Plastic bags

I don't suppose gallant little Camberwell will follow in the footsteps of gallant little Modbury and ban plastic bags altogether, but small moves are being made. Somerfield will give you a "bag for life" in exchange for five used ordinary bags, or sell you one for 10p. The bag for life is estimated to last 25 times longer than ordinary plastic bags and can be exchanged for a new one when it is worn out. (Something odd about that phrase "bag for life"?)

Alternatively and again emphasizing re-use, there is a plastic bag exchange at Basic - put in the ones you don't need, get ones out if you are caught short.

Insects mostly

During the long dry spell, and I assume in consequence, blackfly proliferated in the garden. They were even on the holly shoots. Their natural predators, for example bluetits and ladybirds, didn’t seem to be on the job. I suppose normally we have a lot of both bluetits and ladybirds and not many aphids, so I shouldn’t complain.

Recently we have been seeing ladybirds, generally harlequins (the one shown is on lavender in Camberwell). These are a bit bigger than 2-spots and 7-spots and have more spots (although they are variable and sometimes appear, for example, with two large red spots on black). Harlequins are fairly recent arrivals in Britain and are spreading out from the south-east. Entomologists are alarmed because while harlequins devour aphids voraciously they also attack other ladybirds. On the other hand no-one is suggesting any particular action, and none seems feasible.

Also, if harlequins are so good against aphids, and turn out against the blackfly, perhaps we should welcome them. I might be able to start growing broad beans again. I really don’t like blackfly, which probably do less damage than, say, woodpigeons, for which I have a soft spot. But if we didn’t have blackfly, or other aphids, what would the baby bluetits eat? and who would grudge a baby bluetit a meal?

Detergents

Great for the dishes and the clothes and the hair, then down the drain and away, out of mind, but in fact into the great Victorian sewers and in due course into the sewage treatment plant. As an amateur surfer (no pun intended) I have found it hard to find good technical information on the effect of washing-up liquids and other cleaners on sewage treatment, but it does seem that Ecover, while just as toxic as other products to organisms such as water fleas or green algae that are not at all accustomed to it, is much better tolerated by the kind of bacteria whose business in life is munching their way through sewage. So two cheers for Ecover.

Here in Camberwell, Basic on Denmark Hill refills Ecover washing-up liquid, laundry liquid and multi-surface cleaner bottles. This is cheaper than buying new bottles and of course saves all that plastic being chucked.