Oh the joy of weeding! As fast as you get rid of them 5 foot high thistles appear from nowhere and all the rain has meant that the garden seems to be turning into a jungle, with giant fox gloves, poppies and holly hocks (yet to flower). At least we are not having to water anything and the apple trees are enjoying the extra moisture.

Our soil takes a lot of the pleasure out of gardening – it’s heavy clay and whilst it’s very fertile and great to work with when ‘improved’ it is usually either baked solid or clumped together in an impenetrable mass. I usually sigh enviously on Gardener’s World as Monty Don, effortlessly turns over the soil. However, a wonderful little razor hoe from the Worm that Turned is turning me into the gardening equivalent of Edward Scissorhands – it feels just like an extension of my arm as I joyfully slice through the weeds and chop through the clay soil with ease. I can’t say I relish the task of weeding – it’s relentless – but at least with this little tool I’m more enthusiastic about attacking it.

I presume that it’s a mainly Western problem that having too much ‘stuff’ causes us ‘stress’.  It seems crazy that whilst some people are starving and living off rubbish dumps, others are amassing huge amounts of possessions that require ‘management’. Numerous websites and magazine articles exist to help us ‘clear clutter’.  Yet in our consumer driven society we seem to be programmed to go on creating more and more waste.

They say you arrive in the world with nothing and leave the same way.  But it’s not strictly true, in the western world, at least.  I was surprised, on having my own children how a small baby suddenly creates a load of ‘stuff’ – cribs, cots, car seats, changing  mats, portable changing mats, baby baths, feeding bottles, sterilizers, mobiles, baby rockers, high chairs, slings, baby carriers, prams, pushchairs, potties and that’s before you take into account the nappies, clothes and toys – babies are big business, and whilst some things can be bought or acquired second hand and passed on, the consumption pattern starts.

At the other end of things, I was struck, as I put the last carrier bag of my dying fathers cleaning wipes into the wheelie bin, how futile possessions can seem, and what is it in life that we really need. Two places that depress yet fascinate me are shopping centres and ‘civic amenity sites’.  In Julie Hill’s book, The secret life of stuff, she gives an insight into the true costs of the products we buy, and some hope that the future could be different.   I wonder how Micheal Landy felt when, in 2001, he bravely shredded all his possessions in the name of art, Breaking Down.  Did it liberate him?  It must be my age (nearing 50), – but are we just born to consume?  I’ve started thinking – how many fridges will I own in my lifetime and what’s the average number of washing machines an individual will own? (I need to get out more!) What is our greater impact and legacy? and is the only answer to the meaning of life 42?

I have always been a keen on composting – so much so, that I shudder if I’m anywhere and I see veg peelings going in the dustbin. I compost everything from tea bags to cardboard; I don’t include cooked food or egg shells until they have been dried out in a cooling oven. However, there is an issue which deters many from composting their kitchen waste – and that’s rats!  There is no getting away from it – rotting food will attract them, and I know we’ve had them in ours.  I always give the bin a good kick before opening the lid! We’ve now put chicken wire underneath our plastic bin, but I guess they will chew through that eventually.  If you don’t fancy composting at home, many local councils have started kirbside collections of kitchen waste or you could set up a community composting group.  There is help available from the Community Composting Network, who have lottery funding to run a series of training events on Community Composting for Local Food, or from the Master Composters

Spookily, just after I had updated a page on Green Choices about green burials, I turned on the radio to find a new woodland burial ground being opened in an episode of ‘The Archers’. There is certainly a growing interest in greener funerals, from wicker or cardboard coffins to woodland burial sites. I can remember when I ran the Countryside Trust on behalf of the Countryside Agency, receiving a funding application for a Green Burial site, it opened up lots of areas of discussion – the pro’s and cons of cremation and burial, impacts on the environment, land use etc. I know the Woodland Trust considered the feasibility of a woodland burial scheme, but decided not to proceed. However, there are now over 200 green burial sites around the country, and a growing choice of more environmentally friendly coffins, such as those made of recycled newspaper . I know death and dying aren’t subjects many of us a comfortable discussing. If you can plan your choices or those of your loved ones, in advance it is helpful; searching around for wicker coffins at a time of grieving can be difficult, and if they are imported from China are they a green choice? Better to have done your research first. When my father died last year I was surprised how much there was to organise and how many decisions we had to make – if you throw in is “environmentally friendly?” at this stage it can be too late – it’s hard to think about reducing the crematoriums emissions by the choice of clothing, or the handles on the coffin, but they do have an impact. If a green life is important then a green ending should be too!

On a rainy January day the prospect of hanging clothes out to dry on the line is remote, and an e-mail from a company that sells rotary lines with covers, started me thinking about washing again, I won’t dwell on how often you should change your knickers this time,  that resulted in some interesting feedback!

I know time is a big factor in peoples lives ­– and faced with a family load of washing at the weekend it is so much more convenient to bung it in the tumble dryer, but the cost of the energy they use, particularly inefficient models, is astounding with the annual running costs of the least efficient being nearly £160 per year according to sust-it, the energy efficiency website for electricals, that is more than the appliance costs to buy!  I find it surprising that 45 per cent of households now have a tumble dryer and a further 15 per cent own a washer-drier. With  26.3 million households, that’s a lot of energy being used, the average cycle uses around 4kWh, and a lot of CO₂ created.  Perhaps house builders could be encouraged to design covered outdoor spaces or flats with balconies, include indoor drying equipment or offer covered rotary lines. It may take more than this to change our behaviour, but it would be a start.

With Christmas done and dusted, and the finances depleted it’s surprising that, at this time of year, many of us think of planning a holiday to provide something to look forward to.  Taking a holiday, however, can often create something of a dilemma for those with a green conscience, wanting to reduce their carbon footprint.  To fly or not to fly? Should you forgo visiting that far flung destination? Miss out on helping the orangutans in Borneo, or the experience of trekking in Nepal.  Maybe these are ‘once in a lifetime’ experiences that can’t be sacrificed, but swapping a villa in Majorca for a cottage in Cornwall might be an option.  The UK does have some stunning locations to visit; glorious beaches, great cycle routes, challenging walking routes, and whole host of accommodation types to suit families, couples and even large groups wanting to party! It amazes me the amount of rental properties available for those wanting to holiday in UK, check out the EcoHolidayShop for some inspiration – it doesn’t need to be all composting toilets and communal living either,  by simply choosing to holiday in the UK, you are helping our economy, and reducing your own carbon footprint by not flying.

I’m looking forward to seeing BBC2’s Big Bread Experiment, which starts tonight, charting the trials and tribulations of setting up a community bakery.  Not just so I can spot my Mum shopping in Bedale, or tossing a pancake along the high street or where ever else she was caught on camera during the past two years of filming, but because I think this community bakery is such a fabulous idea.  Linking an old working mill in Crakehall, a re-opened railway line, and using locally grown wheat, ticks all the right boxes on the sustainability front.  And it involves volunteers,  benefiting from the satisfaction of working together for a common purpose and gain the therapeutic effect of making bread.  There’s nothing like a bit of vigorous kneading to beat away the blues or to calm the frustrations of daily life.   I hope it proves (n0t a breadmaking pun), interesting – I can see the appeal for the TV company in finding a Vicar of Dibley character in the (then) curate Cath Vickers, who started the whole process.  What’s more the bread is delicious as are the chocolate and beetroot brownies!