Birds Edge Countryside Project

creating countryside facilities for wheelchair users and the general public

 BECSIDE CHARITABLE TRUST

c/o TAMARISK HOUSE

33A GREENFIELD ROAD

HOLMFIRTH

HD9 2LA

 

Tel. 01484 684797

e-mail: gstevesellars@freenet.co.uk

Registration no. 1121918

Compost

Compost – -this is local muck for local people
You could buy any old compost or you could go and get some organic Huddersfield compost made right here in Shelly. West Riding Organic do all sorts of compost from potting to seed to tomato grow bags – see for details. You can buy the compost and organic topsoil from Unit 3 Near Bank Shelley Huddersfield HD8 8LZ 01484 609171

Allotments

If you want an allotment, phone Kirklees Council on 01484 234026 or visit www.kirklees.gov.uk for more information.

Growing Vegetables

 

I am a vegetable growing novice. I have had my allotment one year and most of that time was spent reclaiming it from weeds and briars. I managed to plant some stuff most of which got eaten by an army of killer slugs. Then there were the birds – wood pigeons are the bane of broad beans.

 

I know this sounds like a case for never picking up a spade but let me tell you about my  cucumbers.  I thought they would be very hard to grow so planted all my seeds and  I ended up with thousands.  What was even more amazing was they were really tasty. I had always considered  cukes to be an exceedingly bland addition to the salad bowl. Not so when you grow your own

 

My knobbly beetroots and ugly spuds – they too were packed with flavour. And I was bursting with pride. Maybe it is some throwback to the hunter gatherer in me but it feels good to see my own, home grown food on the table. It is a great way of getting cheap, really tasty food that comes at a much reduced carbon cost.

 

So I say to you go out there and grow and don’t be put off by lack of space. Starting small is, in my opinion the easiest way to begin and home grown herbs are fantastic. Basil raised in a pot on your window sill turns cheese on toast into a gourmet dish – well we consider it so. Plants in tubs on the patio are easy and surprisingly productive. Two courgette plants will keep you going all summer. A pot of pick and grow lettuce will give you a few salads. You can even grow spuds in a tub.
 
This spring  B&Q ere selling organically grown baby veg seedlings. They came in a cardboard crate  so no plastic pot waste and they have everything from salad to cabbage.

If the tales of woe haven’t put you off and you still want an allotment, phone Kirklees Council on  01484 234026 or visit www.kirklees.gov.uk for more information.

Plant pots

I am so very happy, the sun is out the garden is blooming and I have just planted a new guilt free fern Until now I have been unable to buy a plant without being consumed by shame. In my cellar is a huge mound of plastic plant pots. Wonderful sturdy plastic plant pots that having emptied I am now supposed to throw out. Its a shocking misuse of resources and places a terrible strain on our waste disposal services. 90,000,000 kg of plant pots are sent to landfill every year and that’s in Yorkshire alone. That’s why I feel the shame.

But help is at hand. I got that statistic from a leaflet picked up in Armitages Garden Centre advertising their solution to this big problem. They are collecting and recycling plant pots. The process is simple – clean the pot and return it to an Armitages Garden Centre The pots are then collected by Lynwoods a Halifax based company who will recycle them into garden furniture. That’s recycled in Halifax not China.

Community Farms

Futurefarms is a co-operative, set up in early 2004, whose purpose is to grow food within the parish of Martin in Hampshire, for sale to the people who live there. We are a non-profitmaking enterprise – all proceeds from the sale of our food are used to cover costs and to build up the business.

The venture was started in response to concern about the distance that our food has to travel from farm to plate. This not only increases the amount of road traffic and contributes to climate change; it also creates a disconnect between producer and consumer that results in poor quality food and high prices, with not enough attention being paid to legitimate customer concerns about food safety, animal welfare, and damage to the environment.

In contrast, we sell direct to our customers. We aim to produce food that is tasty, wholesome, and grown in a way that is in harmony with nature and respectful of animal welfare. Since we are a non-profitmaking organisation, our food is also reasonably priced.

The co-operative is run by a committee of eight people, all of whom live in Martin. At the moment, the work of caring for the animals and tending the crops is done by members of the committee, with some hired labour, but ultimately our aim is to employ a full-time farmer to work on the farm. In time, we hope to be able to produce and sell a full range of meat, vegetables, and other food products.

http://www.futurefarms.org.uk/html/about_us.html