What to do with your free Metro?

A lot of people complain about Metro, the free newspaper that you get in public transports in most large British cities. The idea is that you can either take it with you and share it with colleagues at work or put it back where you found it or in another Metro stand (depends if you travel by bus, train or underground…) for someone else to “enjoy”. But unfortunately, a lot of them end up tucked between the seats and windows or scattered all over the bus or train floor and are simply binned at the end of the day by the bus and train companies instead of being recycled.

I always take mine back with me and I have actually come up with a few ways to recycle or re-use my free supply of newspaper pages. All of them on the allotment of course…

- You can shred them and add to your compost heap. It does actually help with the compost balance if you’ve added too much “green” material and is particularly useful after adding a lot of grass clippings to avoid your pile turning into a sorry slimy mess.

- Shredded again, you can lay it under your strawberry plants as a mulch. It also helps to keep the strawberries clean and mud-free. Cheaper than straw and get people talking!

- You can lay them on the ground in thick layers to act as a biodegradable weed suppressant. In thick enough layers, they will last over the winter and you can dig them in when they start decomposing. As you can see on the picture, I also use cardboard to the same effect. For no-dig (lazy) beds, you can also cover them with topsoil, compost or manure and they will slowly decompose with time.

- You can use them to make biodegradable seed pots. There are a lot of detailed instructions available on Internet, more or less advanced. And you can even buy paper potters as you can see on the picture (not mine; I’m more of an origami or “roll around a cardboard cylinder” kind of girl). It certainly beats peat pots for eco-friendliness and is really versatile as you can make them in all sorts of heights and sizes to accommodate all your plants needs! By the way, egg boxes are good too for little plug plants and toilet rolls and kitchen paper tubes are ideal for peas, beans and sweet peas, which all need room for long roots.

- You can roll them up to make thick cylinders which you can use to blanch leeks or celery. In the picture, this weekend handiwork!

I think that’s about it now. Have you got any more ideas to use up old newspapers at home or in the garden?

Why?

You always hear stories of vandalism on allotments, crops being ripped off the ground, tools being stolen or even worse, sheds being burnt down.

For some reasons, I have always considered our allotment safe. After all, Riddrie is a fairly quiet residential area, home to many families with small(ish) children, young professionals and older folks. I have lived there for well over a year now and always feel safe walking around even late at night, I've never witnessed any trouble or seen any broken windows or stolen cars. I sometimes go to the allotment after dark to pick some bits and pieces for our tea and never worry about meeting unsavoury characters on my way. The only person I normally see down there “out of hours” is the cat lady feeding the local wild residents.

Of course, I did hear the stories : the greenhouse on our plot many years ago at which the kids threw so many stones that nothing is left of it now apart from the bricks foundations, the many failed attempts at shed burning on the plots at the back and a number of thefts. But I guess I really didn't take them in, I was naive or deluded and I continued to believe our allotments were safe and we didn't have a vandalism problem.

On Saturday, when I found that the lock at the gate had been sawed, I didn’t think much of it. It’s only on Monday night that a chat with my neighbour revealed what had actually happened: the lock had to be cut open by the fire brigade last Thursday evening when a neighbour reported a fire on the allotments. It turns out our secretary’s beautiful shed had been burnt to the ground. He’s on holiday at the moment and doesn’t know anything about the destruction. He will be devastated when he comes back. His shed was without a shadow of a doubt the nicest shed on the allotment, a work of art, it looked like a small chalet, neat and painted, not like the normal allotment sheds made of all sorts. It must have required hours and hours of work and I can imagine a fair bit of investment. You could see it from the entrance gate and at the weekends, guess the shadow of the secretary through the windows reading the paper or listening to a Celtic match on the radio. Now all you can see is a big pile of ashes. It really breaks my heart and I really don’t understand why someone would do that to another human being. What is the point? Does it make them feel strong and powerful to destroy someone else’s properties? What are their motives? I don’t get it.

Time to dust off the knitting needles!

When I work in town I like nothing better than an Innocent smoothie to go with my lunch, they are the best around, 100% fruit, no sugar, additives or preservatives. Almost as good as the ones I make at home but a great deal more expensive! And now, I would be buying them for a good cause.

They are raising money for Age Concern, a charity helping older people. They have launched the Big Knit project, in which they are asking people to knit little woolly hats for their smoothies bottles. The behatted smoothies bottles will be sold in Sainsbury’s in November and for each bottle sold, 50p will go to Age Concern. The money raised will be used to provide support to older people in winter including hot meals, blankets and advice on how to keep their houses warm. Last year, £115,000 was raised - that’s 230,000 hats! This year the aim is to raise £200,000 with 400,000 hats being knitted.
Thanks to the Urban Bumpkin for reminding me about it. I had a look at the patterns on the website and those little hats are really a doddle to knit. I made those 4 little ones in just one evening. They are the plain and boring type but some people are a great deal more creative, check out the Hats of the Week section for inspiration!

My contribution to the Big Knit project - more to come!