These build into an easy to follow and use guide to: current tasks, what you can expect and your own growing and harvesting calendar. Check the bottom for the link to the downloads.

iGrowVeg.com is the work of Tracey Bacon from Essex in the UK. Her passion is growing veg year round and helping the rest us learn how. She started from scratch, a complete novice around 2006, and luckily for us is passing on what she’s learned.

Downloads to keep

She also knows how to make great websites and emails, and she designs beautiful downloads that you can collect and keep – all of them packed full of notes, pictures and charts to guide you through the growing year.

Tracey photographs her own veg growing from planting the seeds to harvesting the edible stuff. She’s even started producing detailed slide shows that show you just what to do and expect, step-by-visual-step.

In her February newsletter she included a timely link to an excellent series of slides showing the best techniques for growing from seed – really worth looking at.

But start with these first parts of the iGrowVeg.com Planning Your Vegetable Garden series of downloads. There’s loads of time to get your act into gear and start planning and planting your own veg garden for the rest of the year.

Planning Your Vegetable Garden: Parts 1-4

Part 1: Grouping vegetable types and crop rotation

Part 2: What can I grow

Part 3: Drawing a plan – including your own Excel spreadsheet template (also can be opened in Google docs)

Part 4: Choosing your seeds – another spreadsheet template to help you choose and order your seeds

>> Go to iGrowVeg.com to get downloads now

Online resources for buying seeds, plants and planning your plot

Buy seeds, seedlings and even tree saplings from Sutton seeds direct online

Have you discovered GrowVeg.com our favourite online vegetable planning tool yet?

While food accounts for 19% of domestic waste, cooked food is more likely to be thrown away than raw ingredients and fruit. In most areas this uncompostable waste gets taken to landfill sites which are not only nearly full, but also account for a huge percentage of methane emissions (one of the greenhouse gases) that pollute our atmosphere.

So what to do?

How about giving a wormery a go? Not only will it cope with your cooked scraps, as well as all the fresh stuff you’d put in he compost, but it takes up less room than a compost bin, so can be very handy for those with a small garden, or just balcony or terrace space.

You can feed the worms with your leftover food scraps, newspapers, bones, and even the contents of your vacuum cleaner. Some local authorities subsidise the cost of wormeries – I live in Hounslow and they have discounts arranged with one of the wormery suppliers. If you have a dog you can even buy wormeries specially designed to cope with dog poo. The wormery produces a rich fertiliser in liquid form – you just run it off from a tap at the bottom an you can use it for both indoor plants and on the garden.

A compost worm differs from a normal garden worm in that it eats and lives on the decaying foods on the surface, whereas a garden worm burrows deep into the ground

A Wormery is easy to use: just add your worms, then your waste food, and after a few months the worms will have eaten all the waste and left behind a fantastic fertiliser called vermicompost, which is very high in nutrients.

A Wormery is a good way to get children interested in recycling, fertilising and  composting. Most children love worms and enjoy getting their hands dirty by messing around with soil and holding the slimy, wriggling creatures. You can even buy special children’s wormeries >> Children’s wormeries

A couple of watch-outs

One of the most important factors is to have enough worms to start with so you have plenty to breed from and sufficient to digest the waste you are adding. So make sure you check the quantities supplied before you order – too few and it’s a waste of time, effort and money as you could have a very long wait before enough have bred to tackle the waste. The absolute minimum is 150g – but ideally aim for 500g or more.

Key to a successful wormery is having a large surface area – so go for breadth not depth – a high surface area to volume ratio. One of the most successful designs uses interlocking shallow trays – and this is a better bet than a big deep bucket construction.

Wigglywigglers do something called The Worm Cafe, which has a good supply of worms and consists of several layers >> Wigglywigglers

Try a Bokashi

If the thought of little worms burrowing away, procreating happily and digesting your inedibles fills you with horror, the try a Bokashi. These are small (18-20L) containers you can keep indoors and again they demolish your inedible food waste and turn it into a rich fertiliser.

How so? It’s a bit like those friendly bacteria they’re always banging on about on the box. The Bokashi is full of micro-organisms: bacteria, yeast and fungi that work together to speed-up composting, suppress pathogens including, prevent putrefaction and eliminate bad smells. The active ingredients are contained inside bran. All you have to do is sprinkle a layer of Bokashi Active Bran over the kitchen waste and the micro-organisms in the Bokashi get to work on your waste. The process only takes a couple of weeksafter which the waste doesn’t really look as though it’s decomposed, but when it is incorporated into soil or the compost heap, it breaks down amazingly rapidly, releasing large quantities of soil-boosting probiotic micro-organisms which nourish the soil naturally. >> Wigglywigglers Bokashi

Related links

>> My Worm Diary

>> Make your own compost

“It will smell”  Jane said, her palm facing me at chest height. It looked like my latest find from the re-use store, a Can-o-Worms bin would end up going back to the store, because in a Vermont winter with an average of 83 inches of snow, keeping a wormery outside was not an option.

The following day, over dinner and a chat about her patients, Jane reminded me that a colleague at her hospital was also a vermiculturist.

The next day, she walked me across the University of Vermont Green to meet her colleague. He handed me a bag with one pint of wood ash and a quart jar with about 750 red wiggler worms.

At home in my basement, I loaded the bin with a 10 to 1 mixture of plain old peat moss and one cup of wood ash. I  topped each layer with our table scraps; banana peels, pineapple core, cabbage and potato skins.

Two weeks later, I pulled the desktop light down and lifted up the lid of the wormery. The light, shining in the darkness revealed swarms of activity as the Red Wigglers in rapid retreat, raced into the darker depths of the bin. Each of the three levels of the container held scraps at different stages of decay. The top layer pulsed with life, with a collection of spiders, small white aphids and worms. I adjusted the layers, to insure a path from one layer to the next, added more kitchen scraps and closed it up once again.

Two weeks passed and Jane followed me down the stairs. We opened the top of the wormery, surprised that there was no noticeable odor. The light came on and the top came off. Our previously lifeless basement was now a mass of life that included small red balls: cocoons! The Red Wigglers were obviously enjoying their new quarters as each cocoon hosted a new hatch of 3-6 worms.

After a total of six weeks, I opened the top to the tell tale sign I was waiting for; the bottom layer wet and slimy.

It was time for action. I went through each layer and carefully moved the eggs and worms and harvested their castings, a dark chocolate splendor and gardeners delight. I spread the rich, earthy mix out on plastic to dry it out. The next step will be packing it in one pound bags and giving them to my friends with green thumbs for the holidays.

For more about wormeries >>What about a wormery

Seamus Walsh

Essex Junction, VT, USA

Always use clean pots

If you’re using last year’s pots make sure you give them a rinse out to get rid of any bugs etc. However you don’t have to use proper pots; you can make use of disposable cups, yoghurt cartons and even old toilet rolls and newspaper as great little pots that can be transplanted straight out into the garden.

>>Plant pots from toilet rolls and newspaper

Always use sterile seed compost

It’s always worth investing in a pack of good quality seed compost. Fill the pots with fresh seed compost and add your seeds. Plant seeds are all different shapes and sizes and have different ways of sowing: make sure that you read the packet first and follow the instructions and plant the seed to the required depth.

Make sure your seeds are clearly labelled

Whilst you may remember what you have sown now, you won’t in a couple of weeks. You can buy purpose-made labels, but you can also use old ice lolly sticks, coffee stirrers and even old forks (place the fork in the ground with the handle down and place the seed packet between the prongs}.

Never let your seeds dry out

It’s essential to keep your seeds reguarly watered.  You can invest in a spray bottle or you just use an old water bottle with holes in the lid to make a really good sprinkler

But don’t over water them! – seedlings should be kept damp but not soggy.

Keep the pests away

Slugs and other pests love nothing better than a nice juicy seedling, so make sure that you take care where you place them. Surrounding seedlings with eggshells will help to keep predators at bay.

>>Great ways to recycle eggshells

Take advice

Don’t be afraid to take advice from other gardeners.  Talk to your friends and ask your neighbours what plants grow well in their gardens.  Ask the Make it and Mend it team or post a question on our Forum or Facebook Page.  The more people you talk to, the more knowledge you’ll gain.

>> Take a leaf out Clare F’s book and read how she got on with her first efforts at growing from seed.

Choose your location

Find a nice warm sunny spot to get your seeds going. You don’t have to have expensive greenhouses and propagators to get seeds going. A warm windowsill can work just as well and old water bottles can be used as ad hoc propagators.

Be creative with your containers

And when it comes to planting your seeds out, don’t fall into the trap of thinking you have to use a boring old plastic pot.  Be creative, there are lots of different items that you can put your plants into to create some stunning effects.

>> For more ideas on getting creative with containers

NB Not all seeds need starting off in pots. Some can be sown straight into the ground where they’ll grow once the weather is a little warmer. To do this you simply need to prepare the ground by clearing any weeds and raking over to loosen and flatten the soil and then just broadcast the seeds over the soil. Keep the area well watered and make sure that you keep pests away.

Great seeds for beginners

Flowers

• Nasturtium
• Marigolds
• Sunflowers
• Cosmos
• Sweetpeas

Vegetables

• Broad beans
• Runner beans
• Courgettes
• Radishes
• Lettuce
• Peas

Thanks to our Twitter friends for their great suggestions

• mariemillward
• Fairies4Change
• Thatcham_Veg
• poopette

And I speak from experience. I’ve had fancy shop-bought greetings cards and single long-stem roses that come in plastic tubes. I’ve had meals out in fancy restaurants where you can cut your fingers on the perfectly laundered table linen. I’ve had jewellery and perfume and spa days and clothes. All bought with love and all gratefully received.

But ask me about the gifts that truly stand out in my heart and memory and I’ll tell you about childish scribbles on pieces of folded card and the words ‘I love mum’ scrawled in a demented spider hand that runs out of room, so the final ‘m’ in the word mum has to be carefully squished into place. I’ve had artwork made out of macaroni and lovingly, if erratically plaited friendship bracelets strung with ‘18ct’ plastic beads of the brightest pink (that last one still inhabits my jewellery box). They are more precious than rubies.

So, if you truly want mum’s eyes to shine like diamonds, here ’s my Top 10 of what NOT to get her…

1. No store-bought cards

Of course, there are some great cards in the shops and the greetings card industry spends a lot of money convincing us that only something fancy, and possibly with a microchip in it, will do. Don’t believe them. The best cards are hand made.

Clare O in the MIAMI team made a great video about creating cards for Valentine’s Day and they’d work just as well for mums. » Watch the video

2. Don’t buy me flowers

Okay, they’re a great fallback position when you’ve borrowed my best top (teenager) or used my best body cream to ‘paint’ the windows (about 4 years old) but i want a bit more imagination for Mothers Day. So, how about planting some seeds? You can plant them in an earthenware pot you’ve jazzed up with poster paint (dads, you may have to help the younger ones with this one).

» Read Clare F’s first-time experiences with growing seeds

3. Don’t buy me jewellery

But anything you make I’ll wear with pride. Friendship bracelets are great presents from younger ones and our salt dough recipe can be repurposed for bangles and brooches. We showed you how to make salt dough for Christmas decorations.

» See our salt dough recipe

4. Don’t take me out to dinner

Why not make me dinner instead? And if that’s too ambitious I’ll settle for breakfast in bed. My personal favourite is eggy toast – sometimes called French toast: break an egg in a shallow bow and add a little milk, salt and pepper to taste. Add sliced bread and coat each side. Allow the bread to soak up the egg mixture and lightly fry until cooked.

» Or bake me a cake
» Or make my favourite packed lunch (and slip a little note inside)

5. Don’t buy me perfume

I can get my favourite brand half price in my local supermarket these days and as Christmas wasn’t that long ago, chances are I’ve got enough to be going among with. But why not make me some Rich Rose Moisturiser and encourage me to take a leisurely bath while the rest of the family tidy the kitchen?

» Home made cosmetics

And finally, give me the things money can’t buy…

Spend a little time with mum, even if that means being dragged round a garden centre or watching a weepy movie on telly. A chat over breakfast and a hug after tea mean more than anything that may come with a big bow and shiny wrapping paper. After all – mums know best.

What was you best ever Mother’s day gift?
Share your treasured memory with us by using the comment box below or starting a thread in our forum.

No new clothes for a year? What’s your reaction to that sentence?

Is it: no problem, just think of the money I’ll save. Or: yikes, that’s unthinkable!

Well, that’s the challenge I’ve set myself for the next 365 days. I’m not ruling out the purchase of an item of clothing completely, but it does have to be secondhand, not brand new.

I also plan to make do and mend the wardrobe I already own. I’ve been known to appliqué insects (fabric representations, I should explain) onto a couple of plain cardigans to give them a bit of oomph, so the embroidery thread is on standby.

And, I may even attempt to make something from scratch. I haven’t attempted to craft a whole item of clothing since a disastrous pyjama sewing incident in third year home economics.

But why?

So why, you may ask, am I depriving myself of a new tog or several? After all, won’t I be tempted by the lovely spring/summer/autumn fashions that will be displayed so temptingly in high street stores?

Well, a big chunk of me just wants to see if I can do it. I want to find out if I have the will power to go without shiny new clothes for a whole year. But I also want to address the point that we consumers consume too much.

“Most people have probably read that if everyone on the planet lived as the Brits do we’d need three Earths to meet the demand, not the one we’ve got. Buying new stuff can be fun and useful but we can’t continue taking all we want without there being a consequence”

Then there are the people who make the shiny, new clothes…

Cotton plants are drenched in pesticides, which in turn are breathed in by those tending and handling the crops. And, sadly, poor working conditions and pitiful wages too low to live on are a grim reality for a sizeable chunk of the garment workers making the clothes we covet so much. A top can’t be sold for a couple of pounds without somebody somewhere paying the real price for it.

And when we get bored of our shiny, not so new clothes, they end up in landfill. We live on an island, there’s only so much suitable land out there to fill and it’s getting full.

A year ago I might have thought this was an impossible endeavour. But a few months ago I downshifted my life and the ensuing tighter budget has led me to spend a lot more time in my local charity shops. Here I’ve found a lot of lovely clothes – fashionable, in perfect condition with highly respected labels – for less than £5, most of the time. So that’s what made me think, if I can find shiny secondhand clothes, do I need to buy brand new?

» Find out by following Gabrielle’s challenge over the coming year on her blog The Greengal

Has anyone else tried this?

How did you get on? Did you keep it up or fall by the wayside? Which garment led you astray? – bet it was a pair of shoes!

Add your comments below… Or >>start a thread in our forum

Read our top tips for staying warm below
And enjoy this download » Knit like your granny

We’re lucky we have central heating, but back in 1947 didn’t. They had to get up in the morning to freezing houses, light the fires and warm up pans of water to wash themselves. So how did they do it?

Truth is they toughed it out. By 1947 they had survived the war years, perfected the stiff upper lip and, by comparison, the cold weather probably seemed a bit of a doddle.

• Coats were used as extra blankets – piled on the bed in a desperate bid to keep warm
• Soup was the order of the day – home grown potato and leek was a hot favourite
• Coal was in short supply and many people resorted to burning furniture
• Villages were cut off and food drops were made to outlying areas. One or two members of the community would brave the elements to bring it back for others
• Hot water bottles and home made draught excluders were compulsory

But the real key to keeping warm was layering. People would go to bed wearing balaclavas, several pairs of sock, a jumper or two. During the day they would wear lots of thin layers to trap the air. Hand knitted outfits such as these on the right were perfect for trapping the air.

And to celebrate our ancestors’ stoical approach to life we have gathered together some great 1940’s hats, gloves, and socks for you to make yourself.
So enjoy this download » Knit like your granny

NB – Good news is that snow is not all bad for the garden. Victorians maintained that snow brings down more nitrates and feeds the garden…also the snow falls in places that might not be watered as well by rain and because it takes longer to melt gives a more thorough watering.

Making designer cushions from remnants – video

Talented London interior designer, Julia Palmer in this video masterclass shows how you can have sexy, sumptuous and totally unique designer cushions without paying designer prices.

She demonstrates how to mix fabrics, add trims and inject a bit of sparkle and imagination to create a very unusual and sophisticated effect. You can also download Julia’s cushion template>> Julia Palmer cushion template

>> Julia’s designer cushions from remnant fabrics

How to make a simple cushion cover

Hilary, our own Queen of Cushions (these are some of hers) gives a step-by-step photo guide to making simple cushions – no zips or fasteners – just a nice easy sewn up square or rectangle.

Hilary lists everything you’ll need and throws in her top tips

>> How to make cushion covers

How to add piping to a cushion cover

Adding a piped edge gives a really professional but seems quite scary for a beginner.

Fear not! Hilary, Queen of Cushions shows you how in a step-by-step photo guide: the right sort of cord to use, how much you’ll need, how to make the casing and how to insert into the cushion, as well as how to avoid shrinkage.

>> How to add piping to a cushion

How to make envelope-style cushion covers

Guest writer Maryom shares her guide to making a simple envelope- style cushion cover, using recycled fabric.

The advantage of these covers (as well as being easy to make) is that you can slip them off for washing or dry cleaning without having to sew them on again – and without the cost and fiddliness of inserting a zipper.

>> How to make envelope cushions

Our members share their cushion-making tips and experiences

Sara wrote us a piece about how seeing the cushion her 13 year old daughter made at school inspired her to get her long neglected sewing machine out of the cupboard and have a go herself.  She describes how she did it and how she felt – great inspiration for others wanting to have a go! >> Read her beginner’s guide

Gabrielle, the Greengal, shares her cushion-making story. Her first attempt was actually good enough to give as a gift – a very clever monogrammed job – all done with buttons.  >> Have a look

We’d love to see your cushion-making too. You can post a photo on the >>Forum or on our >> Facebook Page. Tell us how you did it and spread the inspiration and encouragement to others!

Get our free email newsletter, keeping you up to date on special offers. When you sign up  you’ll also be able to download our exclusive ebook on stain removal absolutely free. >> Sign up now

]]> http://www.makeitandmendit.com/2010/02/20/how-to-make-cushions/feed/ 0 http://www.makeitandmendit.com/2010/02/18/free-tickets-for-sewing-festival/ http://www.makeitandmendit.com/2010/02/18/free-tickets-for-sewing-festival/#comments Thu, 18 Feb 2010 15:16:49 +0000 Clare O'Brien http://www.makeitandmendit.com/?p=7610 Whether you’re a beginner or an expert sewer, a seamstress or a crafter, it’s all happening in Birmingham this Spring.  At the NEC, three of the UK’s top shows are getting together on 25th – 28th March for a fabulous sewing festival – and we’ve got 10 pairs of tickets to give away.
Sewing for Pleasure, Hobbycrafts and Fashion, Embroidery & Stitch are all under the same roof with the latest ideas and designs in sewing, textiles, fashion and craft.

FREE tickets

If you want to be there we have 10 pairs of tickets to give away worth £8.50 each – absolutely FREE. That will save you and a friend £17.00 between you. All you have to do is send us an email with Sewing as the subject line, and in the body of the email state your name, your Make it and Mend it member name* and your postal mailing address (so we can send you your tickets).

We’ll randomly select winners on Thursday 18th March and post your tickets the following day by 1st class mail (open to UK residents only).

Email your entry now for a chance to win a pair of tickets to info@makeitandmendit.com

Don’t forget – you need to register as a member* of Make it and Mend it and include your user name in the email with your postal address.

Read our competition rules

* If you’re not a Make it and Mend it member yet, it’s simple to sign-up and it’s FREE. And you’ll also get a free downloadable copy of our No Nonsense Stain Removal Guide, exclusively written for us by the Guardian’s cleaning guru, Stephanie Zia. Sign-up at the top of this page now to get your user name.

Some of the things you can see and learn at the show

There’s just so much to see and do. If you’re looking to improve your sewing skills, Alison Smith of Alison Victoria School of Sewing is running a half an hour session on how to create a fabulous finish to your garments.

Modify your existing wardrobe at the Customisation Station and get new and easy ideas from talented designers to add some sparkle to your clothes! And visit the Pattern Bar for all the latest pattern books.

Meet the sewing experts

You can also pick up the best top tips and insights from the experts on what’s what about dressmaking, sewing and tailoring for soft furnishing and fashion such as:

• Leicestershire based Michelle Pye who runs a selection of dressmaking and tailoring courses
• Gill Arnold who offers inspirational training for beginners and professional dressmakers at her studio in Birmingham.
• Sara Radford who teaches informal workshops for dressmaking, boned bodices and period corset making and holds a weekly sewing surgery at her Devon home
• Janet Moville who runs the ‘Modern Approach Sewing School’ in Lancashire, teaching modern methods of dressmaking and tailoring to all ages and abilities.
• Pen Harrison who has a wealth of experience in soft furnishings and runs a thriving business in the West Midlands.

It’s a true fest!

There’s quilting, cross-stitching, pattern-making, embroidery, dress-making and tailoring to see. As well as the basics of machines, fabrics and supplies and materials to see and buy, there is a wealth of exhibitions and hands-on workshops to get stuck into.

If you’re into sewing – or want to be – we can’t think of a better place to hang out this Spring.

Come on, send us that email now for your chance to win a pair of FREE tickets – put Sewing in the subject line and email to: info@makeitandmendit.com

Can’t bear to leave it to chance? >> Then book your ticket to Sewing for Pleasure (with Hobbycraft and Fashion, Embroidery & Stitch) right now online

]]> http://www.makeitandmendit.com/2010/02/18/free-tickets-for-sewing-festival/feed/ 0 http://www.makeitandmendit.com/2010/02/18/plant-pots-from-toilet-rolls/ http://www.makeitandmendit.com/2010/02/18/plant-pots-from-toilet-rolls/#comments Thu, 18 Feb 2010 11:45:29 +0000 Hilary Bruffell http://miami.ella.d3r.com/?p=1506 There’s nothing more satisfying that growing from seed and watching the first little green shoots peak through the compost. It can also save you money as seeds are much cheaper than even small plants. And there’s no need to buy plant pots for your garden seedlings. You can make your own pots really easily using old loo rolls or old newspapers. Here’s how to do it.

Save your toilet roll tubes in readiness for planting your seedlings. The inside of a toilet roll makes a great little pot! Full size rolls are perfect for growing long rooted plants such as Sweet Peas or Runner Beans, but for ordinary plants you can cut them in half and fill with a general purpose compost and plant your seeds. You can then plant them straight into the garden when they are ready, as the cardboard will decompose naturally. It’s much cheaper than buying seedling containers from the garden centre.

How to

1. Take a toilet roll tube and make four slits around one end of the tube to create 4 flaps. Each flap should be about 5cms in length Step 2 F
2. Fold in the four little flaps like a box bottom and stand upright on a tray.
3. Fill the pots with potting compost Press down the compost firmly with your fingers and you will find that the compost will stay put in the tube.
4. Plant your seeds Remember to keep the pots well watered!
5. When the seedlings are ready, simply plant the pot directly in the ground. There’s no need to transplant the seedling and disturb its roots. Just plant the whole pot out in the ground where the cardboard will eventually rot away.

Tips and Hints

If you run out of toilet rolls you can always use newspaper to make little pots. Simply fold a sheet of paper to the required length and roll into a tube and push one end in. Fill with compost and plant your seeds.

No need to worry about late frosts, simply use empty plastic bottles to make mini cloches. Cut the bottom off and place on top of the pot.

(And hold onto the plastic bottles, they’re really useful for all sorts of things in the garden. For example, if you stick them in the ground the other way up and secure them with plant canes, they funnel water directly to a plant’s roots.)

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