From our blog at http://ecofriendlygreenproducts.co.uk

With Christmas fast approaching, I’m starting to angst over those few people who are impossible to buy for.  You know the type – we’ve all got at least one in the family.

In our family, there’s one particular chap who’s frankly so much better off than us that there’s nothing we could buy for him that he hasn’t bought for himself already (twice, with bells on).  And another who’s not financially rich but spiritually so, and therefore also wants for very little (despite not having all that much).

Over the next twelve months, Wikaniko plans to plant 10,000 trees in Africa.  We are retailing them for under a fiver.  They are a much better stocking filler than socks.  Frankly, you should buy one for that person who’s impossible to buy for.

When that look of mild interest in what their Christmas present might be fades to nothingness (again) then at least you can get a warm fuzzy feeling knowing you did something good for the planet, your children, heck – their children (!), and the local villagers who benefit massively from this managed forestry project.

I’m not much interested in hearing the usual “I’d rather help someone in the UK / charity starts at home” nonsense.  As yet, I don’t believe there’s a way to segregate the air we breathe so us wealthier Westerners get the lion’s share.  Planting a tree in Africa directly benefits you.

Aside from the fact that planting 5 trees could go someway to offsetting your carbon footprint, there’s also some rather compelling reasons why it’s better to plant trees in Africa.

Trees grow three times faster in Africa than in the UK so they will help our environment much faster: we will see results in our lifetime.

The trees are used both to provide a wage for poor people in villages and to help sustain the villages with produce, firewood and materials for building etc – so the world gets a lot more benefit than simply planting a tree to help reduce carbon emissions!

The trees improve living standards for families, and the local economies. The tree planting helps them generate a sustainable income from food, medicines and shelter.

Trees allow vegetation and other growth to survive in harsh conditions by retaining water in the soil and providing shelter from direct sunlight etc. Trees can, if managed correctly, provide a massive range of unexpected benefits and natural resources including medication which can be used locally and sold throughout the world.

Need I say more?

Whilst writing this, I’ve decided to wrap my family’s Christmas gifts in pages from the free newspapers that come through our door each week and buy everyone a tree with the money I will save on gift wrap.  You are welcome to join me!

If you would like to know more, please feel free to get in touch.

To visit my Wikaniko shop: please click here

For more information on becoming a distributor: please click here

EcoLike.Me is an active member of Ethical Junction, learn more

If you are looking for the perfectly different Christmas gift, checkout our brand new range from www.foufurnishings.com, entitled ‘fou4you’. Full of unusual and luxurious gifts for her, gifts for him, kid’s gifts, scented candles, Christmas decorations, stocking fillers as well as handmade paper stationery and natural beauty products. What’s more, they have been carefully sourced from organic and designer makers, so you know they are eco-friendly and not mass produced. With prices starting at just £1.95, they won’t break the bank either.

We will even do gift wrapping, send out the same day you order (if you order by 2pm) and offer really competitive posting rates at only £1.95 for gifts or free posting when you spend over £45.00

Green is the new red this Christmas.

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Coinciding with their recent appointment as a distributor of Neptune educational games software keen2learn has announced a special Christmas offer on a section of the new games. “Neptune has developed an enviable reputation in schools where their software is used extensively. We are delighted to be able to now offer parents access to the same games at a lower home-user price” said Alistair Owens Managing Director of www.keen2learn.co.uk

 The games are ideal for Mums, Dads and Grandparents to practise the lesson content with children at home as well as school. They cover a wide range including maths games, English games, Science games and Modern Foreign Languages MFL. Above all they are huge fun and a great way to help the learning process whilst giving parents a greater understanding of their child’s progress.

 Until the 20th December 2009 we are offering  3 for 2 for the following educational games  titles. Buy any two titles  of the following range and keen2learn will send you a third and lowest cost title free of charge.

1. - Captain Conrad’s Space Adventure
2. - Sing-and-Play: Nursery Rhymes
3. – French With A Story
4. – Spanish With A Story
5. – Percy Teaches Maths
6. – Percy’s Alphabet Workshop
7. – Percy’s Computer Club
8. – Percy Makes Thinking Fun
9. – Percy’s World Of Numbers
10. – Percy’s Animal Explorer
11. - The Learner’s Library: Wild Animals
12. – The Tudor Trail
13. - Bric-a-Brac: Sorting
14. – Paws Explore: Multiplication
15. - Paws Explore: Money
16. – Paws Explore: Numbers

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New stalls announced for the Fair on Wednesday 2nd December: eco Christmas trees from Treecycle, English woolies from The North Circular, and Tela Bags. Plus delicious vegan finger food from !

Ethical Fashion and more at Richmond’s first Eco Christmas Fair

Guest speaker Zac Goldsmith – local champion of independent retailers, organic wine and nibbles, and a special Eco Christmas raffle!

There will be a range of eco and ethical stalls including: beautifully designed organic cotton eco shopping bags Bags of Change that get you discounts when you shop with them at over 70 stores; Bourgeois Boheme’s stylish ethical vegan fashion accessories; Kenyan fairly traded sisal and sustainable soapstone products from Voodoo Blue; Bam’s bamboo clothing for men and women; Plant Your Tree gift cards, organic T-shirts and towels from One Green Earth and Green Sisters; plus sustainable stocking fillers from the Sea Shepherd marine conservation charity.

WHEN: 6.30 – 9.00pm, Wednesday 2nd December 2009

WHERE: Bourgeois Boheme Showroom, Hydrex House, Garden Road, Richmond TW9 4NR.

This event is organised by Bags of Change and hosted by Bourgeois Boheme and Voodoo Blue.

Bags of Change is an active member of Ethical Junction, learn more

MoreEco has joined the Green Christmas Appeal campaign which will plant 100,000 trees and supply 50,000 African children with computer equipment.

You can get involved through their unique gift ideas. The Green Christmas Appeal plants native broad leaf trees such as oak, beech and ash.

These are the species which are known to best promote biodiversity. Most are ‘cell-grown whips’ – small saplings between 0.5m and 1m in height. When planted at the correct time of year, these whips establish very easily and grow vigorously.

They are very easy to plant and many of their trees are planted by children.

Each of these trees will remove a ton of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the enviroment and return clean oxygen.

Use offer code ‘moreeco’ at Green Christmas Appeal checkout to track purchase and to receive a 25% discount.

MoreEco is an active member of Ethical Junction, learn more

Return of the Native Hedge

Our farming community destroyed in a few years what our forefathers had established over several hundred years and that was a living, vibrant corridor for wildlife that would sustain them through the good times and the bad.  Those hedges provided protection from the elements and safety from predators, as well as a reliable food supply in the form of flowers and seed heads and an abundance of insects.

Also, a hiding place for the thrush’s nest:

“ And now we have found a second one, hidden from sight in a cleft of boughs of one of the beech hedges.  Neatly lined with cow dung, it contains four eggs”  [Ref. 1] 

01 The value of hedges

An ancient part of the landscape Hedges have been a part of the English landscape since the Bronze Age. There are hedges in England today that are 500 years old and more; ‘Judith’s hedge’ in Cambridgeshire is over 900 years old. 

How can you tell how old a hedge is?  One determining factor is the number of different species within the hedge.  Also, since 1700, most new hedges have run in straight lines.  So, a sinuous length in an otherwise straight hedge may indicate that part of a pre-existing hedge has been retained in a reorganisation of fields.  A post-1800 hedge usually has its original row of hawthorns still discernible, while an ancient hedge often has giant coppice stools or pollarded trees.

Did you know?

• The majority of hedges around today were planted during the enclosures of the 18th and 19th centuries.  Some 200,000 miles of hedges were planted between 1750 and 1850.
• Hedges contain:
  • 15% of our native stock of broad-leaved trees
  • 600 species of flowering plants
  • 1,500 species of insect
  • 65 species of birds
  • 20 species of mammal

[Ref. 2]

‘Our beech hedges surpass in beauty even the cherry tree or the pear.  They thrive in the chalk earth of our garden and are lovely the whole year round, whether it be in the late spring, as buds open to pleated leaf, or in the depth of winter when the leaves are crinkled and brown and crackle in the breeze with the sound as of thin metal shavings.  For the beech hedges are never bare of leaf.  Now in November they burn bronze and yellow and orange.’  [Ref.3]

Nowadays few of us have expansive gardens with room to plant a hedgerow that has a vanishing point, but there is still the possibility of a few metres here and there in order to provide interest, a focus and act as a foil to a mundane wood paneled fence.

The contribution that a hedgerow makes is difficult to quantify and far easier to qualify.  Besides the obvious fillip it provides to all creatures great and small it provides shape and context to a garden.  Depending on the species planted a hedge can provide contrast to a diverse range of plants within a herbaceous border or even vegetables.  A hedge is also an attractive way of dividing a garden up into zones. 

02  The Environmental Issues

There has been a considerable drop in the number of our native song birds and in particular the once ubiquitous song thrush.  But it is not just birds that are in rapid decline, all sorts of butterflies, iconic mammals such as the hedgehog and the timorous wood mouse have all suffered a similar fate in recent years. 

 03  Care & Maintenance

On a more basic level a deciduous hedge once established needs little work.  In terms of maintenance an occasional haircut to maintain some decorum, an application once a year of a slow-release fertiliser, and water whenever drought conditions prevail.  All in all there is far less maintenance and cost involved with a hedgerow than there is for fast growing leyandii or fencing panels that in due course will need a coat of wood preservative and a protective finish.

04  What is Available?

Really Wild Flowers can provide a large variety of hedging plants by mail order.  15 different native hedgerow species are sold at the 40-60cm size and there are also 3 Collections of plants at 60-90cm height.  They are all despatched as bare-root plants during the winter months November to March.  These collections are accompanied by planting instructions, which can also be seen in the Hedgerow Planting Advice on the website: www.reallywildflowers.co.uk.  Let us help you restore some precious habitat for wildlife.

 Refs. 1 & 3:  “Four hedges: a Gardener’s Chronicle” by Claire Leighton. First pub. in 1935 now available from The Sumach Press isbn 0-7126-4711-2

Ref. 2:  www.cpre.org.uk (Campaign to Protect Rural England) 

External Links:

www.bto.org

www.rspb.org.uk

www.cpre.org.uk.

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Yes, you can now chose your design of gift certificate online for trees you have planted. If you want to plant trees to help the environment, you can do that as a gift and the gift cards can fit inside christmas cards or be sent on their own. The million tree campaign has many designs and if you are a business they can customise ones for you to give to employees or customers. It is organised through sponsortrees.com

Environmental Partnerships Ltd is an active member of Ethical Junction, learn more

Ed Balls has urged schools in England to save energy by turning the heating down and lights off to save up to £750m to safeguard teaching jobs. If he has spoken to his cabinet counterpart Ed Miliband, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, two objectives could have resolved.

The subtle reasoning to get schools to save £750m is the educational budgets are being reduced by £750m. If you achieve the first objective you maintain the status quo. If you fail your budget is reduced. Ouch either way!

There are schemes overseas which provide schools with more positive help. In Australia the government provides an AUS$ 50,000 grant towards installing a solar energy system in schools. This has five objectives:

1. Educational benefits in understanding renewable energy in science and maths with the system performance seen on a large digital display.
2. Cost reduction in energy used offset by the solar panels.
3. Opportunity to sell the excess energy generated back to the national grid during summer holidays.
4. Science and maths experiments in adjusting the angle of incidence of the sun and monitoring output and power curves.
5. Lastly, and critically the most significant. It introduces children to the concept of renewal energy. They are great at promoting green energy to parents, and of course will inherit the mess we have created so far. Learning in disguise, it’s what education is all about

What a missed educational opportunity by the Schools secretary. Joined up education that could have given a great incentive to schools and inevitably funded by the power and solar industry.

Keen 2 Learn is an active member of Ethical Junction, learn more

Working model Hydrogen Fuel Cell car for classroom or home use from www.keen2learn.co.uk

Renewable energy education is becoming a hot topic. A great new range of working model cars designed for the classroom demonstrates the function and benefits of hydrogen fuel cells.

 

 

Classrooms are great testing grounds for product durability. With this in mind Keen2learn have adopted the Heliocentris range of teaching resources for science. The classroom packs of Model hydrogen fuel cell cars show how sunlight can be harnessed to produce hydrogen, and how the hydrogen can power a fuel cell model car.

Supplied with comprehensive teaching instructions and a list of experiments this cross curricular product produces interest and fun as the cars are raced together. More importantly it introduces children to the vital needs of renewable green energy.

“The Heliocentris range is robust and designed to survive in the classroom. The experiments give a huge and fun insight into the essential benefits of green energy” said Alistair Owens Managing Director of keen2learn.

Press Information

Keen2learn is an award winning website started four years ago to give parents access to the educational games used in school. Practice is crucial in learning retention and often children in a busy classroom lack the opportunity to practice what the teacher has said. The fun games played in class can be a bit of a rush. Playing the games at home at leisure allows parents to engage in the schooling process far more effectively than conventional homework. Since the launch schools have become large customers of keen2learn. Teachers like the extensive range matched to the National Curriculum and ease of ordering from one location rather than ploughing through multiple printed catalogues.

Keen 2 Learn is an active member of Ethical Junction, learn more

Responding to frequent requests from visitors asking what are the favourite educational games, toys and puzzles on www.keen2learn.co.uk. they have published a new monthly list of the top ten games. They change a round a bit as new products are released and classes in school move onto a new part of the curriculum. The list is a measure of all sales and includes what both teachers and parents are buying to support the National Curriculum.

1.    Crystal Rain Forest: This firm favourite uses maths skills and logo programming language to help save the planet. A firm favourite in the class and now available to also play at home.

2.    Alphabet frieze: One for the early learners this great wall frieze is the ideal decoration for the classroom and bedroom wall.

3.    Spelling Board Games. Nobody wants to spell – unless it is part of this popular English games pack.

4.   Bunja: This maths game is based on MP3 technology provides hours of fun and is small enough to fir in a pocket when travelling around.

5.   Feel Good Friends: Parents and teachers have found this game developed to boost the self esteem in children is great fun for anyone to play.

6.   Early Learning Songs: Rhyme and alliteration. Children love playing with words that sound the same. These songs develop their awareness of rhyme and alliteration with repeating words and sounds.

7.   Hand counting puzzle: Learning  to count with this colourful wooden puzzle. Suitable for ages three to five years.

8.    Melody Mix: A great little set. Complete with 10 musical instruments including a xylophone, drum, tubular chimes, triangle, cymbal, bells, maracas, castanet, double guiro, a pair of rhythm sticks, 2 strikers and 1 scraper.

9.    Geopolitical Inflatable Globe: This 24″ Inflatable World Globe includes country capitals, important cities, time zones and important geographic features. Great for school and home use!

10.   Geniass: Revision Game: The unique and exceptional educational revision resource in the form of a board game. It is great fun to play, promotes personalised learning and improves exam grades at Key Stages 3 & 4. Geniass was described in the Times Educational Supplement as an “inspiring game” and was short listed for the Science Museum’s Toy and Game of the Year Award. Parents and teachers alike have described it as a “brilliant idea” that is “fantastic fun”. The best invention since the calculator!

Keen 2 Learn is an active member of Ethical Junction, learn more