Did you know about these waste decomposition times:-

• That a glass bottle thrown into the sea will take a 1000 years to decompose and disappear,
• Paper Tissues take 3 months,
• Matchsticks take 6 months,
• Cigarette butts will pollute the sea for 1 to 5 years,
• Plastic bags 10 to 20 years,
• Nylon articles 30 to 40 years,
• Cans 500 years,
• Polystyrene 1000 years

Information from February 8th 2001 edition of Awake magazine.

Wildflower Turf Timelapse Video

We thought it would help gardeners and landscapers to see the process of creating a wildflower meadow from scratch on some barren land. This new video starts with the laying of the Wildflower Turf and has recently been narrated by James Hewetson-Brown who explains how simple it really is.

Before and after examples are shown from other customers from around the country including a 'Green Roof' example, where James explains the benefits over the more 'traditional sedum roofs'..

This particular patch was ready in just about 9 weeks. Depending on the weather and location a wildflower meadow can be created in as little as 8 weeks!

In november 2010 we setup our time-lapse camera on one of the stable roofs at the farm to film the turf growing over an entire year which has been compressed down to 1 minutes worth of footage to demonstrate the lifecycle of the Wildflower Turf

Wildflower Turf

Wildflower Meadow to be sown from Seed

Support our birds, bees and insects by setting aside part of your garden for a native wildflower & grass bed. Wildflower beds are really easy to establish and maintain. Another benefit is that wildflowers prefer poor soils so you can use those tatty patches that nothing seems to like! Top tips - choose seeds suitable for the condition of your soil in the March to October growing season. Try to remove as many of the weeds from the patch as you can before sowing your seeds. Mix your seeds with dry sand or compost before you sow as this will help you sow the seeds evenly. Sow 2-4g of seeds per square meter of ground. You can buy ready mixed seeds to suit your soil type or objective (e.g. supporting bees or birds);

Detailed instructions for creating a wildflower bed form seeds, plug plants or bulbs:-
Establishing a Wildflower Meadow or Garden

Maintenance Instructions:-
Maintaining a Wildflower Meadow or Garden

Wildflower species characteristics table - identify height, soil and moisture needs and flower colour:-
wildflower guide

and you could create this:-

Wooden Bridge up to 30 metre span

Wooden bridges may be flat decked or arched and single spans up to 30metres are achievable with composite construction. Structures are delivered to site.

GardenBridge

Wildlife safety system to cross a road

Wildlife Hazards

Every year thousands of amphibians are killed throughout Britain on roads that cross their migration paths, whilst encroaching urban developments, construction sites and industrial activities (such as quarrying) pose even greater threats to wildlife ecosystems.

The Hy-Tex ACO Wildlife Guidance System, which comprises of a sectional concave barrier and optional under road tunnel, has been designed with the fundamental requirements and well being of herpetofauna and small mammals alike, ensuring successful wildlife habitats where traffic and other developments pose a problem.

hy-tex

Wooden sections to create raised beds and terracing

WoodBlocX is wooden, modular and easy-to-use. BlocX are linked together using dowels and wedges made from re-cycled plastic. WoodBlocX can just as easily be integrated into an established garden as a new garden setting or a small city garden as a more dramatic landscape. Use it for kerbing, corner boxes, low walls, terracing and decking supports.

I have used it 6 years ago for the 2 raised half-circle beds in my front garden, and raised half-circle side bed by the front door. It was very easy to use and has not rotted.

BlocX

Waterproofing and drainage to create areas for dry storage

Control and remove unwanted water from leaking tunnels, dripping arches, wet basements, flooded cellars & damp vaults to make warm living spaces or areas suitable for dry storage.

I have used the excellent services of John Newton & Co Ltd when constructing an area under a raised deck with retaining walls and block walls, to provide an enclosed room with external door for storing post-graduate research papers. I laid the same granite slabs on the 12 feet square deck as on the lower 45 square yard patio and path. The raised deck is used as a barbecue and dining area.

John Newton

Waterproof socks

Keep your feet dry with SealSkinz waterproof socks.

traveldri

Water Clockwork Timer

Hose Timer with Twist dial. Clockwork operation. No batteries required. Maximum water duration 2 hours.

Before you go to bed, set the timer going to water your plants at night-time.

Toolstation

Windbreak Fencing Mesh

Windbreak mesh is a high strength extruded plastic fencing mesh designed to offer essential protection for crops, nurseries, house farmed animals & gardens from destructive winds, driving rain and drifting snow. The Windbreak mesh should be erected by battening to wooden fence posts, or by battening to existing chain link fencing around sports grounds. Battening ensures that the forces exerted onto the wind break mesh filaments are spread evenly ensuring that the mesh will not tear. The windbreak mesh will offer maintenance free protection.

▪ Windbreaks fencing is manufactured from high density polyethylene

▪ The plastic mesh is UV stabilised and rot resistant

Our windbreak fences offer good wind speed reduction, allowing sufficient air through to enable plants to breathe, and can protect animals from insects and birds when fixed on windows or doors of hutches.

Boddingtons

Weed Control Fabric

DuPont™ Plantex® is a non-woven Polypropylene weed control fabric for long lasting, effective and environmentally friendly weed control.
Used by many landscapers, Plantex® has a proven history of 30 years. Its unique structure allows air, water and nutrients to pass through the fabric, lets the soil and plant roots breathe while keeping the weeds underground. This helps to promote a soil environment conducive to healthier plant growth, while providing low maintenance weed control against most common garden weeds such as dandelion, forget me not, clover, buttercup.

DuPont™ Plantex® Gold is an aesthetic bi-coloured, non-woven Polypropylene weed control barrier for long lasting, highly effective and chemical-free weed control even against tough weeds such as couch grass, horsetail, bindweed.

This brown and black fabric allows air, water and nutrients to pass through, lets the soil and plant roots breathe while keeping the weeds underground.

Where to buy these products.

Non-woven Weed Control Fabric

Material：100% virgin Polyprolylene

Treatment：UV treated , breathable

Weight：70-260gsm

Color：black,green,white,brown or as request

Shandong Lianhong Plastic Co., Ltd, China

• A
• Acoustic Fence Barrier to reduce noise from outside your garden
• Aggregate
• Anti-slip paint spray
• Apprenticeship places not being taken up
• Artificial grass for children and pets

• B
• Bamboo root control
• Biodegradable Oils
• Bird and Thief repellent strips
• Bottle top rose
• Brick laying made easy by using plastic spacer to give uniform depth of mortar every time.
• Bridges - Steel, Timber and Kits

• C
• Carpet Bedding Displays
• Cat deterrent - Wall Spikes
• Children's Play Area Safety Rubber Matting
• Chipper/Shredder
• Clocks and Weathervanes
• Concrete crusher to crush your waste to produce foundation material for your drive/garage/etc
• Concrete repair
• Concrete repair to produce smooth level, high strength, concrete surface
• Corrugated roof anti-corrosion paint

• D
• Anti-slip Composite Decking
• Anti-slip Wooden Decking
• Decking and Railing material
• Diamond Sharpening Stone
• Drainsmart prevents blocked rainwater downpipes
• Dulally Bird

From April 2016, all dogs in the UK will need to be microchipped by law. Anyone who doesn't have their dog microchipped by April 6th will have 21 days to comply or may face a penalty fine of up to £500.

• E
• Ecomerchant - an environmentally responsible builder's merchant in Faversham, Kent, England
• Electricity connection to Pond Equipment
• Everedge lawn edging
• Ecolaw website to help prevent illegal construction/development on your estate.
• Expanding Foam to fill holes in tree trunks

• F
• Fencing - Close Boarded
• Flat Free Wheelbarrow Tyre
• Flower Ball hanging basket
• First Aid Kit
• Friendly Fungi - multipurpose
• Frostproof Terracotta Flowerpots
• Further Education Courses at Hadlow College

• G
• Game on a Lawn - Crown Darts
• Garden Detective CD to detect and treat weeds, pests and diseases
• Garden Scoot - wheelchair gardening sitting 1 foot above ground
• Gas to Liquid DIESEL Replacement Fuel
• Graffiti prevention
• Graffiti removal kit
• Grass and Concrete Driveway absorbs the rain
• Ground creation on steep slope if no topsoil is currently there
• Grow grass from seed on a steep slope using TR-Flex to stop soil erosion
• Gardening under Glass by Kenneth A. Beckett

• H
• Hose

• I
• Ice Melt
• Inert PETROL Fuel
• Instant hedging
• Instant Raised Bed and Mini-Greenhouse
• Instant water-proofing for leaking flat roofs
• Irrigation system

• J
• Japanese Knotweed Eradication

• K
• Kneeling Mat

• L
• Label printing for garden games
• Ladder
• Land Drainage
• Landscaping Fabric
• Turf for Lawns
• Leaf Mulch
• Lime mortar instead of cement for walls
• Living security Fence
• Low voltage garden lighting system

• M
• Mulch warning - Cocoa Shell poisonous to dogs
• Manure/Mulch - Cow Manure
• Manure/Mulch - Shredded Manure and Compost
• Metal paint system from Dulux Trade
• Mini-excavator
• Mortar free retaining wall system
• Mower
• Mulch - Woodland Coarse Grade

• N
• National Fruit Collections.
• Natural Swimming Pools instead of chemically-treated pools
• Non-toxic and Non-Chemical Fence Post protection
• Noise Reducing Acoustic Fencing

• O
• Oil - WD40
• Organic meat
• Organic milk and dairy products
• Organically produced wine
• Outdoor Rattan Furniture strong enough for Children

• P
• Paint for external render, which keeps clean
• Paint for external render for maritime areas
• Paving Jointing Compound
• Paving - Stone
• Paving Spacers
• Permeable Concrete Paving
• Plants
• Planter pockets
• Plantex Liner - Pond Liner
• Plastic Post, Fence Panel and Gravel Board
• Plug Plants
• Pond creation
• Pond liner
• Post Hole Digger
• Potato Barrel
• Pro-Seeder
• Pry Bar to remove stones from ground

• Q
• Question: Do British Scaffold Erection Engineers in erecting the scaffolding usually make
  • 1) performance of the future contract for a builder to replace guttering literally impossible?
  • 2) the tiles under the supporting boards to get broken and
  • 3) when the painters or builders use the scaffolding, then they will be causing further damage to the roofs over which these scaffolding boards have been used as support for the scaffolding.?
     

• R
• Roof Paint for corrugated iron with Reinforcing Scrim. All weather application.
• Red Spider Mite - Natural Pest Control
• Roof Sedum Lawn with flowers
• Root Trainers
• Raised beds and terracing
   

• S
• Screens in Planters for hard standing areas
• Seaweed soil improver
• Seed Sowing Guide book
• Seed Trays
• Self Watering pots with their water reservoir can be mounted onto metal frames to provide a gardening area for wheelchair users or for the infirm
• Self Watering Pots with their water reservoir provide garden space on your window cill and garden boundary walls
• Self Watering Propagators
• Sewage treatment in own garden using a sewage treatment plant above ground level. Then use treated water in your garden.
• Sewage treatment in own garden using a sewage treatment plant below ground level. Then use treated water in your garden.
• Skid-resistant surface for vehicle and pedestrian areas.
• Skin shielding lotion helps reduce the natural oil and moisture loss when you are gardening
• Slugs - Natural Pest Control
• Soil Reinforcement on steep slopes
• Soil stabilisation on steep slopes to allow plants to establish themselves.
• Soil Pick
• Spade, fork, rake, hoe, edging iron set,
  Lopper, Hedge shear, sharpener, pruner set and
  Trowel, hand fork and kneeler.
• Spud Tub. If you only use containers, then you can grow your vegetables in these tubs on your concrete garden/patio/courtyard
• Swell Gel
• Topsoil for different applications

• T
• Tarmac Rake
• Tennis Court Fencing
• Tree Pit Porous Paving System to use for tree in centre of Driveways
• Tree Root Protection below a driveway
• Tripod Ladder
• Turf reinforcement for car parking and to stop dogs digging up the lawn

• U
• UK Pesticide Guide 2013
• Urban Bird Deterrent

• V
• Vertical turf
• Vine Weevil - Natural Pest Control

• W
• Waste from your garden
• Water Clockwork Timer
• Water play splashpad system as alternative to paddling pools and traditional water play systems.
• Waterproof Coating for walls, concrete ponds and retaining walls
• Waterproof socks
• Waterproofing and drainage to create areas for dry storage
• Water re-use
• Water saving tip
• Weed Control Fabric
• Non-woven Weed Control fabric from China
• Wheelbarrow puncture-proof
• Whitefly Killer - Natural Pest Control
• Wig Wam Cane Grips
• Wild Flower and Grass Seed Mixtures to produce wildflower meadow
• Wildflower Meadow to be sown from seed
• Wildflower Turf Timelapse Video
• Wildlife safety system to cross a road
• Windbreak Fencing Mesh
• Wood saws
• Wooden Bridge up to 30metre span
• Wooden sections to create raised beds and terracing
• Workwear gloves

• X
• Xtra winter warmth by eating Chilli Jam on Welsh Rarebit

• Y
• Yellow Flexitub

Adonis Blue Egg

• Z
• The first 5 days after the Weekend are the hardest for watering your garden plants
• Zolution is Water Saving Polymer - Broadleaf P4

Adonis Blue Egg on a leaf

I have finally managed to find how to care for this Dulally Bird from

"The Care and Feeding of Stuffed Animals" by Glen Knape, as mentioned in the book "How to Avoid Huge Ships and Other Implausibly Titled Books" by Joel Rickett.

The Bookseller/Diagram Prize for Oddest Title of the Year, originally known as the Diagram Group Prize for the Oddest Title at the Frankfurt Book Fair, commonly known as the Diagram Prize for short, is a humorous literary award that is given annually to the book with the oddest title. The prize is named after the Diagram Group, an information and graphics company based in London, and The Bookseller, a British trade magazine for the publishing industry.

The Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest (BLFC) is a tongue-in-cheek contest held annually and is sponsored by the English Department of San Jose State University in San Jose, California. Entrants are invited "to compose the opening sentence to the worst of all possible novels" – that is, deliberately bad.
The contest was started in 1982 by Professor Scott E. Rice of the English Department at San Jose State University and is named for English novelist and playwright Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, author of the much-quoted first line "It was a dark and stormy night". This opening, from the 1830 novel Paul Clifford, continues floridly:

It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents, except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness.

The first year of the competition attracted just three entries, but it went public the next year, received media attention, and attracted 10,000 entries.

There are now several subcategories, such as detective fiction, romance novels, Western novels, and purple prose. Sentences that are notable but not quite bad enough to merit the Grand Prize or a category prize are awarded Dishonorable Mentions.

This is how to keep your groceries from falling over when they are in plastic handle bags:-

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Case Studies Pages
Site Map

When you have the following 8 problems, then instead of building the building and conning the buyer, that the new building will not subside, then why does the builder not do something to solve these 8 problems - of a house built on clay - before sale?

There is no need for the builder to worry about there being insufficient water for these new buildings well before 2030; as shown in the last row; therefore no need to tell the potential customer.

Problems for Houseowners and Builders when the new home is surrounded by clay and how to solve them.

8 problems caused by clay:-

• In creating a new driveway for a client you can see (from the top photos) that when it rains, that the indentations in the clay caused by my boots do fill with water and then that water does not drain away.
  Solution -
  Had I installed a soakaway under the drive or elsewhere in the back garden below the drive, then it would have filled with water and not drained.
  If the ground is clay, then that soakaway will fill and never empty. In that case if you create that soakaway as a continuous one about 2 feet away from the boundary with it starting 3 feet from house and continuing round to meet the entrance of the drive, then planting privet or yew evergreen hedge in that 2 feet gap between it and the boundary will absorb the water from that driveway. The 2 feet depth of existing clay soil between that extended soakaway and the boundary should be replaced by the following mixture of 1 part existing soil and 1 part sand to provide a soil where the soakaway water can move from the soakaway through the soil to the hedge roots. The french drain used to transport the water should be surrounded by 4 inches of coarse pea-shingle inside an envelope of geotextile to stop that pea-shingle from mixing with the mixed soil.
• The same happened to a client's house, which subsided after 6 years from being built. The builder had run out of top soil and instead of putting sand as the rest of the back garden was composed of where it had been growing a forest, they put 24 inches (60 cms) of blue clay the full width of the back of the house which sloped up and met the upward sloping lawn laid by the builders. The lawn prevented much of the rainwater from entering the sand underneath and thus draining away and ended up on the 144 inch (360 cms) wide slabbed patio before hitting the house wall and soaking into the blue clay below the slabs. Clay can absorb 40% of its own volume before it turns from a solid to a liquid. When the clay absorbs the water, then the suction on the housewall is sufficient to raise that wall. When it dries out then the wall subsides and so it subsided. The 6th photo down the Case 3a Clay on Sand Subsidence of New House Page shows the blue clay as the dark section at the top of the trench with the sand being dark yellow below it.
  Solution 1 -
  Instead of the patio sloping up the back garden, I installed a concrete foundation for a conservatory with the concrete going 12 inches (30 cms) deeper than the 24 depth of blue clay. Then, the foundation for the new Path/Patio at the back of the house was sloped away from the house at 1:40 and the rain drained to the Gully, thence to the Sump in the middle of the garden. I then bought a powerful Cultivator Tiller and rotovated the back lawn. Using an asphalt rake and a spade with wheelbarrow; I then levelled the remaining back garden lawn in both directions, with the conservatory/path areas sloping away from the house to allow rainwater to be collected and taken to the sump, instead of causing further damage to the house. The levelled lawn then needed a Patio wall to stop the earth from being unsurported. A builder than built the conservatory, the restraining patio wall and the new path/patio.
  Solution 2 -
  If that area of blue clay had been surrounded by the Aquadyne Drainage System (details at bottom of this page) by the original builders to a 36 inches depth, then the problem would never have arisen as all the rainwater would have been transferred to the surrounding sand soil and the underlying sand. Thus the suction power of the clay would have been on the Aquadyne Drainage System and not the house wall. Since the Aquadyne Drainage System is plastic it would if it moved up and down and not taken the house wall with it.
• There are other factors causing Subsidence of Buildings, especially Tree Roots in Clay Soils.
• I spent some months maintaining the grounds within 5 acres of a new Care Home. The previous use for these 5 acres had been as a boys school. This had been demolished and the rubble then built on for the 5 new residential Care Buildings with its Administration/Kitchen Building. 5000 shrubs and trees were planted and at the end of the first year, I audited what remained - 2000 out those 5000 had died. The builders had generously added a 2 inches (5 cm) depth of topsoil before planting into that and the rubble under it.
  Solution -
  I bought an American Super Tomahawk Chipper/Shredder and shredded the tree/shrub prunings during the winter and applied the shreddings as a mulch in the further beds on the 5 acre estate during the winter to provide nutrients for the surviving plant.
  I did suggest putting a 4 inch mulch of bark on top of the ground in the beds at a trifling cost of £19,000, since digging up the plants and transfering them to a nursery bed, before excaving a further 12 inches (30 cm) and replacing the 14 inch (35 cm) depth with good soil mixed with manure; and then its plants; would have been extremely time consuming and expensive. This money was not forthcoming, so when I started cutting the lawns, I added the mowings to the beds as a mulch. I was told that this was unsightly and to stop doing that - at this point I resigned since the contract for the original planting only included making up the losses in the first year, I could not see that many of the plants would survive in the succeeding years.
  You need a minimum of a spade depth of at least 8 inches (20 cms) of topsoil with a 4 inch mulch of bark or spent mushroom compost surrounding each plant after the planting, plus an irrigation system - that means 12 inches below the top of the bed edging, so that the mulch does not flow out onto the lawn, patio, drive or paths after it has been laid.
• In maintaining a client's lawn, I found that after rain that their lawn was squelchy. The lawn was laid on a clay topsoil.
  Solution-
  I mowed the lawn quite low and applied Top Dressing at the recommended rate. I repeated this twice more once a month. After that, the problem was sorted.
• I received this from a client - An unsuccessful planting scheme had left bare areas of garden as plants failed to survive winter in the waterlogged clay soil. The loss of numerous plants and the cost of replacing them had left us disheartened.
  Solution -
  A 150mm (6 inch) deep mulch of mixed peat, sharp washed sand and horticultural grit was applied on top of a heavy clay soil to improve its structure, and stop the plants therein from drowning, at £10 a square metre. The mix was:
  • 4 cubic metres of Peat (to provide the Organic Polymers/Organic Matter and Carbon.)
  • 2 cubic metres of Sharp Washed Sand (to provide the sand for the production of microaggregates)
  • 2 cubic metres of Horticultural Grit (to provide larger particles for aggregation)
  • 25kg of Garden Lime (to provide Calcium for the plants and allow clay minerals to bond together to form domains. Once clay minerals are stacked together to form domains, they can then bond with organic matter to form microaggregates)
  • 25 kg of Sulphate of Iron (to provide Iron to act as a trace element and to create soil colloid for buffering chemical nutrients in the soil for later use by plants)
  • 25Kg of Sulphate of Potash ( to provide fertilizer for the plants)
    
    and the following was sent to me in October 2004:- An unsuccessful planting scheme had left bare areas of garden as plants failed to survive winter in the waterlogged clay soil. The loss of numerous plants and the cost of replacing them had left us disheartened. It was evident that remedial action was needed in the form of a mixture of gravel, sand and peat to create an organic loam. Approximately six inches was added in April and left to settle and do its job. By July there was a noticeable difference in the quality of the soil and the plants. Shrubs with sparse, mottled leaves were looking glossy and robust, overall growth had increased (including the weeds!) and the soil was holding its moisture well. But the biggest difference came in the confidence it gave us to transform the garden. The borders used to be a no-go area between May and September as the clay baked and cracked, but the new soil was easy to handle and weeds could be successfully removed. We realised that there are no quick fixes - the key to a healthy garden is rich, nutritous soil. Once our plants began to thrive we were optimistic that, with good advice, we could create a garden to be proud of.
• I visited a prospective client whose second laid lawn sloping up from the house in the back garden was needed to be replaced. The turves had dried and the clay soil had also dried with the result that the turves separated. She had had the builder lay a horizontal patio at the back of her new house and the lawn went from there up to the next house. Her home and garden were on clay. I did point out to her that when it rained, then the patio would become a lake and her house would subside, since not only the rain falling on the patio but the rain falling on the lawn would also end up at the patio. I refused to quote for her lawn replacement.
  Solution -
  in next row.
• When requested by a builder, I visited his site where huge excavators were used to dig the trenches for the drains and utilities. The garden at the back of the showhouse had a downward slope from the garden wall to the house and moss was already growing round the french windows facing the back garden.
  Solution -
  in next Row.
   

Builders do sell the original topsoil including

• the grass,
• the zone of organic matter and the
• zone where mineral and organic matter are mixed

where the new building and its garden areas are to be built.

The consolidated parent material (bedrock) is usually sand, chalk or clay with flint possibly. At the end of building; the builders rubble is covered with possibly only a 2 inch (5 cms) depth of imported topsoil, which might be the washings from the sugar beet in the sugar industry. This is covered with turf and the unsuspecting public is offered the result. As likely as not one of their gardens slopes towards the house and even with the modern depth of foundation wall, there is no guarantee that subsidence will not occur.

If every garden of a new house had a 12 inch depth of soil removed from its new garden area, then at the end of the building work, the Aquadyne Drainage System would be laid round the entire boundary. Next to it then plant the relevant Instant Hedge on the non-house wall sides to absorb the rainwater collected by that drainage system:-

• Screening Boundary Hedge
• Stock Boundary Hedge
• Thorny Barrier Hedge
• Anti-graffiti Hedge or
• Security Hedge

And finally on the same day pour a depth of 11 inches (27.5 cms) depth of the builders soil mixture detailed below onto the remainder of the new garden areas and alongside the Instant Hedging.

To provide a different requirement from the current plants used in the above Instant Hedges, plants for each of the following could be used instead:-

• Thorny Hedge
• Windbreak
• Use as Garden Hedge
• Use in Coastal Conditions
• Use in Woodland Garden
• Pollution Barrier

A fortnight later the following type of turf containing RTF (Rhizomatous Tall Fescue), bred by Barenbrug Research USA, could be laid over the proposed lawn areas. The roots of that grass will reach the clay below and stabilise the new builders soil mix, before the proposed owners view the property a month later.

The mix to change clay soil into a friable useful soil in less than 4 months for the above domestic garden problem was in royal blue colour typing.

Builders Soil Mixture
Using the burgundy colour typing components, the builder could create the following soil mix for his gardens:

• 4 cubic metres of Peat (to provide the Organic Polymers/Organic Matter and Carbon.)
• 2 cubic metres of Sharp Washed Sand (to provide the sand for the production of microaggregates).
• 2 cubic metres of Horticultural Grit (to provide larger particles for aggregation)
  752,000 tons of glass are now recycled annually in the UK. Crushed glass (cullet) is used in Agriculture and landscape applications, such as top dressing, root zone material or golf bunker sand, so builders could replace the Sharp washed Sand and the Horticultural Grit with cullet.
• 25kg of Garden Lime (to provide Calcium for the plants and allow clay minerals to bond together to form domains. Once clay minerals are stacked together to form domains, they can then bond with organic matter to form microaggregates).
  Poultry litter - Uric acid and organic nitrogen (N) in the bird excreta and spilled feed are converted to ammonium (NH4+) by the microbes in the litter. Ammonium, a plant-available N form, can bind to litter and also dissolve in water. Ammonium is a highly reactive ion that bonds with sulfates, nitrates and phosphates to form ammonium salts that improve the nutrient value of litter when land applied as fertilizer.
  Plasterboard (is gypsum - Calcium sulfate dihydrate normally pressed between a paper facer and backer) wastage in the UK is estimated to be 300,0000 tonnes per year. Builders could replace the Garden Lime with the reaction of the poultry litter on the gypsum.
  The recommendations stated in the RHS article are for the finely ground garden lime (calcium carbonate) sold in garden centres in kilograms (kg) per square metre or ounces per square yard. They are based on the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) recommendations for incorporation into the top 20cm (8in) of soil and are enough to raise the soil pH to pH6.5. This is considered the best all-round pH for the majority of garden plants.
• 25 kg of Sulphate of Iron (to provide Iron to act as a trace element and to create soil colloid for buffering chemical nutrients in the soil for later use by plants)
• 25Kg of Sulphate of Potash ( to provide fertilizer for the plants)

If water with 150 kgs of clay was first added to the Concrete TruckMixer and then the required volume of cullet followed by the required volume of waste plasterboard, the mixture is then mixed for an hour. If the cullet/waste plasterboard mixture is passed through the poultry houses to mix with the poultry litter on the litter floor before being collected into the next Concrete TruckMixer, then the houses would be cleaner and smell less. The required volume of waste from beer making could replace the Peat above and the requisite Sulphate of Iron and Sulphate of Potash could be added to the Concrete TruckMixer before that mixture from the Poultry Farm litter floor is added.

That soil mixture could then be mixed for 30 minutes before applying it to the garden areas of the new houses built by the builder to an 11 inch (27.5 cms) depth. The resulting mixture would then integrate with the clay and create a deep topsoil within 3 months.

All the requirements for a soil as shown in the figure above would then have mixed together and time will increase the bacteria and get a new soil structure created.

The following type of turf could then be laid over the proposed lawn areas a fortnight later:-

RTF (Rhizomatous Tall Fescue), bred by Barenbrug Research USA, produces rhizomes (an underground stem) that send a shoot up to the soil surface while extending new roots downwards. In fact, RTF can root to 1.5 metres deep giving it a chance to tap into water reserves that normal lawn turf cannot reach.
Because RTF is suited to almost all soil types and needs little maintenance and minimal irrigation, gardeners will be rewarded with beautiful lawns, rich in colour and disease resistant, not only in the summer but all year round. During the winter months, the lawn will hold its lush green colour and can resist frost and darker corners. With the onset of spring the rapid germination and quick spring green-up means that lawns are greener earlier.

Lack of water by 2030.

20 million homeless English before 2030 as a
Minor inconvenience -
West Midlands, London, Parts of the South West, East Midlands, East of England and South East regions of England are at risk of running out of water by 2030.
Since the privatized water companies have
not completed any new reservoirs, nor significantly reduced the water loss in their pipework or in the pipework between them and the customer's stop tap in the last 30 years, then the increase in the population comes as a surprise, so that the pressure falls below the minimum static head when more is being requested than can be supplied in that pipe.

So the water companies use this escape clause without fixing the problem:-
"Water companies should usually supply water at a minimum of seven metres static head, unless low pressure is due to drought or essential maintenance work. If the pressure falls below this for an hour or more on at least two occasions in a 28 day period, you're entitled to a payment or credit of £25. Only one payment of £25 can be made in any one financial year. " from Claiming Compensation from Water Companies.
Schools are closed as water shortage hits South East; reported on 14 June 2023, due to their ancient pipework structure from their full reservoir not being able to transfer that extra water required.

28 June 2023 we find that Thames Water who supply water and waste water services to 15 million in London and the southeast of England is in deep trouble. It will run out of water by 2030 - rainfall is exceeded by demand. Macquarie tripled Thames Water debts from £3.2 billion to £10.5 billion by 2017 to increase dividend payments to its shareholders. Ofwat approved. The utility, which counts one of Canada’s largest public pension funds among its top investors, has around £14,000,000,000 of debt on its balance sheet. The company said it had a “strong liquidity position,” including £4,400,000,000 ($5.6 billion) of cash.

Medway in 2023 is over-abstracting water (as does India) from its chalk aquifers to provide water for these new houses:-
"Medway has a population of 274,015 in 2014. So 31092 / 274015 =0.113468 = 11.34% increase in population to drink the water. Southern Water have allowed for 15% increase in the water supply by 2035. When you add all the other houses/flats that have been built since 2014 in Medway and adjacent to it, it is more than likely than the increase in the population is over 15% already, 14 years before 2035." from Medway Proposed New School page for details on this population increase. There is nothing that the population of Medway can do about this running out of water.

"Some local people have accused South East Water, which is majority owned by Australian and Canadian private equity funds, of failing to invest in infrastructure. It has paid £156m in dividends to shareholders over the past two years.
"Yet around 20% of the average household bill of £400 goes on water company interest and dividend payments.

In 2021, Southern Water accounts showed accumulated net debt of £5,100,000,000, and a remuneration package for the CEO worth over £1,000,000 (including a bonus of £550,900). The average annual Southern Water dividend payout over the last ten years is £57,000,000."

"Since they were privatised 30 years ago, the UK's sewage-spilling water companies have paid out a staggering £72,000,000,000 in dividends, and not built a single reservoir. Perhaps naively, I thought dividends were paid out of profits, having made provision for necessary investments - but Pennon Group proudly boast about their policy of increasing dividends annually by 2% ahead of inflation (Consumer Price Inflation was 11.1% in October 2022), regardless of sewage spills, leaking pipes, and hose pipe bans. This is jaw-dropping insensitive to those of us vomiting after swimming in the River Dart." from Guy's News of Riverford Organic Farms on Monday 26th June 2023 - riverford.co.uk 01803 227227. Pennon Group own South West Water (See Table Waste of Time for its pollution in row 8), Bristol Water and Bournemouth Water. River Dart has higher than safe levels of 'forever chemicals' pollution.

4 out of the 5 chemical cocktails identified in English river sites from analysis of official Environment Agency Data contained banned - by the UK - toxic 'forever chemicals'.

Because these bankrupt water businesses do not have the land or the money required to create the new infrastructure, then they will give up and get the UK government to take them over (if your business had debt of £5,100,000,000, then in the UK you con your customers to pay for the interest on it, not supply that paid-for product, then demand more money from your customers to fix the problem instead of using the dividend payments that you pay out to business shareholders, which is part of the reason for the debt being accrued over 30 years) as shown within pages in this Home topic.

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Ivydene Gardens Case Studies:
Case 1 - Prepare Garden for Sale

When you wish to sell a property, then the work done to the garden and the house is different.

When a property is to be maintained, then you need to know for what purpose.

I was asked to mow the lawns, prune the shrubs and weed the beds for a property that had had no garden maintenance for a year.

After the first day of cutting the overgrown lawn and weeding the front garden; knowing that the property was going to be put up for sale, I wrote the following email to my client in the left column with work done after the client's response in the right column:-

Some observations, suggestions for you and possible actions by me about the external part of your property and your neighbour's (to improve the visual look of this property before it’s sale)

Client requested that I carry out the work for all 29 of the observations, suggestions for you and actions by me.

Front Garden:-

1. Action - Your neighbour at No 6 did say that the verges were the council’s responsibility, but that they have not cut them this year. I asked her whether I could cut her verge and she agreed; since she has not cut hers. I hope you agree that the cut verges do provide a better first view, since I intend to keep on cutting them as well as the lawns until they look like lawns.

The verges, caravan parking area, vegetable garden, front and back garden lawns were cut using a 21" Honda Self-Propelled Mower every fortnight.

The front and back lawns were scarified using a Honda Scarifier by scarifying along the lawn, vacuuming the lawn with the lawnmower, scarifying at 90 degrees to the last way, vacuuming, scarifying along the diagonal, vacuuming, scarifying along the other diagonal and finally vacuuming.

2. Action - Your tarmac drive has weeds and moss growing in it. I intend to use my high pressure hose to clean them off and brush off the loose tarmac shingle.

The drive was swept, the weeds removed and the moss removed by high pressure hosing it. The loose material was put into into a Hippo bag.

3. Observation - Your top pane of glass in the front door is broken. The draught excluder at the top of the side on the door frame is not on the door frame.

Bell Glass of Gillingham replaced the glass in the front door, the cracked glass in the scullery window and the workshop window.

I painted the door before replacing the draught excluder and the respective windows after their glass replacement.

4. Action - I intend to remove the ivy from the door and its frame between the drive and your internal patio.

The ivy was removed.

5. Observation - The garage door handles and the side door to the internal patio are not the same colour as the rest.

The garage door handles, garage doors and side door was repainted.

6. Observation - The caravan parking area has concrete slabs and small pea-shingle directly onto the clay earth below. This has no Geotextile at the base with no 8” deep Type I MOT foundation above or no 2” of washed sharp sand on top and below the slabs to prevent the underlying clay from heaving or depressing the top surface to the detriment of any weight of caravan or vehicle placed on top.

The weeds were removed, Plantex laid on top and a fresh layer of pea-shingle (supplied by Allsand Supplies Ltd who sell by the cubic yard as against by the ton - 1 cubic yard of stone is 1.8 tons) applied.

Creating the correct foundation etc would not have been cost effective from the point of selling the property.

7. Observation - The middle post on the fence between you and next door is broken at the base and it’s metal support is not keeping it upright.

A wooden stake was inserted into the ground alongside and screwed to the post.

Replacing the broken post would have required replacing the fence sections on each side of it as well, which would not have been cost effective.

8. Observation - The paint is coming off your front soffits, and next doors soffit. The paint is coming off your front asbestos/concrete downpipes.

The soffits and downpipes were painted.

9. Observation - Next door has asbestos/concrete guttering facing your garden in need of painting (perhaps black to match the black plastic guttering and downpipes which you have). The Windows of Next Door and their wall has ivy root fragments on their glass and frame, from the ivy that was cut down from your garden.

The guttering was painted. The ivy roots were removed using water from a high pressure hose.

10. Suggestion - The Asbestos/Concrete downpipes and guttering along the front fence in the caravan parking area need removing.

This was removed.

11. Action - Concerning the climbers on the front fence: Honeysuckle - leave alone, Clematis – prune to ground, Rose – tie to fence with vine-eye/wire support system below trellis, and Climber at end – cut to ground.

This was done.

12. Action - The 3 remaining trees in your front lawn are to have 1’ radius of grass removed from their trunks, to allow the trees to receive nutrients and water.

This was done. Grass mowings were used as a mulch in that 1' radius to provide nutrients for those trees.

13. Action - The 2 front borders to be weeded, pruned, prunings shredded and shreddings applied round their shrubs before covering with grass mowings to feed the plants.

This was done.

14. Internal Patio:-

Observation - if the internal patio climber is removed with its string support system, then the ceiling beams that it is supported by could be stained the same colour as the rest.

This was done.

15. Back Garden:-

Action - The buddleia by the external ramp will be removed, as will the grey juniper tree, grey leylandii tree and yellow juniper tree at end.

These were removed.

16. Observation - The paint is coming off your back soffits, asbestos/concrete guttering and downpipes.

These were cleaned and painted.

17. Action - The garage rose needs vine-eye support system.

This was done. The vine-eye support system keeps the plant at least 3" away from the building, thus allowing airflow behind to stop fungal growth on the climber.

18. Action - Back Garden beds to be weeded, pruned, prunings shredded, shreddings with grass mowings on top to be used as mulch on the beds.

This was done.

19. Action - All support systems on fruit trees to be removed.

The tree posts and straps were removed and put into a HippoBag for disposal.

20. Action - Either the rose trellis is replaced and the rose tied to it, or the trellis is removed together with the rose.

The rose trellis and rose from the vegetable garden area were removed.

21. Observation - The back garden slab patio and slab path are laid directly onto the earth with the cement grouting having weeds in it. Either remove cement grouting to replace it with Geofix to allow for drainage, or lay the slabs correctly with correct depth of foundations etc.

The patio and paths were high pressure hosed to clean them and the lawns abutting them were edged.

Creating the correct foundation etc. would not have been cost effective from the point of selling the property.

22. Suggestion - Suggest you eat your raspberry crop and maybe your rhubarb.

The raspberries were eaten by the birds and the forced rhubarb left for the new owners.

23. Action - Remove the 3 gooseberries from the vegetable garden and plant them where the trees, which will be cut to the ground, are.

This was done.

24. Action - Remove raspberries, keep the rhubarb, level the ground to path level and sow lawn seed to create lawn in the vegetable garden.

This was done.

25. Suggestion - The rocks and bricks leaning against the chainlink fence in the vegetable garden are removed together with the material behind the shed.

The Medibags from Hippowaste were used to remove this waste.

26. Suggestion - If the shed was painted perhaps black, it would not look so shabby.

It was painted chestnut brown.

27. Action - Remove honeysuckle climber from shed.

This was done.

28. Suggestion - White emulsion underneath conservatory roof to be removed, to provide more light in the winter.

Deniva Cleaning Services removed this emulsion as part of their cleaning preparation of the house for sale.

29. Action - Prune trees.

These were pruned, prunings shredded and the beds mulched with those shreddings.

Does this help?

The cost of materials and labour was half of the increase in value between when the remedial work was started and when it had finished.

The property was sold within a month.

It is worth remembering that especially with roses that the colour of the petals of the flower may change - The following photos are of Rosa 'Lincolnshire Poacher' which I took on the same day in R.V. Roger's Nursery Field:-

Closed Bud

Opening Bud

Juvenile Flower

Older Juvenile Flower

Middle-aged Flower - Flower Colour in Season in its
Rose Description Page is
"Buff Yellow, with a very slight pink tint at the edges in May-October."

Mature Flower

Juvenile Flower and Dying Flower

Form of Rose Bush

There are 720 roses in the Rose Galleries; many of which have the above series of pictures in their respective Rose Description Page.

So one might avoid the disappointment that the 2 elephants had when their trunks were entwined instead of them each carrying their trunk using their own trunk, and your disappointment of buying a rose to discover that the colour you bought it for is only the case when it has its juvenile flowers; if you look at all the photos of the roses in the respective Rose Description Page!!!!

Table B - UK running out of food

Row 1 - Britain will run out of food by summer of 2024.
Row 2 - When you wish to buy British grown vegetables and fruit,
you will have a problem with many farms being forced to close within 12 months from November 2023.
Row 3 - Farmers fear food shortages caused by green schemes
Row 4 - Waste Britain: How tackling UK's shocking food waste saves country millions
Row 5 - Worker on State Benefits loses 12% of their gross wage because of these new border control food charges.
Row 6 - UK adults who cannot afford to buy food
Row 7 - The Big Six Supermarkets are misleading shoppers into believing that they are buying food from Britain's Family Farms.
 

Row 1 Britain will run out of food by summer of 2024.
Riverford supplies us with vegetables each week. They have farms in the European Union (EU) to make sure that they can supply their products throughout the year.
They would be pleased in paying an extra £6,594 to the cost of bringing a lorry-load of goods into the UK; and
paying for the delays, which could lead to consignments of perishable goods being declared unfit for sale.

"New post-Brexit controls on food imports 'will fuel price inflation' - Overseas suppliers could be deterred from UK trade, reports Cahal Milmo.
Post-Brexit border controls coming into force next week will fuel food inflation by adding up to £3,000,000,000 to the cost of importing goods and drive overseas suppliers away from the UK market, industry bodies fear.
Doubt has been cast on the Government's readiness for the new system being launched on Tuesday after the main border post for checking goods moving through the Port of Dover only received formal approval this week and hauliers warned that they faced "immense uncertainty" about the scale and cost of inspections.
It was suggested yesterday that the new system could add more than £8 a month to food bills for the average family.
The checks, which include compulsory goods inspections and new paperwork requirements, affect consignments of so-called "medium-risk" foods including fresh and frozed meat, fish, dairy products, eggs and live trees and plants. According to one estimate, it will affect about 3 per cent of all UK imports, worth £21,000,000,000 a year.
Documents seen by i suggest that a single lorry-load of goods entering Britain from the EU could be hit with more than £6,500 of extra charges, despite a pledge from ministers that the flat-rate fee for the new system will be capped at £145 per consignment.
Assessments of the cumulative costs of the controls, which range from fees for health certificates issued by EU veterinary authorities to inspection levies, have estimated the additional cost to businesses will be at least £1,000,000,000 and possibly as high as £2,900,000,000.
Such figures stand in stark contrast to the Goverment's own insistence last year that the border target operatring model (BTOM) would add just £330,000,000 to the cost of importing into the UK.
The Cold Chain Federation (CCF) represents producers, warehouse operators and hauliers bringing 20,000 lorry-loads of produce into the UK from Europe every week. It said that British retailers and shoppers faced picking up more of the bill in the shape of higher prices, and that the forecasts by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (defra) that BTOM would add 0.2 per cent to food inflation were a gross underestimate.
Ministers insist that the new system, which has already been delayed five times since Brexit, is necessary to protect food safety and deny that a decision was made to minimise new inspections amid fears of chaos at the UK border, saying that a phased approach to checks would be taken. Comment from me: - 6.667 people have crossed the Channel in smal boats this year from page 13 of i for 27 Aptril 2024. They seem to have escaped border controls!!!
But importers say this has left them in the dark about the intended levels of inspections for a vast array of foodstuffs, many of them perishable goods where delays could lead to consignments being declared unfit for sale.
Phil Pluck, the CCF's chief executive, said "the impact on prices is going to be way, way more that Defra claims. These extra costs sit both with producers and retailers, who ultimately may take the decision that they have to pass that increase on to consumers.
"The supply chain is in trepidation as to what the real cost of the system is going to be. We already have suppliers in Europe saying it is too much and they will simply have to sell their goods elsewhere".
In a leter to Steve Barclay, the Environment Secretary, the CCF accused the Government of a "lack of clear leadership" over the implementation of the border checks and outlined scenarios which could add to £6,594 to the cost of bringing a lorry-load of goods into the UK.
Separate analysis found that the new system culd add £8.59 to the average monthly food shop for a UK household. The figures produce for ITV News suggested that the bill for BTOM in terms of official charges and extra costs from driver delays to paperwork culd be as much as £2,900,000,000.
Stella Creasy, the Labour MP for Walthamstow, who voted against Brexit, said "Businesses that import food, whether they are corner shops or delis, and I suspect even supermarkets, are looking at [BTOM] with horror and finding it is already hitting their ability to get products before it has even been fully introduced".
"We know the charges are coming in next week and I think it is going to mean stockpiling and shortages. And [businesses] have little choice but to pass it on to consumers because how else are they going to make ends meet?"
Concern about the cost implications of the controls is particularly focused on small and medium-sized businesses such as restaurants, corner shop and delicatessens, which often rely on multiple consignments from different locations to maintain supplies.
The British Chambers of Commerce said it was worried that thousands of small outlets faced an "explosion" in costs to cover import fees. One logistics firm that normally pays £30,000 a month into the border control pre-payment system now expects to pay between £200,000 and £250,000 - a cost that will be passed on to cutomers.
Mr Pluck said" There is a very unpleasant surprise coming for a lot of people. Some businesses are looking at paying an additional tens of thousands or pounds a month. This could be a slow death for some parts of the supply chain."
The concerns are accompanied by criticism from within Parliament about the state of readiness of the border controls, which will require a proportion of all consignments entering the UK to be inspected at a network of border control posts.
A facility at Sevington in Kent, the main post for Dover and the Channel Tunnel, was only given its final authorisation for BTOM on Tuesday this week.
Defra said its own analysis showed that the new system would have a "minmal impact" on food prices. A spokesman said "These border checks are fundamental to protecting the UK's food supply chain, farmers and natural environment against costly diseases reaching our shores.
Our robust analysis has shown they will have minimal impact on food priced and consumers, with just a 0.2 percentage point increase on food prices over the next three years" My comment " An increase from about £13 for 2 litres of extra virgin olive oil to over £16 since January 2024 is not a 0.2 per cent increase. 6,667 foreigners entering the UK illegally will bring thier own diseases."

" from Page 12 of i newspaper for 27 April 2024

Row 2 When you wish to buy British grown vegetables and fruit, you will have a problem with many farms being forced to close within 12 months from November 2023.
The goverment is not following it's own laws or laws accepted from the European Union and put into British Law; to stop the supermarkets from closing down British Agriculture.
The Organic Milk Suppliers Cooperative is a cooperative of 500 British farmers who supply organically produced milk and dairy products to Sainsbury's, Tesco, Waitrose, Safeway and Asda. This milk may be higher in Omega 3 and Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA) than non-organic milk. Omega 3 is essential for maintaining a healthy heart, supple and flexible joints, healthy growth and strong bones and teeth. CLA boosts immune function and reduces the growth of tumours. Non-organic milk may have pesticide residues which affects child health.
The National Farmers' Union claim that supermarkets have increased their share of the retail price of milk.

• In 1995 a litre of milk cost 42.1p, of which 24.5p went to the farmer.
• In 2005 a litre cost 50.9p, of which the farmers got only 18.5p.
   

25.8% of households with children
(Children's Right2Food is a nationwide initiative to ensure every child in the UK can access and afford good food)
have experienced food insecurity in September 2022 affecting
4,000,000 children in the UK.
13,000,000 people in the UK are struggling to get enough to eat -This represents nearly 1 in 5 of the UK’s population. Figures from The Food Foundation.
6,200,000 tonnes of food is wasted by the food industry every year in the UK. Figures from World Wide Fund for Nature.
Over 3,000,000 tonnes of the food that goes to waste each year is still edible.
That’s enough for 7,000,000,000 meals. Figures from World Wide Fund for Nature and WRAP.. Surplus food in the supply chain.We call food that isn’t going to be sold, but which is still edible, surplus food. Food becomes surplus for simple reasons such as over-production, labelling errors or short shelf-life. Surplus food occurs everywhere in the supply chain from field through to fork. Here’s a breakdown of where it occurs and how much:

• Farms: 2,900,000 tonnes
• Manufacturing: 95,000 tonnes
• Retail: 65,000 tonnes
• It begs the questions of
  why the people getting unemployment benefit
  do not provide the labour to move this food to food banks
  as their payback of work done
  in order to receive that unemployment benefit?
  with the government providing the transport both ways;
  between their domicile and the workplace;
  together with the transport of the worked on product to the food banks,
  perhaps using miltary vehicles and their drivers?
   

Row 3 Farmers fear food shortages caused by green schemes - they are warning that vegetables and grains could be next to the egg shortages as environmental schemes take large areas of land out of use for food production. Stephen Holt's main crop is winter wheat, but to ensure its success he grows a "break crop" of oil seed rape and beans between wheat harvests to break the cycle of weeds, diseases and pests and to improve soil health. He sells the break crops as a commercial product to make money on top of his wheat harvest.
Holt has now signed up for a new government subsidy to plant a legume cover crop instead of his break crops, which will help pollinators and soil health but will not be harvested for food production. "Instead of 1,300 tonnes of product, we will produce 900 tonnes of product from our farm" Holt said. "All our input prices are approximately 50% higher than before Putin invaded Ukraine but our arable crop prices are below where they were.

So, the government is getting the land for housebuilding by the backdoor, since the farmers will not be able to make a living.
It does not matter who wins the next election, they will build more houses with less water for each of them and all their sewage going out to sea. The phosphorus in human excrement kills algae producing oxygen in the sea and so we are slowly but surely rducing the oxygen we need to breathe to below safe levels and Thames Water investors are witholding £500,000,000 to get the sewage problem starting to be sorted until Thames Water forces its customers to pay more for a very bad service.

Row 4 Waste Britain: How tackling UK's shocking food waste saves country millions - report by Fareshare on 16 May 2023
"The Hertfordshire Business School at the University of Hertfordshire conducted the research in partnership with FareShare, the UK's largest food redistribution charity, which rescues 50,000 tonnes of surplus food to over a million people across the UK every year.  
In a new survey of the 8,500 charities and community groups receiving food from FareShare:  
• Almost 90% of charities say that demand for their services increased in the past year 
• 71% are seeing more people accessing support for the first time 
• Over half (57%) of those people are in employment 
• 65% of charities seeing new people say they are seeing more families with children who need support.
 While demand for food from FareShare has skyrocketed, 3 million tonnes – the equivalent of 7 billion meals – goes to waste on UK farms every year. 
FareShare has calculated that by committing £25 million per year, the Government could deliver 42,500 tonnes of surplus food – the equivalent of 100 million meals – to those experiencing food insecurity. This funding would make it cost-neutral for farmers and food businesses to redistribute their surplus food by paying for labour, packaging and transport." I wonder why the UK government is allowing its population to starve, whilst increasing its tax receipts from just over £400,000,000,000 in 2009-2010 to almost £700,000,000,000 in 2022-2023? The UK government prefers to starve its population and do the following for another country "The UK provided £2,300 million in military support to Ukraine in 2022 and has already committed the same level or an increased amount of military support in 2023 – up to a total £5,000 million over both years." from Channel 4 News.
"The UK will today set out a major package of financial support for Ukraine, including $3 billion of World Bank loan guarantees to bolster Ukraine’s economic stability as it continues to push back Russian forces.
The funding will support vital public services, including the cost of running schools and hospitals.
It is the first bilateral package of multi-year fiscal assistance to be set out by a G7 country, underlining the UK’s unwavering commitment to the country, both now and in the future. It brings the UK’s non-military assistance to Ukraine to more than £4.7 billion, including £4.1 billion of fiscal support and £640 million of bilateral assistance." from Global businesses pledge to back Ukraine's recovery as PM sets out major financial package published 21 June 2023 from the Prime Minister's Office. Why is that £9,700 million not being spent on the UK population instead? even though it all has to be borrowed and this increases the amount that every person in the UK will pay for that repayment interest every year from now on. It is heartening to know that our government keeps on overspending to add to the £2,000,000 million that it has overspent in the last 13 years; with no thought to its consequences - "The public sector spent more than it received in taxes and other income, in May 2023, requiring it to borrow £20,000 million. This was more than double of the £9.4 billion borrowed in May 2022 and the second highest May borrowing since monthly records began in 1993, behind May 2020." from Office for National Statistics on 21 June 2023.

Row 5 - Worker on State Benefits loses 12% of their gross wage because of these new border control food charges.

Britain runs out of food during summer of 2024.
If a worker is on State Benefits and is only allowed to work up 15 hours 59 minutes a week at minimum wage, then with these extra new border control food charges it will cost that person 12% of their gross wage each week and 12% extra if they are supporting their child; from 30 April 2024.
"For Income Support (IS) or Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA), you are classed as working full time if you do 16 hours or more paid work per week. Your partner is considered to be working full time if they do 24 or more hours paid work per week. You doing 16 hours or your partner doing 24 hours work will mean you cannot get the benefit anymore.
If you are working less than 16 hours per week, and your partner is working less than 24 hours per week, then you may be eligible to claim these benefits but the amount you are entitled to could be affected by any earnings you have. " from turn2us.org.uk.
"In August 2023, 22,600,000 people were claiming some form of benefits, in England, Scotland and Wales.
In 2023-24, the government is expected to spend £265,500,000,000 on paying pensions and benefits, just over half of which (£134,800,000,000) goes on benefits to pensioners.
By comparison, the government is expected to spend £245,000,000,000 on health."
Interesting that the State Pension is not enough for pensioners to live on and so they have to claim £134,800,000,000.

 

Row 6 - UK adults who cannot afford to buy food - Tax receipts have recovered strongly from the worst of the pandemic, rising by £120,000,000,000 (15.1 per cent) in 2021-22, and are forecast to rise by a further £90,900,000,000 (9.9 per cent) this year; with an extra £24,000,000,000 raised in 2022 Autumn Statement - the UK overspent by over twice the total tax received by the UK government in 2006-2007 during 2021-2023 tax years (from Tax Expenditures in OECD Countries by Joe Minarik 4127867.ppt),
What is the government overspending the above increases in Tax receipts by over £180,000,000,000 in each of the last 2 years on - having effectively reduced the take home pay of nurses, post office workers, rail workers, etc to the point where they need to get their food donated from food banks? Is it to

• get the nurses to leave and then the Conservative party MPs create their own private health service,
• stop people travelling by train because of proposed lack of guards and any staff members at train stations for ticket offices so people including children going to school do not feel safe travelling,
• stop tourists coming here because of the raw sewage polluting every river and beach; since it is coming from the new houses, hotels and other buildings; and thus kill off the hospitality industry,
• sell foreigners from abroad buildings for investment purposes that will flood from being in a flood plain or subside from being on a slope of clay, because the rain will soak the clay and make it rise and the sun will dry it out and make it shrink.
• bankrupt the UK, so that the next government will spend an annual increase from next year's 20% of its tax receipts on paying the National Debt interest. They will have to pay off the £2,000,000,000,000 increase in the National Debt incurred by the existing Conservative Government since they currently came into power.

Row 7 - The Big Six Supermarkets are misleading shoppers into beliving that they are buying food from Britain's Family Farms.

From Guy's News on Farmers against Farmwashing of Monday 30 September 2024 from riverford.co.uk
"British farming is on its knees. Multiple factors contributed, from climate change to ongoing uncertainty about government support. But the main issue is that farmers just cannot survive the prices, trading terms, and insecurity imposed on by the Big Six supermarkets.
A year ago, we wrote to supermarkets as part of our GetFairAboutFarming campaign, and explained that British farmers are on the brink. In response, they publicly promised to support farmers (one of them to the tune of £17,000,000,000). But behind the scenes, the crisis has worsened. 61% of farmers now fear they will go bust in the next 18 months - up from 49% last year.
The farms that do survive bear little resemblance to the idyll that shoppers are encouraged to imagine. Union Jacks on display in the fruit and veg aisles, meat claiming to offer 'higher welfare standards', and farm imagery on labels all imply to the time-poor that the food they are buying is from wholesome British family farms. The reality is that much of the produce is imported, animal welfare claims are often cynically worded, and 'trusted farms' are US-style megafarms. They are stealing the clothes of real farmers and not paying for them. This farmwashing.
British shoppers want to support better farming. What gets in the way is the power and misleading advertising of the supermarkets, whose business model depends on keeping farmrs and shoppers apart, and filling the void with a fantasy. This is not a success of the free market, efficiently delivering what consumers want; it is the market failure that 18th-century economist Adam Smith predicted would arise when one party has unbalanced power and control of information.
In any healthy food culture, there is a strng conection between the people growing the food and the people eating it. That connection has been the root of Riverford's success for over 30 years. For Britain's family farms to survive, they all need to be given the same opportunities we have enjoyed: to tell the stories behind their food, and receive a fair price that allows them to farm well, for consumers, animals, the soil, biodiversity, and the planet. That is why we are asking supermarkets to show some integrity, stop the farmwashing, and start offering real support for real British farms.

Uncover more at stopfarmwashing.co.uk."

Since the majority of British Farms will go bust in the fairly near future, I wonder if the supermarkets will buy them up and turn them into the required 1,500,000 new homes, plus a few thousand business premises within the next 5 years, They will be quietly forgetting that mains water pipes laid in the Victorian times of the 1800's can only supply a certain volume and when the new housing estates take their water from that pipe, it means that buildings further along that pipe will not have water. It is also the point that as more land gets devoted to roads, homes, concrete parking etc, that the combined raw sewage and stormwater pipes will also get overloaded, so the estates will have raw sewage/rainwater overflowing onto their estate road network.