Home and Garden

Harnessing Solar Energy To Save Money

by David Price

The soaring cost of energy is certainly forefront in many people’s minds. With electricity and oil prices increasing at eye watering levels, going green could actually make a big difference to your energy costs, especially with state funded incentives and grants available to help. Improving your energy efficiency and harnessing solar energy has been something often seen in ‘Grand design' TV shows over the last ten years, but in recent years the technology has become more commonplace in new properties, being now both affordable and reliable. The Deux-Sèvres region is actually one of the best places in France for blue skies and is ideally suited to solar installations. The temperature on your roof can be over 100 degrees on a sunny day (in winter or summer).

The first step is to review all the areas in your home that use energy. Look at where there is wastage, how your home is heated and insulated, and how your energy consumption changes through the seasons. Understanding this will help you make better decisions. different systems available can be a little daunting but, in simple terms, the two most effective are Thermal Collectors (capturing heat) and Photo Voltaic ("PV") panels (creating electricity). Thermal collectors use liquid (glycol) which heats up on your roof and transfers the heat to a heat store (a large water tank) from where the heat can be used by your home. These are often used in conjunction with a pellet boiler to reduce the amount of fuel consumed. Simpler solar collectors can be an inexpensive way to heat a swimming pool, with either a dome or mat circulating your pool water to capture the heat of the sun. PV Panels are by far the most widely used and effective as they produce electricity that can be integrated with your existing electrical installation or can be stand alone to provide power for outbuildings or swimming pools. Using the electricity that you generate can reduce your electricity costs by up to 50%. Storing the electricity with a battery store even allows you to use the generated electricity when there is no sun, for example ... at night.

Next we need to consider which is the best system to meet our needs. Understanding solar energy and the

Planning permission.

In recent years the planning process has been somewhat relaxed. Permission needs to be obtained from your local

Marie but if, within 30 days, you have not received their permission you have 'assumed' permission to be able to start work (although working with the Marie is always advisable of course).

Grants and Financial assistance

These are available in the form of MaPrimeRenov and are available to all French residents who are building or renovating property. The process has been simplified to encourage home owners to improve energy efficiency. As is often the case in France, the administration can seem a little overwhelming but certainly worth persisting with as these grants can substantially contribute to the cost of new installations.

What exactly is MaPrimeRenov?

MaPrimeRenov is the a central portal and website that administers several grants and is part funded by the French government. It is managed by the organisation L’Anah, together with fuel suppliers such as Total & EDF (known as Primes Energie) which is the replacement for the Credit d’Impôts system for eco renovation reimbursement, which ended in 2020.

The purpose of MaPrimeRenov is to consolidate the various grants that are available from different organisations and put them in single place – to simplify the process. The simulation tool helps you identify all the ‘aides’ for which you are eligible so you don’t have to trawl through them individually. The amount of funding can be as much as 90% of the costs. A number of companies offer a token 1 euro cost for installing eco efficient equipment. The grant system has been opened up to all home owners with different levels of funding available depending upon your income (previously only available to those with low or modest income). The actual amount of assistance available to you will be calculated using a banding system based on your Avis d’impôts. Grants of up to 20,000 euros are available. The rationale for providing this support is to stimulate growth in the economy and improve the overall energy rating of houses throughout France while at the same time encouraging households to improve the efficiency of their energy consumption.

How does the grant system work?

Typically you will need to obtain quotes (‘devis’) for the equipment you are looking to install and, prior to starting any work, you must obtain authorisation to proceed. It can be a little time consuming but many of the artisans can provide an energy efficiency audit and take care of the administration. The amount you’re granted will depend on the project or equipment being installed and the extent of energy efficiency improvement that is being made.

What is eligible for the grant assistance?

In effect, any work that results in energy efficiency. For example: • Installing solar-powered hot water systems • Solar PV systems • Projects with several elements to improve efficiency. • Replacing oil boilers with bio mass or air source pumps. • Insulation in living spaces • Installing double glazed windows and doors.

Useful MaPrimeRenov facts

• 20,000 euro maximum grant per household (project dependant, with certain limits depending on the equipment or project) • An RGE qualified installer must carry out the work. • A Quote (Devis) and invoice (facture) must be submitted. • The property must be more than two years old. • Grant payments are by the government agency L’Anah • Property owners and landlords are eligible to receive grants, as long as the owner is a French tax resident. • Applicants must have a

‘Numero fiscal’ with at least one Avis d’impôts

Tax Rebate for PV panels

There is also a rebate (subject to eligibility criteria) available for the production of self-consumed electricity, which is addition to grants for the installation of equipment. This takes the form of a rebate over five year period, which is administrated via your tax return. It is calculated based the total KW of production up to a maximum of 3KW.

So all in all it’s good news for anybody looking to become more efficient with their energy consumption and potentially save money on fuel bills. It’s a slightly disjointed and confusing process, but worth the effort.

For more information on solar energy and how it might help you in YOUR home, contact David Price at ... info@vauvert-solaire.fr www.vauvert-solaire.fr

love your garden

by Greenfingers

Ibegan writing this months’ offering after returning from a very long Sunday afternoon walk, from La Bilangue at the edge of the Mervent Forest in L’Orbrie, ‘circumnavigating’ the village of St. Michel le Clouq and back to our starting point in the car park of the bakery (open all day on Sunday from 7.00am until 7.00pm, selling bread and serving a variety of hot and cold drinks and sandwiches--in case you fancy a reward after a walk like we do). The weather was mild and very pleasant, such a lovely change from the heavy rains, fog and frosts that we have been ‘suffering’ of late. The flora changes almost every week and today we saw the first cowslips of the season, large groups of violets in full bloom and primroses everywhere. These must be, surely, signs of spring at last! Primroses are amongst the simplest of flowers, but beautiful in their simplicity…and they so effectively spread their seed around. I’ve filled six hanging baskets with the more colourful varieties, and suspended them from tree branches, a bird bath and a nail in the wall ... just to cheer myself up! When the flowers have finished I will transfer them into the flower beds where I hope they will survive and multiply! The large spearhead shaped leaves of the Arum lilies, shining lustrous green and patterned with creamy coloured ‘designs’ were growing either side of our walking path. Their interesting flowers resemble a partially opened trumpet bell and are usually white. In the centre of the flower is a straight spike or ‘spathe' in brilliant orange and if the flower is pollinated, this spathe bears berries in scarlet or orange. Walking away from the main path, we discovered literally hundreds of cyclamen hederifolium plants. The foliage is sharply pointed in shape and it has markings in silver and white…..they will be stunning when they flower, producing carpets of blossoms all around. The route of our walk takes us past a ‘chateau’, so called, although it resembles much more an English Georgian mansion. It has no turrets or towers, but land and meadows a-plenty. We have been following the progress of a chap felling huge numbers of trees, and the stacks of firewood he has created would keep us warm for many, many months. There are so many of these huge stacks of firewood in the fields and gardens of some of the local farm houses and properties, that I begin to wonder if the number of stacks equates to some sort of challenge or proof of masculinity! This Sunday we spoke to ‘our’ woodsman as he was loading up his remorque and he told us he is undertaking a project for the owners of the chateau. He has to clear this particular piece of land completely. We had already noticed a rather fetid, polluted lake on one side that was in need of clearing and cleaning, and apparently, the chateau owners are going to extend this lake into the wooded glade that this chap is currently clearing……a mammoth task which will take a few years to complete. The thought that we will be able to look down on a clean, clear lake which will attract wildlife in abundance and eventually be stocked with fish is wonderful. My walking ‘mate’ and I venture on long walks locally, which includes a couple of circuits of the local plan d’eau, and last week we were fortunate enough to be there when a small flat- bed truck arrived loaded with a number of white square tanks. We went to investigate and three local environmental workers were restocking the lake with fish. Tanks full of Rainbow trout - two years old - beautifully marked and of good weight, being re-housed into their new ‘home. The new fishing season began last weekend and there were many local fishermen taking advantage of the weather and the ‘new stock’. There are several varieties of fish in the lake including sander, tench, bream, carp, roach, black bass and perch. We often see fish breaking the water in large leaps…..just to tease the fishermen!Greenfingers

Continued overleaf .....

Continued .....

Mediterranean feel to the garden use hebe, ceanothus, cistus or nandina.

• Divide snowdrops as they die back and flowers fade. Replant in a suitable position in the ‘green’ with the foliage still on. • Some shrubs will need some ‘renovation’ now to improve their look, their shape or their blossom producing possibilities. escallonia, wiegelia, griselinia and laurel all regrow well after being pruned and fed. • Plant bulbs of summer flowering plants including eucomis, gladiolus and galtonia.

• Lift and divide any water lily plants that need it. They can become very congested in a pond and then don’t flower as well as usual. If the leaves are being pushed out of the water that is also a sign of congestion….the leaves should be lying flat on the surface of the water. • Keep fleece handy to protect the blossom on fruit trees from late frosts. • There are lots of seed potatoes available in the garden centres at the moment. Plant the tubers in beds already prepared and ‘bank’ up the soil around the tubers making mounds along the rows. This helps to stop the potatoes from going green and being rendered ‘uneatable’. Start with the ‘first earlies’ and end with maincrop later on in the season.

• Sow seeds of herbs in flower pots, easily accessible for cooking: coriander, dill, parsley, sage and thyme are favourites for this. To keep the supply coming, reseed with a small amount of seed every three weeks.

Now is the time to:

• Apply a mulch of organic matter such as garden compost or well-rotted manure to borders and beds. This will help to retain moisture and suppress weeds at the same time as improving the structure of the soil. • Give roses a good feed with organic fertiliser and check for signs of disease, black spot particularly, removing any affected foliage and burning it. • Trim back lavender plants and bushes by cutting out old flowering stems and shortening side shoots by 2.5 cms.

Remove all leggy stems, but don’t cut back into thick, old wood as it will not regenerate. Treat santolina and helichrysum in the same way.

• Prune chaenomeles and forsythia after they have finished flowering. • Remove frost damaged branches from shrubs and remove

‘reverted’ green foliage on variegated evergreens, otherwise the whole plant will revert and all the variegated qualities will be lost. • Prune back clematis to about 30 cms. Place an old plastic flowerpot around the base of the plant to protect it from drying out. Clematis prefer to have their roots in the shade and their ‘heads’ in the air. • When pruning back climbing or rambling roses, remove any dead or diseased wood and tie remaining stems into supports, keeping the stems as horizontal as possible. This restricts sap flow and encourages more side shoots to be produced and thus more flowers. • Prune back cornus, cotinus, sambucus and salix, hard now, to about 10 cms from the ground. This encourages the colourful stems of these shrubs to develop and show them off to best effect. • Plant up some shrubs that will establish well as the soil warms with the spring weather. To add a more • Take basal cuttings (from the base of the plant) of phlox, delphiniums and centaurea. With scissors or a sharp blade remove the strongest shoots, pot up immediately to conserve water in the cutting and cover with a plastic bag to maintain the level of humidity.

• Prune hardy fuchsias down to healthy looking buds, this invigorates the plants and also stops them from becoming

‘woody’. • Sweet peas can be sown directly outside now. If you have planted some under cover during the autumn, pinch out the shoot tips when they have reached about 10 cms tall to encourage them to branch out.

• Keep an eye out for any ‘pest’ invasions, with the warmer temperatures coming, aphids and spider mites will be breeding!

• If you have planted tomato or pepper seeds already, they will probably have produced their first true leaves, so pot them up individually and leave them in a warm sunny spot to grow on.

• Sow seeds of squash, courgette and sweet corn in the greenhouse or on a warm window sill. These can be planted out in May/June when danger of frost has gone. • If you have lemon trees in pots, feed them with a high nitrogen feed now. Look out for sap sucking pests and wash them off the plants if found. My lemon trees have been slightly ‘caught’ by the frost, but I will just trim off any damaged parts, give them a good feed and water them well. One year they were frost shocked and dropped all their leaves, but I followed the ‘treatment’ above and they came back as good as gold. • Cut out last years’ foliage on ferns. This will look fairly brown and straggly ... and dead! Cut all this down to the ground, but make sure the new, tightly furled fronds growing from the centre of the plant are not damaged. • Sedum, or Ice plant as it was commonly known, (now renamed hylotelephium), can be thinned out now. The new stems are quite fleshy and sometimes floppy too, but cut off the weakest, thinnest stems to improve the overall look of the plant. • Fig trees can be pruned now, BUT, fig sap can burn the skin, so wear gloves!

• Give gooseberry and currant bushes a good look over in case they have attracted the saw fly and their caterpillars are eating away! If you find any, just pick them off by hand. • Remember to set up plant supports in advance if you have planted peas, beans, sweet peas, clematis, etc. It is hard work to try to do it later.

Whatever you do in your garden, enjoy and be happy!

Greenfingers

An April Day

Breezes softly rushing, when the North-West stirs; Prophesying summer to the shaken firs; Blowing brows of forest, where soft airs are free, Crowned with heavenly glimpses of the shining sea;

Buds and breaking blossoms, that sunny April yields, Ferns and fairy grasses, the children of the fields; In the fragrant hedges’ hollow brambled gloom, Pure primroses paling into perfect bloom;

Round the elms rough stature, climbing dark and high, Ivy-fringes trembling against a golden sky; Woods and windy ridges darkening in the glow, The rosy sunset bathing all the vale below. Violet banks forsaken in the fading light, Starry sadness filling the quiet eyes of night; Dew on all things drooping, for the summer rains, Dewy daisies folding in the lonely lanes. by Robert Laurence Binyon 1869-1943

How to Fish for Bees

by Amanda Baughen

Now there’s an intriguing headline….of course, beekeepers don’t actually fish for bees, but by using special hives called ‘bait boxes’, they may attract swarms. Newly-captured swarms seldom produce a honey crop in the first year, but the saying ‘A swarm in May is worth a load of hay’ can be true if the swarm is large and collected early in the season. The bees have the time to become established and produce surplus honey that can be harvested. So it’s worth understanding how new nest sites are chosen to help us design and situate bait hives that are more likely to attract swarms. For many years beekeepers have been aware of ‘swarm paths’, routes that swarming bees follow season after season, and so small hives and boxes have been placed along these pathways in the hope of collecting new bees. Up until recently this was a fairly haphazard method of acquiring bees, but thanks to research carried out by Professor Tom Seeley* we now have a much clearer idea of exactly what honeybees are looking for in a new home. Professor Seeley’s findings, gleaned from experiments offering swarms a range of options, can be used by beekeepers as a guide to setting up bait boxes. Size matters to honeybees – they look for about 40 cubic litres of space, which is a fair bit smaller than a French Dadant brood box (the big box at the bottom of a typical hive). It has to be dark, dry, and draughtproof, so a soundfitting lid/roof and a solid floor (rather than mesh) are required. The entrance has to be small and towards the bottom of the cavity; round bird-box style openings are ideal, but a good tip is to remember to place a nail across the gap to deter birds from nesting in your carefully-placed, would-be hive! The other important point is that the box needs to be located correctly: south-facing, shaded, and between 5 and 7 metres from the ground. This is the tricky part, so please be careful when positioning your bait hive. Of course, a bait box is just a box if there’s no bait, so to lure your new bees you can use an old but clean hive which will smell of wax and propolis. An old brood frame will be especially attractive, but it has to be clear of honey and pollen as otherwise you’ll be attracting less desirable creatures such as wax moths. Only one frame with comb is needed, the rest of the box should be filled with empty frames. Bees like to have space but a huge empty echoing cavity won’t appeal to them at all. Other tempting smells such as lemon balm or lemongrass oil work well, or you can buy swarm attractant wipes from most beekeeping equipment suppliers. Only a couple of drops of lure are needed – too much and the bees are likely to be repelled. “Splashing it all over” isn’t recommended! If you already keep bees then setting up bait hives is a great way of trying to capture any of your colonies that may swarm despite your best efforts at managing them. Professor Seeley’s evidence suggests that swarming bees tend to move some distance from home, so a distance of at least 100 metres from your apiary is recommended for the siting of your bait hives. But of course, there are always exceptions and we’ve heard lots of stories of beekeepers capturing bees from their own hives up a nearby tree. Don’t forget that, wherever you place your bait hive, if you’re successful and manage to coax new bees into it, at some point you are going to have to get it down from its lofty position. This will be much harder than putting it up in the first place; it will be heavy with bees, full of fragile comb, and you’ll be in a beesuit. Think ahead as to how you’ll manage this. Remember, too, to check your hives: swarming bees will build new comb very quickly and will be harder to move the longer you leave them.

We hope you’ve taken the bait and want to find out more about acquiring and keeping honeybees – please get in touch with us at 13 Bees via our website www.13bees. co.uk, email at info@13bees.co.uk, or phone 05 45 71 22 90.

*Seeley, Thomas D. (2010) Honeybee Democracy, Princeton University Press