Trying to be green

Oh no it wil spoil the compost if you do that.

**moonwalks off topic.**

you could use saffron and go yellow.....

Dunno if yellow will cover the red. I might just wear a very long shirt, that's quite green isn't it?

You could spill wine over the rest of the trousers, make them red.

I remember they died their clothes 'nettle green' on 'The Good Life' but I can't remember if they actually used nettles to do it. I'll see if I can find out.

Ah, I have many nettles (have been making nettle tea - very rich source of iron) but alas no red wine. I did consider that but I thought it might come up a bit tie-dye and smelly and people might just think I'd spilled loads of wine on my trousers, which is the effect I'm trying to erase.

Wine will ultimately leave a bluey stain, I think. You can try the skins of red onions for something similar, I believe. But you'll need a lot of skins. There are some websites on natural dyeing.

An environmentally friendly alternative to contemporary textiles and dyes has been researched and produced. A fabric is woven from stinging nettle fibres. The historical use of stinging nettle fibre goes back a long way; during World War I and World War II nettles were used to substitute cotton yarns that were unavailable. Thousands of uniforms from Napoleon's Armada were woven from nettles. It was also used as bowstring for the longbows of England and as fishing line. The name URTICA, as nettle is called in Europe, derives from the Latin word "uro" which means to burn. Some of the garments woven in stinging nettle fibre have also been dyed in woad one of the oldest dyes in history. Until the Middle Ages, Europeans used woad (isatis tinctoria) to create a blue dye which was eventually replaced by indigo. Textiles made of nettle fibres are a useful alternative to other natural fibres such as hemp, linen and cotton and will play an increasingly important role in the next 5 to 7 years. Save your nettles they may become valuable then, Rachel :o)

Make white shorts?

Nettles are plentiful so I'll save the money making for a few years. Can't do shorts Lou, as wine is mostly in crotch. If I dye them with red onion skins I might have Jude running after me sniffing my kneecaps.

Leg warmers!

ok, i read that thing about nettles and I have to say it was very interesting ... now I'm worried

We've had our compost bin for almost a year now - all the garden waste (and kitchen stuff - teabags etc) goes in it and magically disappears. This is one of the most satisfying things and I often go out to the garden just to look in it. We haven't had any compost out yet though. I assume it is all there at the bottom. I am secretly hoping a tea tree will grow. btw, we got the compost bin from the council. It only cost a few pounds. Also, since having the water butt, we've put away the hose. I don't know if the water will last all summer. This is causing me tension and we may buy another one and link them together.

I wouldn't mind knowing how to make woad - though only drunken Scots footy fans seem to wear it nowadays. Just have to be careful not to get mistaken for a Smurf - especially if Dylan Moran is about,

Glastonbury derives its name from the Old Celtic "glasto", meaning "a place where Woad grows". The Anglo-Saxon "wad" crops up more often, eg, Wadborough, Worcs (Woad hills). Leaves and roots are dried in Chinese herbalism. Julius Caesar and Pliny both talk of the ancient Britons painting their bodies with Woad. The herb SMELLS SO BAD when being processed into dye that Elizabeth I banned it within five miles of any of her palaces!

See the first chapter of my story, The Inner Light. It's a very rough draft, and has been rewritten since then. I like dyeing and stuff.

Gosh aren't we all lovely and mulchy.

I'm off to the beach and I wish I knew someone that could tell me which seaweed and kelp are edible. I always feel great when I've had some in a Chinese... perhaps I should ask someone who is Chinese - there seems to be quite a few. Anybody here know how to recognise edible seaweed (he asks bravely)?

the stuff from the chinese is edible

It's all pretty edible isn't it? Hugh Fearnley Whatsit had an article in the Observer about it the other week. I'm sure if you look on Observer.co.uk and search you'll find something. You do realise though, that the seaweed in chinese restaurants is usually spinach deep fried and mixed with MSG, salt and sugar? You might be better off in a health food shop.

bleedin hell, this topic is making me feel so guilty. I haven't even been using the blue recycling box the council gave us because it got maggots in it and I ran a mile. The last time I recycled something was saturday, 2.00am when that chilli and wine came back up.

I've had a compost heap (now in a proper thingie) for more than 30 years. They are creations of wonder. You get huge quantities of writhing bright red worms in them - and the compost that comes out is just great for growing all sorts of things. If it's not rotting down fast enough for you then sprinkle in some Garrotta. What a charming name. I dare say it was invented by some deranged member of the Spanish Inquisition. Still, it works. You'd be amazed what you find in it too. Over the years we've plucked out the eldest's glasses (long since replaced at vast cost), the long lost bread knife and the remains of a £20 note. Note though - pineapple tops and avocado skins take years to rot down! Also, it's best to crush up your eggshells before you put them in. They act as good dividers for the soil and do eventually rot away so do continue to use them. Grass cuttings are essential for swift rotting. Enjoy it!

Come on Maxwell, dude. You will find recycling your rubbish just as satisfying as the tactical saturday night chunder. Retrieve the maggots and use them to go fishing in your local canal / pond / resevoir, attached to a piece of nettle twine. You will be eating a (largely) sustainable and healthy food, bought without packaging and without lining the pockets of Sprawlmart or Tesco (terribly unethical but that's another lecture). Alternatively, you could post them through the radiator grille of your neighbour's car (esp if is 4x4) and watch as they bat the blue bottles away every morning as they start their stinking engine. Then fill your lovely reclaimed recycling box with nice clean paper, bottles, cans, don't forget your plastic bottles and food cans (although if you are a heavy drinker then perhaps save half the evidence for the bottle bank, much more anonymous - or put it in your neighbours box) and bingo, helping the planet, cleaning your house and saving an absolute fortune on bin bags. Failing all that, if you do one thing, then re-use your carrier bags.

please please please keep water butts covered as we are now in stag beetle mating season. They are (for reasons that baffle zoologists) attracted to the water, fall in then drown. They are wonderful, useful creatures!

Ugly fuckers though.

I wonder what colour dye they would make? I mean, cochineal bugs make bright, brilliant red. Stag beetles, now...

and do not clear away dead wood...they lay their eggs in it. even better build a logpile.

I'll build them a drive in McDonalds and provide them with Housing Benefit too shall I? *loses the will to be green*

They are not ugly they are lovely ...and God created the creeping things that creep. Okay so they may not be as nice as a bluebell to look at but if the beetles do not decompose the wood and turn it to a nutrient rich soil - the bluebell might not grow there in the first place.

mind you God also created Bob Crowe and I wouldn't even let him rest in a cess pit on my property if he was dying an agonised death with internal bleeding.

Bob Crowe? Stag beetles are actually ok, it's just I have memories of having to carry my brother everywhere for two weeks on a holiday in Spain because he was scared of cockroaches,. At 17 he was quite heavy and I have therefore had a grudge against beetly things ever since.

what about the flying things that walk, and the creeping things that like the occasional stretch, or the barking things that fart?

I have lots of stagbeetles in my woodland garden and love them very much. In fact I like all beetles. They fill me with tenderness. I didn't know they were attracted to water; like moths to fire. Strange. My compost heap is very important to me. Nothing goes to waste. In fact, I love putting things in my compost bucket so much, I almost prefer it to eating them. Interlayer your garden/kitchen waste with grass cuttings and manure for a specially fertile compost. it is almost as satisfying as cooking. [%sig%]

Bob Crowe = That greedy tosser behind the tube strikes No mention of barking things thatfart in Genesis:- 20. God said, "Let the waters swarm with creeping living things and let birds fly over the earth, across the face of the firmament of the heavens." 21. God created the great sea-fish; all living beings which creep, which the waters had swarmed, each according to its kind; and all winged-birds, according to their kinds; God saw that it was good. 22. God blessed them saying, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the water in the seas and let the birds multiply on the land." 23. There was evening and there was morning, a fifth day. 24. God said, "Let the earth bring forth living beings according to their kinds: domesticated animals, creeping things, and beasts of the earth"; and it was so. 25. God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds, the domesticated animals according to their kinds, and all the creeping things according to their kinds; God saw that it was good. 26. God said, "Let us make humanity in our image, according to our likeness, and they will rule over the fish of the sea, the birds of the heavens, the domestic animals, all the earth, and all the creeping things which creep on the earth." 27. God created the human being in God's image; in the image of God, God created him; male and female God created them. 28. God blessed them and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and conquer it; rule over the fish in the sea, the birds in the heavens, and all the beasts which creep on the earth." 29. God said, "Behold, I give you all the grasses which reproduce by seed which are on the face of the whole earth, and all the trees which have fruits of the tree and which reproduce by seed -- they shall be food for you 30. and for all the beasts of the earth, for all the birds of the heavens, and for all the creeping things on the earth -- that which has life in it -- all green grass shall be food"; and it was so. 31. God saw all that God had created and behold it was very good; there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

29. God said, "Behold, I give you all the grasses .... and lo the Rastafarians smoked them

Tony, I think garotta is Brazilian slang for a prostitute--not that I would know for sure, of course. *coughs* If not that, then it is at least the Brazilian equivalent of 'chick' or 'bird' or 'broad.' That's why I laughed out loud reading your (com)post. Anyway, my granny, who lived next door, had a compost file for decades. When I was a youngster, my job was to rake the grass and collect the fallen and rotting apples and haul them to the compost pile. In the fall, the leaves got the treatment as well, though only some, as there were just too many leaves. Every so often I had to turn it with a pitchfork to accelerate the decomposition.

Love it. Compost file. That's where I'm going to stick Jasper.