Like many of us this summer, I’ve been experimenting with growing my own veggies. Despite a late start, due to moving house in May, we’re starting to get results.

I’ve learned so much about the sheer tenacity of perennial weeds, the deepest meaning of “a weed seedling picked in time saves nine” and how exciting it can be to watch your very own butternut squash start off as thumbnail-sized green fruits, with ridiculously massive sunshine flowers. And I never realised that sweetcorn “flowers” look like a bright pink accident at the hairdresser’s.

I already love the fact that I can pop into the garden and come back with an armful of giant courgettes, mutant runner beans and occasionally a beautiful beetroot that survived the thistles and chickweed.

But the other day, I realised that the majority of my food is still coming from overseas.

We eat a wholefood diet that contains a lot of nuts, seeds and pulses, alongside our home-grown or locally-sourced veggies. But looking at the packets for the dried food revealed that every single one was imported.

Lentils, chick peas, beans, quinoa, buckwheat, rice, almonds, cashews – you name it, it wasn’t even grown in Europe. Most of it came from the USA, South America or the Far East. That’s a lot of food miles. Time to stop feeling so smug…

Now, I’m not about to start a paddy field in rural Hampshire, but suddenly it didn’t make sense to be going on about food miles and yet only applying it to fruit and veg?

At the same time, I’ve also been doing my homework about beans.

I’ve got an impressively cobbled-together wigwam row of runners, cannellini, waxpod and French beans, as well as some sickly-looking broad beans that seriously objected to the May move.

The penny dropped – many of the pulses we eat, which are shipped thousands of miles to reach us, could potentially be grown here, too. Lots of the packets in my cupboard were grown in Canada, for example, which has a spring / summer climate not a million miles from the UK’s.

I’ve been researching.

I have found veggie gardening books that claim you can grow lentils, though don’t quite tell you how. A Sardinian friend is teaching me how to grow chick peas (though you need a lot of plants and a greenhouse for best results). The right varieties of French beans will give you kidney beans. Certain varieties of runner bean will give you butter beans. This month’s Permaculture magazine has an article by Emma Cooper, talking about growing quinoa. The list goes on.

I was wondering – why are we so reluctant to grow our own pulses?
I’m guessing because it’s not a tradition in the UK? We don’t find the seed packets in the shops, so we don’t try it. The gardening books don’t make it easy for us. But that’s no excuse not to bother.

So I’m going to start experimenting.

I’ve missed the boat for some things this year, but that will give me time to do my homework.
By next summer, I want to be having fun with learning how to grow my own pulses and seeds. I’ll be discovering (hopefully) which varieties give the best pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, adzuki beans and plenty more besides.

Of course, I’ll keep you all posted on Green Girls Global. And, if you’d like to join in, we can keep the discussion going on the Green Girls Global Facebook Fan Page.

In the meantime, has anyone out there already played with this in a UK-style climate? If you could offer advice that might shorten the learning curve for us all, it would be much appreciated!

I had never grown courgettes before.

For some reason, I thought they would be really tricky. People used to tell me about the manual pollination, training them over frames, staggering the harvest, stopping them from rotting. Quite frankly, it sounded too much like hard work. I decided to stick with easy stuff like runner beans and the occasional potplant tomato.

But this year I planted courgettes.

I didn’t bother with the hand pollination, the trellis work or any of the other palaver people had warned me about. I just stuck seeds in mud, applied water and waited. (My kind of gardening).

I had heard so many “horror stories” about people getting gluts that I planted a mere two seeds back in April, which I transplanted in May and by June I was the proud consumer of a small but perfectly formed, dark green courgette.

The two plants seemed to be going rather slowly, so I planted two more in May (not much happened) and another two in June.

Someone had told me you only get 10-15 courgettes from a single plant, so this all seemed like a good idea at the time.

But courgette-patience would have been a wonderful virtue and my lack of it now means I harvest near-marrow-sized courgettes on a daily basis.

The other week (clearly not having enough to do!), we kept a log of our week’s crop. We harvested – and somehow ate – 5kg of courgettes!

The June plants are only just getting going and, unbelievably, the April plants are still going strong, producing at least 4 courgettes a week.

Luckily we’ve got a few courgette recipes up our sleeves, for example:

• red lentil and courgette soup
• courgette and Roquefort soup
• butter-sautéed courgettes with red onion and balsamic vinegar
• courgette and dill salad
• courgette and chocolate cake

But our courgette output is increasing by the day and I suspect I’m about to hit mutiny at the kitchen table unless I come up with some new ideas pretty soon!

So I was wondering if any of the Green Girls Global readers have been facing a similar problem?
What are your top tips for enjoying courgettes?

Any sneaky tricks for hiding them in dishes so the family won’t know they’ve been “courgetted” again?
How many courgette plants does a family really need?

I’d love to hear your top tips and courgette stories!

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how being busy everyday can affect how green you live. If I’m strapped for time then I take short cuts I wouldn’t take if I could be a bit more leisurely and those short cuts are not always eco friendly.

I guess they key is to work green habits into your daily routines. I’m not talking about grand gestures like buying a hybrid car or holidaying in an expensive eco-retreat, that’s not realistic for most of us. I’m talking about those things that we can do all the time in our own home and garden.

Here’s a quick run down of 10 of the things we do in our house. I’d love to learn more so do share your everyday eco habits with us.

1. Benevolent Brands?
I’ve put this one first because I think its the most important here and I’ve been doing this since I could spend my own pocket money. Get to know which brands are lacking in positive eco & ethical credentials and show them that you don’t approve by avoiding their products in your weekly shop. I’m a great believer in consumer power and there’s nothing easier than not doing something, not buying something. Online ethical shopping tool Gooshing can help you know the score.

2. Keep it Fresh
Instead of buying foil, cling film or plastic sandwich bags which will just get thrown away, wash out and save a couple of ice cream and margarine tubs to keep food fresh in your fridge.

3. White Vinegar is Your Friend
I have always been a bit dubious about eco cleaning products but one that is a definite winner and as cheap as chips (tastes good on chips too!) is vinegar. There’s nothing like white vinegar to get rid of grease and make surfaces lovely and shiny. I use it on stainless steel, windows and mirrors and I don’t have to worry about breathing in nasty chemicals when I’m using it.

4. Nature’s Bodyguards
Instead of using pesticides to keep aphids from munching on your beloved tomatoes and cucumbers, let nature do the work for you. For some reason a lot of creepy crawlies that like your veggie plants hate marigolds so plant them alongside and let them protect the fruits of your labours.

5. Home Made Labels
Whilst we’re talking gardens, here are a few ways you can recycle bits and bobs from indoors to use outdoors – Keep bottle tops to put on the end of garden canes to protect yourself (especially your eyes) from the sharp edges. Cut yoghurt pots into strips and use them as washable plant labels. Keep a tub or container handy in your kitchen to chuck in tea bags and veg peelings, ready to take out to the compost bin.

6. Old Fashioned Washing
I love hanging washing on the line – I think it’s because it’s one of those jobs that tells us the fine weather is finally here. Although, as us UK based folks know, fine weather is elusive here. So rather than heading to the tumble dryer (we don’t own one), get yourself a clothes horse to dry your washing indoors when it’s rainy outdoors.

7. Sweet Scent
There are so many air fresheners on the market right now I couldn’t possibly name them all. They’re so sophisticated too, spraying out a smell on a timer or whenever you walk in the room, but they’re just unnecessary. Goodness knows what chemicals they’re spurting at you and the amount of plastic that must go into making them makes my head spin. We keep a pretty wooden box (recycled from a wine case) near the front door with a handful of potpourri in it. When the smell fades, just sprinkle a little of your favourite essential oil in there. You could even get some lemon juice or sprigs of lovely smelling herbs like Rosemary. Hmmmmm…

8. Cut Down on the Meat
Until I met Sophie from Food For Change I thought I knew the implications of agriculture, especially farming for meat. I knew nothing. The amount of resources that go into feeding and keeping animals for food is mind blowing. It’s a devastating industry, not only for the animals but for the environment and humans too. Cutting down or cutting out animal products from your diet truly can help relieve this. Read my interview with Sophie or visit www.foodforchange.org.uk to find out more.

9. Make Second Hand First
This is my favourite tip because its about shopping – shopping and feeling good about it. OK, let me just spit it out. If you have hang-ups about second hand get over it! Antiques are second hand and no-one has issues with that. Whether looking for large items like furniture or small things like tea cups or clothes I always go for second hand first. Lots of the furniture in our house is second hand, was very cheap or free and, after a little restoration, beautiful. Buying second hand means you are not using more of the world’s resources to get something that’s new for you. Charity shops are the best because they are full of hidden gems and buying them contributes to something really worthwhile. Why line greedy companies’ pockets only to buy the same old beige, uniform items? Get creative, mix and match and have fun.

10. Take Your Time
I have to confess, I’m working on this one. Rushing around causes me to take short cuts and make decisions that aren’t good for the environment, like driving to the shops because its quicker than walking and grabbing a take-away rather than cooking a home made meal.

I’m far from perfect on the green front but I’d like to learn more. Share your ‘everyday eco’ and let’s make a habit of it.

My great uncle Bill used to spend hours in his greenhouse. Although he had a beautiful garden he wasn’t necessarily working, he just used to sit in there, enjoying the tranquility. As a child I didn’t understand it.

Nowadays of course I do understand. In the mayhem of everyday life, work and chasing around I can easily understand what a peaceful place the greenhouse can be and that’s why I’m concentrating my efforts there this year.

Since starting to try and grow veggies ‘properly’ in 2007 the main thing I’ve learned is to be realistic. When you have a working life which hardly gives you the time to eat you can’t expect to suddenly find the time to produce a feast from your garden too.

During my first year of the Veg Patch Diaries I was ambitious, with a list of fruit, veg and herbs as long as your arm. The main mistake I made was to try and run before I could walk and it quickly sapped all of the fun and enjoyment out of gardening. Keeping on top of it became a chore and when I had to neglect the poor little plants because of work and other commitments it felt like a big old waste, defeating the point of trying to bring some self-sufficiency to our little semi in Nottingham.

So badly had we neglected our garden that, until today, the mouldy corpses of last year’s tomato and sweet pepper plants were still in the greenhouse. But inspired by this suddenly spring-like weather we set-to today to give our greenhouse a little TLC ready for a select few fruit and veg seedlings. To make the most of the elusive sunshine we get here in the UK we cleared anything that might block light from the greenhouse and cleaned it right up.

So here we are, nice and early in the growing season with the new outlook that growing food doesn’t have to feel like housework. If it’s manageable it will be enjoyable and, who knows, productive too. In a cold country like ours we can make the most of our greenhouse all year round. We don’t have to over do it, the more exclusive our little veggie collection the more attention we can give and less waste we’ll create.

If you’re wondering about the veg patch it hasn’t been forgotten. This year we’re using it to grow potatoes and we already have the Maris Piper seed potatoes to get cracking. The patch doesn’t get enough light for sun-loving plants like sweetcorn but for the good old potato it’ll do just fine.

If you’re a wannabe greenfingers like me check out the Green Girls Global ‘At Home Winter Garden’ and ‘Dig Carrots’ tees in our Etsy shop. Green Girls can grow veggies anywhere!

I’m always going on about taking baby steps towards living like Tom and Barbara Good in the 70′s BBC Comedy The Good Life but take a look at Caroline Harris’ video to find out how her family have made some great leaps in the ‘Good’ direction.

Although I’m not going to write in any great detail about my veg growing adventures this year I just wanted to do a quick update and let you know (those of you who are interested) that despite not much success last year we haven’t given up on the good life yet.

Well it’s not quite ‘The Good Life‘ (I still love Tom & Barbara’s lifestyle and Margo’s fabulous fashion), in fact I’ve reduced the numbers and types of veggies this year.

2008′s veg patch includes potatoes, sweetcorn, spinach, cucumber, sweet peppers, lettuce, tomatoes (of course), jalapenos, rocket and radish. Radish are so easy to grow that you can give yourself an encouraging pat on the back every time you crunch one of your home-grown in a lovely salad.

The things I learned from last year and have tried to improve on this time are:

• Start sowing seeds earlier (well I did actually fail on this one because wedding arrangements sapped veg growing preparation time in April)
• Be realistic – There’s no point sowing hundreds of seeds if you don’t have the time or space to nurture them to your table. I was not realistic last year
• Be tougher on pests – I just can’t kill the creatures in my garden but I know I can’t ask them nicely not to eat the greens either, so I’ve tried to put them off with marigolds and gravel. The results? So far so good!
• More food – Yes, I know, this is obvious.
• Hope for the right amounts of sunshine and rain – Still working on this one!

Unfortunately I don’t have a lot of time to spend in my garden and so I’m starting small and building up. You never know next year we may get chickens for our very own eggs and the year after that who knows?! The Good Life here we come!!

For any of you who haven’t seen the old 70s TV show ‘The Good Life‘. Here’s a classic snippet from one of the episodes:

“What’s a nice Irish girl like you doing in a place like this?” might well be the opening line for conversation with me. Twenty-seven years of calling the Sonoran Desert home has me convinced that you can transplant, but you can’t take the green out of the girl. The new green that is.

Recently I downsized from a large house. The search for a two-bedroom house in the foothills of the Catalina Mountains, in Tucson, Arizona, offered few choices. With three weeks to go before handing over my previous home I settled on the smallest and ugliest house on the list. Unloved, lacking in any exterior charm whatsoever, the house had the elements that I was looking for. Namely: small; spectacular views of the mountains; a neighborhood where dog and I could walk in the desert, and, a rarity in these parts, a twenty minute walk to a grocery store, several restaurants and coffee shops. Furthermore, improvements are scheduled for the main artery road to include sidewalks, bike path and noise reduction road surfacing.

The house is brick construction, circa 1983 and a structural inspection, pronounced it “sound”. Built into a hillside with garage below, the steps leading up the front door enforce daily cardio.

Living in the desert affords a blissful climate for eight months out of the year and blast furnace heat June through September. Anything you do to limit direct effects of the Sun’s heat is a bonus. This house has south facing wall of French doors….a conduit for the sun …opening onto a back yard area that housed a shabby, plaster coated pool, and enough concrete on which to drill (even grill) a regiment. Not a blade of grass or leaf marred its jarring horribleness!

My first task was to create shade. I did my homework and located a company that made aluminium trellises. One product, touted to look like aged redwood, exceeded expectations. We covered the entire back yard (excluding the pool) with a trellis, 14 ft. high and affording 60 percent shade pattern. I did research on using recycled aluminium but it was not available. Deep awnings now shade the remaining windows on the south side of the house. The pool was resurfaced with a black “Pebbletec’ to retain heat. The aging pool heater and chlorine filtering system went to the dump and I put in a salt filtering system. The concrete surface was coated with a spray -on product “Kooldeck” in a soft terra cotta and softened the concrete. Next came pots and vines. On the east side I put in mature wisteria, which have already reached trellis height and are forming a green wall. To climb the columns I chose an orange trumpet vine and a jasmine…both frost hardy and evergreen. The result is a sala fresca, an outdoor room that is cool, inviting and shady. By this time next year, the vines and wisteria will cover the entire “roof” area. The direct sun into the great room has been eliminated and despite recent 100F plus temperatures, the interior house temperature has not risen above 84F. Compare that to the October morning when I first saw the house and the thermostat showed an interior temperature of 97F.

The front of the house beautification involved carving out a portion of the hillside. The dirt was carted round back to form a “mesa” behind the pool wall on which I planted native Mesquite and Palo Verde trees. A small area was walled in for a front garden; the Irish in me surfaced and I do have a bed sheet sized lawn. I have planted grape vines and a fig tree, creating green surfaces on exposed walls to offset bricks retaining heat from the sun. A tiny side yard off my study has become a vegetable garden and with the help of a large shade umbrella, tomatoes, onions, herbs and other vegetables are thriving and my study is a cool, pleasant spot. Along the perimeter of the property I have planted citrus trees.

Now I can hear the voices : “what about water…she’s created an oasis”. Everything is on a drip system that is carefully monitored to give exactly the amount of water needed. My exterior trees make use of grey water from the washing machine and creating catchment wells around their trunks prevents run-off. Native trees are not watered; I have built dry river beds to carry monsoon rain run off into basins; plantings outside the walls on the west side are the beneficiaries of pool back flow. Plans are in place to monitor rain run-off this coming monsoon season and, based on that pattern, to install a water -harvesting holding tank in the obsolete underground septic tank.

My point is that a girl can have her green in the desert and remain green. So many voices clamor that green demands sacrifice. My contention is that green demands knowing your property and applying common sense management. I made one self-indulgent concession this year…I planted a bed of annual flowers to tide me over whilst the native perennials and treasured roses (brought from the old house) got their toes in the earth. This coming fall that bed will be home to vegetables.

Gerry Hogan has lived in the USA for 43 years. Her primary career was in the manufacture of instruments for observing the surface of the Sun. Her retirement career is the publication of an on-line magazine for women www.connectionsforwomen.com

Are you making the most of the incredibly short asparagus season? Blink and you miss it…

May and early June see the brief few weeks when we can get hold of locally-grown asparagus (I’m talking UK and Europe here – apologies to the rest of the global community!).

Asparagus is a short-lived treat!

The rest of the year now sees air freighted asparagus available from Peru and beyond, but you can’t beat the taste and freshness of locally grown, freshly-picked stems.

At this time of year, it’s so abundant that it’s cheaper, fresher and tastier than at any other time of year. Like so many veggies, it starts to deteriorate and dry out soon after picking, so fresh is definitely best.

Asparagus is an expensive vegetable because its season is so short and growing it takes quite an effort. For a start, it takes three years or more after planting, before you get a half-decent crop. Then add in the fact it has to be harvested by hand with a special knife and the our preference for tender young stems, rather than larger, woodier asparagus, and it’s easy to see why it sells for a premium.

I was in my local supermarket at the weekend (I know, burn me at the stake, and all that!) and above a tray of pretty fresh, locally-sourced asparagus were neat little packs of “fine asparagus tips” from – wait for it – Thailand. Complete with a “by air” sticker. Why oh why oh why? It’s the height of the UK asparagus season and I find it hard to believe we still need to import it.

But putting my soap box aside, I love asparagus. Whether it’s the flavoursome green stems we’re so familiar with in the UK or the delicate white stems you see in continental Europe, it’s s six week treat.

And I was wondering, what’s your favourite way of enjoying asparagus?

Mine? Sheer indulgence: with a home-made Hollandaise sauce. The whole thing takes 5 minutes and it’s simply the most incredible way of eating asparagus. Probably just as well it only has a short season!

So what do you do with yours?

Clare

As mine and Jez‘s big day approaches and most of the preparations in place I thought I would steal a little time to reflect and share my experience in planning our eco and ethical wedding.

Right from the start we wanted our wedding to reflect our everyday values and beliefs, how we live and work. Although we didn’t tell anyone until the summer, our plans started last spring, looking for all of the main wedding necessities – a place to have the ceremony, a place to celebrate and someone to provide food.

Ceremonies & Celebrations

Finding a place to have the ceremony was easy, neither of us wanted to get married in church and the cost of using a hotel or other licenced venue ruled that out immediately. So, register office it was to be. We didn’t choose the one in Nottingham city as it isn’t very pretty and would be further for our families to travel so we chose one in a nearby town which has a walled garden and is just as easy to get to via public transport.

Party Venue
Looking for a place to celebrate and a caterer went hand in hand because of course the venue needed the facilities to prepare and serve food and the caterer had to be happy working in the chosen venue. It took me a little while to catch on to the idea of having a celebration in a village hall, I don’t know why but I think I originally got the idea from an Ethical Weddings blog post. I had spend days and days scouring the internet for a suitable place in Nottinghamshire, again hotels were just too expensive and many places wanted to provide their own food but I was determined to find an ethical caterer of our own.

Ethical Caterer
Luckily after the great realisation that a village hall would be just right for us, I narrowed it down to two possibilities, visited them both and chose one immediately, a charity run hall not far from the register office. In-between times I was glued to my computer searching for a suitable caterer and in Nottinghamshire that isn’t easy. I think in total I found 3 caterers that could provide local, organic and fair trade food but when I called Cate from C8TER I need look no further. Right from the start Cate reassured me with her friendly, professional and flexible approach and her attention to detail. She’s knowledgable about sourcing local and organic food and after sampling her cooking I’m really looking forward to the meal on the day!

Dressing Up

Luckily, finding a dress happened quite quickly, although I expected it to be difficult. In fact initially I didn’t see myself with a traditional wedding dress and thought I would buy a pretty organic cotton dress or something similar. However, wedding fever soon took over and I got carried away with the idea of having a bridal gown. At this point I can’t say too much as Jez hasn’t seen the dress and I don’t want to give anything away.

Oxfam Bridal
Once I knew I was going to get a wedding dress I also knew where I wanted to buy it – Oxfam Bridal. So, last July my mum and I excitedly set off to Leicester where the nearest Oxfam Bridal store is. Unfortuntaly I didn’t find the dress for me on that first trip but I was heartened and encouraged by how nicely they had set up that separate part of the shop and the variety of gowns. The next nearest Oxfam Bridal shop is in Bradford and that shopping trip was the ultimate in making the most of public transport – All tied in with a business meeting and a visit to see some friends I managed to get from Bradford train station to the Oxfam store, pick a dress, try it on, buy it and get back on the train all in about 30 minutes! I was so pleased that I’d found something that was just right and was really impressed with the choice and facilities in the Oxfam shop. The staff there were excited and fussy which made it even more special.

I realise that for some people the thought of buying their bridal gown from a charity shop sounds terrible but its probably the single item that I’m most pleased with and I’m so happy that I did manage to find it at Oxfam.

Bouquets and Posies
I had a mixed experience trying to find a suitable florist for my bouquet. Initially I was going plant some tulip bulbs in the garden, ask our families to do the same and make my own bunch of flowers nearer to the time. Then I came to my senses and realised I know absolutely nothing about keeping or arranging flowers once they’ve been plucked from the ground and decided to seek professional advice.

I spoke to a few different florists, some of whom were sympathetic to the idea of having a green and ethical wedding and others who just looked baffled when I asked about locally sourced flowers. I’m not picky, I think all flowers are beautiful and so I wasn’t going to dictate exactly the type of flower I wanted as long as it was grown as nearby as possible and were roughly in the colours I wanted. I chose a florist called The Rose Bower in the end because they were the most helpful and were willing to find out what seasonal, locally grown flowers would be available at this time of year before I’d even decided to use them. I can’t wait to see mine and Beth’s (my bridesmaid, niece & guest GGG editor) tulip bouquets when I go to collect them on the morning and they will have only travelled from the next county, Lincolnshire.

Invitations & Decorations

After organising the food and venues the rest of the planning was quite easy. I love making things and wanted something individual, so I decided from the start that I would make the invitations, menus, favours, name places and decorations myself.

Bunting!
The village hall is quite typical in that it really needs a lick of paint and looks quite grubby in daylight but I like a challenge and so last September Jez, his mum, my parents and I went off armed with notepads and tape measures to figure out how we could transform it into a beautiful place to celebrate. From then on I spent months finding large pieces of fabric and sheets to drape around the room, some from charity shops and some from ebay. I also bought some pink, yellow, green and white cotton to make my own bunting. I have metres and metres of the stuff and my friends at our craft group, Stitched Up, found it quite amusing that this cotton bunting never seemed to end!

I love bunting, it always seems to cheer me up. I’ve even had a small piece hanging up in the house for a few weeks.

RSVP
Because the venue is near to a maypole (which I used to run around and around when I was little) we’ve ended up with a maypole theme and the spring colours lemon, pink and green. So, I was very lucky when I asked my graphic designer friend if she could design me a motif for invites, menus etc using that theme. What she came up with was beautiful and I just what I wanted. I bought all of the recycled card, paper and envelopes I needed from Eco Craft who delivered it very quickly.

We asked our guests to RSVP via a website we’d built. The website also provides details of transport, directions, local hotels and so on to save from using up any more paper than necessary.

Tables, Favours & Name Cards
Aside from card for invites and menus I bought some lovely recycled paper which has confetti embedded in it. From this I made little origami boxes (which I talked about in my ‘Origami Genius!’ post) and will put in each of them a bulb from my Dad’s garden – these are our guests’ favours.

The name places are hand made, natural fruit lollipops with no artificial colours or flavours from sweetstall.com and I have added little labels to each one for our guests with a little picture. Jez and I have a house rabbit so our labels have loved-up bunnies on them, ahhhh. The others have butterflies, hearts and flowers.

Also, to decorate the tables we painted some plant pots white and decorated them with our colours and theme and soon I will be planting in them primroses or another spring flower which have been grown by a gardener just a few miles down the road.

The day before the wedding myself, Jez and an army of sisters and nieces and my mum and dad will spend the day putting all of these decorations together, hopefully creating a lovely room for eating, drinking and dancing.

Cake, Wine & Water

One of the nicest things about planning a wedding is that people really want to help and be involved. Jez’s mum is brilliant at making and decorating cakes and there was no question that she would be making ours. We decided to go for a traditional fruit cake (with organic ingredients) as well as Fairtrade chocolate cupcakes. Jez’s mum and I spent a lovely weekend making all of the little white sugar flowers for the main cake and hearts and butterflies for the cupcakes.

Guests will will take home slices of cake in pretty white recycled card boxes from The Tiny Box Company. Rachel at The Tiny Box Company was so obliging, helping me to choose the right size box and keep within my budget – This was the very last thing I bought and so I didn’t want to spend too much. It was a very speedy delivery too so I didn’t need to worry about any last minute hitches.

The bubbly and wine is all organic and Fairtrade and one of the types we have chosen is an English wine from Pennard Organic Vineyard.

I’m also extremely happy that we even managed to find eco friendly bottled water thanks to our Green Guy Gareth’s post ‘Bottled Water: Environmental Disaster?‘ . In that article Gareth mentions Belu Water, a carbon neutral company whose profits go towards clean water projects. So, I contacted Belu who very helpfully found me a local supplier, Lee & Fletcher, who delivered the water to my door in just a couple of days!

I Do!

The rings are the last thing I’m going to talk about although I’m sure I must have forgotten something. I’ll probably give an update afterwards anyway so I can show pictures of the decorated venue and my dress, which won’t be a secret by then.

Looking for rings was quite a strange experience. We wanted to get antique or second hand rings because that is the greenest option available – I always work on that principle and used it throughout the wedding planning. I guess we were a little niaive thinking that we’d be able to pop into one of the many antique shops in Nottinghamshire, pick up two gold wedding bands and be on our way. Apparently this isn’t the case.

After going into a few shops, looking at every other type of antique ring but finding no wedding rings one lady told me that they just don’t sell them because people are too superstitious to buy them. She said that if a wedding band was brought to the shop it just got sent for scrap! What a waste! I was so disappointed. However, the internet is a fantastic thing and after a quick search I not only found John Clive Jewellers but two perfect second hand rings in exactly the right size!

When I look back I’m proud of what we’ve achieved. Not everything is 100% green, we’re having a fancy car to take us to the register office and a disco in the evening but all-in-all I think we’ve done really well.

I’ll be in touch again at the end of April to let you know how it all went!

From the age of 12 when I decided to become a vegetarian I understood and felt very strongly about the power of the consumer. Back then it was more about boycotting things (well asking my mum not to put meat in my dinner) rather than using my pocket money to protest because, really, how much weight can you throw around with a few pounds a week?

Nevertheless, now that I’m grown up with a proper bank account rather than a piggy bank those values are still important and this is why the Big Green Purse instantly appealed to me.

The aim of this book is to highlight to women the power of their spending and how they can use it in a way that is positive for the environment and for their health.

Although most of the facts and figures relate to American laws and culture the points in this book will still ring true in other countries as it tackles the issues of every day life.

The beginning of the book starts with some inspiring stories of how consumers have already effected change in the manufacture of products such as cars, nail polish and tea. Diane then asks her readers to pledge to shift $1,000 of their annual spending to green products. That’s roughly £500 right now for us in the UK and I think entirely ‘do-able’ especially when you think of all of the areas of spending covered in your life and this book:

• Cosmetics and personal care products
• Cars
• Food and drink
• Cleaning products
• Gardening
• Kid’s stuff
• Electricals
• Home decoration and furnishings

There is a strong theme on personal health as well as environmental health and as this book is aimed at women this includes issues around pregnancy and babies too. Although shocking I think it was necessary to include some of the findings on how the chemicals we’re exposed to can pass on to our unborn children. Even more shocking is the fact that we’re allowed to be exposed to these chemicals but this is very motivating too. It encourages you to read on and find out what we can do about it.

The Big Green Purse shows us how we can shop smarter, how to look out for greenwash, how to understand jargon and acronyms and what the multitude of badges and labels really mean. Throughout the book Diane provides suggestions on good brands to look out for but doesn’t shy away from telling us which companies might need a nudge in the green direction too.

I personally like the checklists which give you the opportunity to think about your own day to day activies and spending such as “How much do you drive?” and “How much [cleaner] do you use?”. This is a great way to get that particular chapter’s subject matter into context for you right at the start.

Diane realistically recognises that greener options such as organic can be more expensive which means sometimes this isn’t a option but her first principle is always to buy less and consume less and I think we would all agree with that. She provides money saving tips and ideas too.

This is a lengthy and detailed book and its clear that Diane has researched it thoroughly but she breaks it down in a digestible way using prompts and symbols which means it could read just as well from cover to cover or as a reference.

What I’d like to see next is a similar book for men. Although Diane’s target audience is women because they “spend $.85 of every dollar in the marketplace” men are still the big earners and its important for everyone to understand the valuable lessons here.

Check out the website at www.biggreenpurse.com