You’ve been faithfully composting for well over a year, your compost bin is pretty full and when you pull the little hatch at the bottom of the bin open you can see lovely crumbly black stuff inside? Sounds like you’re ready to start using your compost.

Compost can greatly improve the state of your soil and its ability to hold water. It also provides nutrients for your plants. Once a year, mix up to 20cms of compost into your flower and vegetable beds (before you plant).

For a great potting mix, try mixing one part compost to one part vermiculite or perlite. This mixture will have excellent water retaining properties. You may want to sieve your compost before you use it for potting to get rid of the bigger chunks.

Mulching helps the soil retain water, and helps stop weed growth. Mulch with compost all over your garden between plants (flowers and vegetables alike) and really go to town mulching deeply around your trees.

If you have a lawn (in this dry climate, what are you thinking?), top dress it with a mixture of well sieved compost and sand. Remember, don’t use a sprinkler. It’s a waste of water.

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There is 20% off Natural Collection’s kitchen compost crock until 30 June 2007.

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Going green is all the rage, but not everyone is taking the plunge. Why not? For starters, you may think that it takes a lot of effort or a lot of money to go green. This just isn’t the case. Here are 12 very easy, cheap and/or money saving ways that you can help save the planet.

1. Replace lightbulbs in your home with low-energy lightbulbs. They are no longer expensive, and save lots of electricity, which in turn saves you money. Buy them at your local supermarket or hard-ware store.
2. Turn off appliances when you aren’t using them. Televisions, DVD players, video recorders - don’t leave them on stand-by, turn them off properly. Switch off your computer when you’re not using it. Unplug your mobile phone charger, or switch it off at the wall when you’re not actually using it.
3. Recycle. This is so easy to do these day. For most of us, the council turns up every week (or fortnight) and collects our recycling from our doorsteps. All we have to do is sort our rubbish into what can be recycled and what can’t. It’s not hard to do.
4. If you’ve got old clothes or old household bits and pieces that you usually just put in the bin. Don’t. Give them to charity or Freecycle them. Giving away usable clothes and other items that you don’t want anymore saves someone else money and saves energy because they won’t be needing new stuff.
5. Feeling nippy? Don’t switch the heating back on, not at this time of year. Go and get yourself a jumper and put it on.
6. Switch to recycled toilet paper. It costs the same as standard bogroll and you’re saving lots of trees. Trees suck up CO2. Recycled toilet paper is good.
7. Clean green. Buy Ecover or your supermarket’s own brand green products. It’s much better for your health and our environment. If you want more advice about this, visit our Racheal’s blog.
8. Try green toiletries and beauty products. They’re good, I swear.
9. Reduce food miles by buying locally produced food. Visit your local Farmer’s Market, it’s a fun morning out! In the supermarket, have a look at where your food has travelled from. Try to buy British.
10. Put a hippo in your toilet cistern and save water. Get a hippo for free from your local water company.
11. Reuse plastic bags over and over again to carry your groceries home. Or take it one step further and get yourself some non-plastic reusable bags that you can take shopping with you from here on out.
12. Switch to green electricity. It only takes a few mouse clicks on U-Switch.

Go on, give being green a try, you know you want to! And once you get into the swing of things, who knows how green you’ll end up being.

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If you’re planning a camping trip this summer, get over to allthingsgreen.net for a peek at their eco-friendly camping set. Instead of stocking up on batteries, invest in some kit that will mean you never need batteries again. The Freeplay Xray wind-up torch and Freeplay Ranger wind-up, solar and rechargeable FM / AM radio are being sold together for £54.98, that’s £10 off their usual price. And as part of the offer, allthingsgreen.net will deliver the items free of charge via a next day courier service.

While you’re there, check out some of their other camping essentials: Organic Places to Stay in the UK, recycled rain hat and after-sun spray with organic aloe-vera, lavander and organic eucalyptus.

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