One families thirst for adventure takes them round the UK on a bus! p4
HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN PLANT BEDS how to make them from scraps Pg 8
Issue 3
LIVING IT UP
ISSUE 2
Sustainable Planet
BLACKBERRY AND LEMON FOOL make a delicious dessert in just ten minutes p13
contents THE
SUSTAINABLE
PLANET
HOW WE LIVED IN A BUS The incredible story of how Joe and her family lived in a bus for 4 years. wait for part two next month. Page : 4
HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN PLANT BEDS How to make your own plant beds out of old timber or scaffold boards. Page : 8
DIY ONION PEEL FERTILISER Make your own plant fertiliser using the onion peels that are ussally tossed in the bin. Page : 11
BLACKBERRY AND LEMON FOOL Make this delicious dessert in as little as ten minutes. Page : 13
BUILDING OUR OWN HOME The countinued story of how we are building our own 85% sustainable house. Page : 15
EXCLUSIVE
ERIN C-K Erin Costello-Kelly, Owner and CEO own eco cosmetic company and Editor in Chief on Sustainable Planet Magazine.
Most of you know, i'm Erin and I am
We have the continuing saga of the
a 13 year old entrepreneur who is
house build written by Ashley (aka
passionate about natural products
Mum).
and the environment. I just want to
The last month has seen the launch
welcome new readers and new
of my Lip Scrubs and Lip balm
contributors.
some
range, check out the benefits on
amazing writers this month and an
my Facebook page our sustainable
article on how to make your own
family . Enjoy other favourites,
plant beds. We also have an
such as a re
We
have
WRITTEN BY ERIN COSTELLO-KELLY
amazing recount of a family who
PHOTO BY ASHLEY COSTELLO
did up and lived in a bus for a year.
page 3
We are excited to welcome this new serial by Jo Royle and her family bus adventures When you live as a family of four in a bus, you’ve no choice but to consider sustainability! When you have much less space in which to live, 90 litre water and waste tanks, a portaloo, no wheelie bin and the only power you have is what you generate, it makes you super aware of what you need, what you use and what waste you create. It was a big trip before our son started school. We’d travelled further afield but never around the UK. Initially it started as a 6 week school holiday jaunt and became a plan to live in a bus and travel the UK coast for a year… which then turned into living in a bus for 4 years! I’m a meditation teacher and have a daily practice… without it I’m not sure I’d have managed 4 weeks! page 4
FEATURE
SUSTAINABLE TRAVELLING
FEATURE
HOW WE REUSED The bus itself was recycled. It was an ex-library bus, which had been tuned into a mobile computer shop, before we bought it on eBay to turn into our home. In the renovation we reused as much as possible… the library shelves became panelling for one of the walls; the drawers which once held library cards were upcycled into our cutlery drawer; and lights which were once in the steps at the back of the bus became a new bathroom light fitting. Friends emptied their sheds donating waste timber from which our kitchen was fashioned; we visited a local salvage yard to pick up other pieces, like the gas lanterns which were wired with low voltage bulbs and created our bedroom/lounge/dining room lights (two lights… three rooms… I’ll leave to you work that one out). Other items we bought second hand from eBay… the portaloo… the shower & tray… the school gym flooring which became our kitchen countertops. Obviously there were some things we needed to buy new, like the tanks, the hot water boiler, the custom made tiny wood burning stove, etc. but we bought second hand as much as possible - even our solar panel, which we self installed along the way, was pre-loved, having lived its first life serving to generate power at festivals! page 5
Sustainable so far? Yes, I hear you say, but what about driving an enormous library bus around? Well… Moby (that was his name, short for Mobile Library) was a big diesel guzzling monster of a bus, with his 6 litre engine, but you could say it was a slow travel adventure. Although we eventually journeyed from Saltburn on the North East coast of England down the East coast, along the South & up the West, until we settled here in our now home on the Isle of Skye, it took us 15 months! So miles or emissions per day were probably much less than most families of 4 with commutes to work and car journeys to school. At times Moby was parked up for weeks, even months, as we were hosted on a WWOOF or HelpX project and then we’d use public transport or bikes to get around. We stayed on a small holding in Suffolk for 2 months over the winter & our son, who was only 4 at the time, did at least 12 miles a week on his tiny police bike (with stabilisers!) up & down to the town for shopping, to go to the library & to go swimming. At other times we were moving around, maybe only staying a night or two in any one place… exploring. During those times we found that power, heat, water and waste were never far from our thoughts. Where would we buy fuel? Where could we charge the batteries (pre solar panel days)? Where could we buy dry wood to keep the fire going? Where could we empty the loo? How much water did we have left & where could we fill up? And how much waste did we have and when would we next see a bin? It certainly created some interesting behaviours…
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FEATURE
AND RECYCLED ... turning the shower off midway to soap before switching back on to rinse…washing up in half an inch of water… trying to encourage the kids to use the loo whilst out… emptying food with two lots of packaging e.g. cereal & leaving behind the bulky boxes in the supermarket! There was definitely no leaving the tap running whilst cleaning teeth; forgetting to turn the hot water boiler off once the water was hot (as this would likely use up the gas or kill the battery) or luxuriating in long hot baths… oh how I longed for a bath! It’s incredible how quickly the things you take for granted, suddenly become luxuries. When we did finally move into a house again after 4 years I wrote 40 days of gratitude… for some of the more obvious things like –constant power… heating at the flick of a switch (we’re lucky our rental has an air source heat pump)… bins… a bath; as well as some of the less obvious ones – doors for privacy, walls on which to put artwork! In our years of living in a bus, we learnt a lot about what was important to us and what we needed. We worked less and spent more time together as a family, often in nature on the coast. We earned less, but had no space for more possessions anyway! page 5
FEATURE
We swapped our time for a place to park, food, wood for the fire; connecting with people we didn’t know, making new friends. We learnt a bit about foraging, preserving and bushcraft. My husband further ignited his passion for sustainable building and built his first strawbale property for friends, whilst we lived on their drive! We fell in love with the West coast of Scotland and decided to make it our home. When we did finally move into a house we found we were much more conscious about the decisions we made, selecting natural materials, limiting plastic; choosing beautiful items that would last. We’re loving being settled again as it gives us the chance to grow our own food. We have started composting, using natural cleaning products, swapped shower gel for soap, buy an organic veg box to supplement what we grow, sourced a green energy supplier and a couple of other things like using an ego egg for laundry and a soda stream to feed my fizzy water addiction without creating lots of plastic waste! Our next big adventure is to build our own home. We’re in the process of buying a plot and hope to build in hempcrete. I’m hoping to also have space for a circular strawbale space with a living roof and a grounding earth floor in which to teach meditation and run retreats here on the Isle of Skye… I look forward to writing about that adventure in a few years time! page 9
HOW TO MAKE PLANT BEDS
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FEATURES
Plant beds One of the newly found trends seem to be more sustainable which is making your own plant beds but most of the articles about these are not cost-effective. if you do want to spalsh out and spend more on metal scaffold boards then okay but if you have old wood lying around in your garden then why not put it to some good use and make your own plant beds. There are lots of differents ways you can start by this first look at the size of your garden and how much time you have if you have a massive garden but not alot of time then a small plant bed will be perfectly suited for you and the amount of time that you have. Take a minute to think about your bed how comfy you like it how you like it to be clean and how big you need it to be. Well plants are pretty much the same, take tomatoes for instance they need a big bed for all of their roots so that they can grow and all plants love a comfy bed full of compost. They also like a clean bed with no bugs thats why we line the bottom of the beds with landscape fiber to stop the roots growing into the ground and weeds from growing into the soil.
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INSTRUCTIVE
THE RIGHT SIZE To get the right size of your plant bed you need to be cautious of how big your garden is and how many plants you plan on growing. For many different types of plants they will need a massive bed like for example tomatoes as the grow really tall and will grow over the sides of plant beds if not given enough room. Although many plants like herbs , asparagus and lettuce as these do not grow to great height or sizes and therefore do not need as much room. if you are planning on doing tomatoes I recommend a bed 8 foot by 4 foot or if you would prefer a bed slightly smaller and would like to plant 9 bunches of herbs or a few rows of small vegetables then I recommend a bed of around 4x4 feet as they will have plenty of room to grow.
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INSTRUCTIVE
ONION PEEL BENIFITS Don't throw away the onion skins you can use them to create an organic and potassium-rich fertilizer for all your plants that are growing indoors or outdoors. Using it will increase their disease resistance, their growth, help them to have strong stems, and their produce rate. This onion skin fertilizer will also be rich in Calcium, Iron, Magnesium, and Copper all benefits from the onion peel. I bet it was more useful than you thought it was !
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FEATURES
DIY fertilizer To make this DIY onion fertilizer you need to out 3-4 handfulls of onion peel into a container and fill with 1 litre of water. After that place the lid over the top and let sit for 24 hours. After 24 hours you will notice that the water has
turned a
murky purple and at this point he mixture needs to be sieved if there is no sieve at hand you can use a piece of cloth or muslin. Now the fertiliser is ready and needs to be put in you watering can or sprayer. This fertiliser should be used once a week on all of your plants.
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Making Upcycling work for you! Join Emily from Tilly Makes Everyone dreams of having time off work to focus on themselves, do the odd bits around the house and catch up on the soaps missed during the busy hustle and bustle of life. But what about when it’s forced upon you? For 6 months! Hi, my name’s Emily and I was furloughed just like a huge percentage of the population from March to just yesterday, actually! Working 40+ hours a week, socialising with friends and family to then being isolated in a two bedroom cottage with a very hyperactive yet loveable cocker spaniel was a big shock to the system! I needed something to do. So, this is where my journey started. I’ve always been quite a creative person and although I haven’t owned a property, I’m very house proud. With boredom creeping in, I put two and two together and with my landlords blessing, I began updating the bland, dark kitchen. Having spent two weeks unscrewing, sanding and painting, I was finished! A brand new kitchen for under £60! That was it! I’d caught the bug. Every room in my house followed - tape and rollers coming out of my ears.
Emily's creations
Two months in and the 80% wage wasn’t stretching too far after the visits down various B&Q aisles so something had to give. That’s where up-cycling and Marketplace came in. My first project was a lovely little mahogany coffee table that needed a bit of TLC, a lick of grey paint and decoupage. Next came the black sideboard with tropical toucan wallpaper and a bit of trial and error while learning how to mitre. A writing bureau, desk and dressing table later, here I am, TillyMakes. I now work part time in administration while sanding and painting the rest of my day away and I love it! I’m based in Hartford, with my cocker spaniel (he helps where he can), so make sure to look out on Facebook at pieces for sale or get in touch if you have a pre-loved item that you would love bringing back to life.
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HOME
BLACKBERRY AND LEMON FOOL
Right now at this time of year there are thousands of blackberries growing along the paths why not put them to good use and make some delicious blackberry and lemoon fool. Create this delicious dessert in as little as 10 minutes, then pop it in the fridge. page 13
Ingredients: 200g blackberries , plus extra for the topping 3 tbsp icing sugar zest and juice of ½ a lemon 250ml double cream Method : STEP 1: Place the blackberries into a deep pan with 2 tablespoons of icing sugar, and the lemon zest and juice. Simmer on a low heat until it has a syrupy like texture, then leave to cool. Chill for a few hours. STEP 2: Whip the double cream with 1 tbsp icing sugar until in a thick consistancy , then swirl through some of the blackberry sauce though not to much as to keep the marbled effect. Serve in glasses with extra sauce and fresh blackberries on top. page 14
GRAND PLANS
Since our summer vacation from the magazine, lots of progress has been seen on the house! The shell was completely put up and then it was time for trades to come in. Where is the self in this self-build I hear you say?
We had Mike our friendly electrician put in our wire for the first fix. It was good going around the house with someone else as it makes you see it through their eyes and make decisions that you would have put off. We also had a plumbers first fix as well as our MVHR system (its a heat exchange system)
All this activity meant that we then could do some work ourselves. It started with the underfloor heating. Which involved all the family, kids, grandad and auntie. All on our hands on knees clipping in the pipes. This probably saved us about ÂŁ1500. Although we had very sore knees and thumbs for days it was worth it to see it complete. page 20
HOME
Cont... In the last magazine we talked about our special hidden drainage. This is Matt, who made our guttering from one piece of aluminium, as they are being hidden behind the cladding they have to be water tight. During lockdown this was hard to get hold of and delayed our roofers. That said they are now in along with our windows and doors! Seeing the windows go in was like watching a face smile. It really added a warmth to the building, literally! So where are we now? Well as mentioned windows and doors (except the front door) first fix of electrics and plumbing. We have started to board the spare room and all the bathrooms. The Tiler can now start floor tiles and the bath is about to go in today, as I type. Unfortunately, I won't be able to soak in it just yet but it will be there! The boards we are using are cement, which means we are not affected by the shortage of plaster and they are 85% recycled materials but on the down side they weigh 45Kg so takes three of us to put them up. Once up, it means we can fill, sand and put the find surface finish treatment on with it drying in 45 mins. So we can pain the same day. This for us is a win, as we don't want to be delayed if we are to follow our plan of being finished, in and sat at our dining room table with all the family for Christmas dinner. Yes, i said it Christmas 107 daysyou're welcome! Written by Ashley Costello
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Jo Royle Skye Meditation and Retreats @skyemeditation jo@joroyle.co.uk 07715 923944 For more about the meditation practice I teach online, see… https://bit.ly/2waeTtM Feel free to contact me for more info… Here I am, TillyMakes. I now work part time in administration while sanding and painting the rest of my day away and I love it! I’m based in Hartford, with my cocker spaniel (he helps where he can), so make sure to look out on Facebook at pieces for sale or get in touch if you have a preloved item that you would love bringing back to life.
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I am a 10 year old Entrepreneur called Finn, named after the irish folklore Finn Mccoll. My paternal grandparents are Irish and I am very proud of my Irish roots. I became very interested in the enviornment while building our own house on our own land. I (along with my sister Erin) collected 400 bits of rubbish off the land and the majority of that was plastic. It made me really think about all the plastic we have in our lives. I looked into alternatives to plastic toothbrushes and Bamboo seemed to be the answer, Organic of course! I'm on a mission to give away free bamboo toothbrush to everyone! https://resilientkid.lpages.co/finns-page.
I have been a Psychotherapist for over 20 years. Specialising in children and adolescents mental health through my project Resilient Kid. Last year, I delivered a TEDx talk on the topic of “Is Education broken?” The Resilient Kid is a direct result of that talk and hopes to fill a gap for parents, teachers, heads, educationalists and everyone who feels as passionate as I do. I am married to Dave who is an Architect and comad person living in a caravan with two kids and building our own sustainable home! E:ashley@theresilientkid.co.uk T:07482787818 FB:Resilientkid FB Group: The Resilient Kid
I am a 13 year old entrupeneur who runs this magazine as a way of showing people that you can be sustainable and you don't have to put too much work into it. page 20
