, the website of Thrive, an organisation specialising in horticultural therapy. One example is the Swoe cultivator – an extremely useful type of hoe that looks like a golf club. It’s lightweight, but extremely strong and can clear weeds on the backwards and the forwards motion. Turned on its edge it can be used to dig holes for planting, to draw seed drills, and for ridging soil. It is not necessarily designed for people with disabilities but its flexibility and lightness make it a particularly handy tool. The excellently named Lazy Dog Tool Company produce handmade back-saving tools in Yorkshire. Their RIP (removal of individual plants) system keeps bending to a minimum. I also found something called a speed weeder (a small hand tool that enables you to hook weeds out under the root; especially useful for removing weeds from walls and the cracks between paving), which is made in the UK for the Gardeners’ Royal Benevolent Society.

      Many new tools are made in developing countries. Most of the time it’s impossible to know in what conditions these tools have been manufactured. It is certainly true to say that health and safety regulations for workers are nowhere near as strong as ours; similarly environmental regulations will be less stringent. Some high-street retailers have made efforts to improve the rights of the workers who supply their tools. B&Q has a long-term goal of transforming the working conditions of suppliers and reducing the environmental impact of their work. If you want to know how good the claims are you need to check out Ethical Consumer magazine’s website www.ethicalconsumer.org.uk.

      Most power tools get used for a total of just fifteen minutes in their entire lifetime so cut down on waste by renting from hire shops, borrowing from friends or asking on a swap shop. Of the ten companies investigated by the magazine Ethical Consumer, Draper came out top, followed by The Stanley Works and Makita Corp. and then Black & Decker. The WEEE Directive (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment) requires member states of the European Union to set up collection systems for all old electrical equipment by the end of 2006.

      Basic garden tool kit

      One fork for digging out weeds, turning over soil, lifting plants, forking in compost and manure

      One spade for digging holes, moving soil, making trenches

      One rake for levelling soil ready for planting seeds, removing some lawn weeds, gathering grass clippings, etc

      One hoe for removing weeds, marking seed trenches

      One hand trowel for digging small holes and removing some weeds One hand fork for removing easy-to-lift weeds

      One pair of secateurs for light pruning

      One small pruning saw for removing slightly thicker unwanted growth

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