Crocs are perfect shoes for the garden! They’re available in a huge array of styles and colours so whoever you’re buying a pair for there will be something just right. For kids they’re great for running about in – and being made of a hard wearing croslite material they are both light and hardwearing. These are the first shoes they’ll have where you don’t have to worry about them getting wet or dirty in them! Crocs are made to be worn anywhere – and if they get muddy just rinse them under the tap! They are perfect for kids helping out in the garden – as well as for adults who love to spend time weeding and watering.

Croslite material is what crocs are made from – and it’s designed to be cleaned using a little water and a tiny bit of soap! It’s such a fantastically easy shoe to look after that you will wear them all day long – in and out of the garden! A quick wipe and you’d not know I’d been gardening in them!

I’m testing the Crocs™ Tully slipper. It’s a bright green clog style shoe which is quite similar to the classic croc shoe. The foot bed is made from croslite™ material which makes the shoes comfortable and soft – allowing them to be the perfect fit. They have an low heel making them cool to wear and easy to slip on and off. There’s a textile liner which helps keep your feet cool in hot weather – and the toe area has small holes in to help too.
I was initially planning to try them out in the garden and then slip them off as I came in – but I’m been so pleased with how comfortable they are I’ve left them on!

They are light and very comfortable to wear. I think this pair of crocs is going to be my favourite shoes this summer! Suitable for indoors and doing the gardening. You can water the garden in these cool shoes on warm summer evenings without worrying about ruining your shoes! You can also chill out and relax and quickly slip your feet out to catch the sun and stretch your toes! A very sensible pair of gardening shoes for the summer!

Their children’s range of crocs features some really love designs for little kids and for slightly older kids who’ve outgrown the pirates or princess feel you can find them the crocband styles that are reminiscent of baseball style trainers with a white band round the sole. They’re very funky and the kids will love them!
Shown are the Murray Pirate croc and the Crocband croc.

Whether you’re buying Crocs for you or the kids – or indeed the whole family, you will find the perfect pair of shoes! For kids who love getting muddy you will find the Crocs are a great buy!

Nemaslug is the answer to all gardener’s prayers. A simple and effective way to kill slugs. It works for up to 6 weeks.
Nemaslug slug killer available at Unwins

It arrived on it’s own and should be placed in the fridge as soon as possible. It needs to be stored chilled as it contains live organisms called nematodeas.

Look on the inside packet for the date. Each pack has an expiry date by which you need to have used it.

You can use it outside from March until October – this is when slugs are active.. You can use it indoors inside your greenhouse during the winter months in addition to March – October as you may well have slugs living in the cosy warm of your greenhouse soil!

As any gardener who’s ever suffered the disappointment of finding seedlings all eaten, the slugs are one of the worst pests in the garden. To be able to eliminate them is the dream of most gardeners.

Applying the nemotodes is fairly straight forward. You should however wait until early evening to apply – so that there’s no strong sunlight about. Ideally the soil needs to stay moist for at least two weeks after you’ve put it on. This could mean a lot of watering if it doesn’t rain.

Go outside and find your watering can. It should have markings on the side – virtually all large ones do! You need to fill to the 2 Gallons level. Add one quarter of the packet to this and make sure it’s mixed up well. It’s easier to put in if you have a watering can with a large opening at the top. If you don’t, just open the packet by a corner and this makes it easier to get the powdery substance into the watering can.

Once mixed you need to water it on to the ground. One can should do about 10m²
You also need to then water in the same amount of plain water. You can use a coarse rose on the can if you have one.
Repeat for another 3 lots – until you have used the entire packet up. Make sure you have watered them in too.

You should find that within one week your seedlings and plants are protected. It should last for 6 weeks.

The bigger pack covers 100m²
It’s safe for animals and plants – and won’t hurt humans either! It’s the perfect answer to slug problems!

Apparently several councils have been doing this as one-offs but Swansea have been doing this regularly!

Free garden compost is now available to all Swansea residents from the Tir John Community Recycling Site.

“Swansea City Council is well up sto speed on re-cyling stuff” says Bill who lives there.
“We have a huge Civil Amenities Centre (Dump) where all the composted waste
is there for us to take. There isn’t a limit to the amount we can take, but
if you chose your time carefully you can help youself in relative hassle
free comfort. It is a very popular place though.
One thing you have to put up with is some shredded re-cycling bags mixed in
with the compost, it does rake out quite well when spread.”

York has several dates available – Local residents will have access to free compost this summer thanks to the City of York Council and Yorwaste Ltd.
The compost can be collected from Yorwaste’s Harewood Whin site, on Tinker Lane, off Wetherby Road on various dates. Please check!

Lancaster did it at the start of May – free compost from Williamson Park in Lancaster – we’ve emailed to find out if it’ll be repeated.

As did Exeter – one day for free compost

Ards borough council – The free compost will be on offer at the Waste Recycling Centre, North Road, Newtownards from Monday 17th May for as long as stocks last.

Uttlesford District Council To Hand Out Free Compost Bags To Residents – various dates.

Slough council take them to a local charity garden centre where anyone can collect them free. Find out about Slough’s free compost offer here

An amazing offer of a free tree!

Choose between a Rowan, Scots Pine or Silver Birch.

Your tree will be a sapling about 20cm in length and posted to you in a protective container.

It’s from Velvet the loo roll company and you can get a free voucher for 50p off too.

Think if you’ve got room to put one before you send off for one.

This definietly deserves a mention! I’ve been making enquiries recently with local authorities about what happens to the material that the public send away for composting. In Cambrideshire they have an amazing scheme!

Donarbon makes the soil improver they produce through our in-vessel composting system available for the public to collect free of charge at their 3 main sites in Cambridgeshire. These sites are:

Near the main entrance to the Waterbeach Waste Management Park
At the Alconbury Waste Transfer Station
At the March Waste Transfer Station

You will need to take your own spade or shovel and sacks or a small trailer. The free soil improver is available at the following times:

At Waterbeach from 8 am to 4 pm Monday to Friday and 8 am to 1 pm Saturday.
At the Alconbury and March Waste Transfer Stations from 8 am to 4pm Monday to Friday.
For more information about the free compost visit the Donarbon Site

I’m really impressed by this scheme! It’s a great way for people to get free soil conditioning compost!

Perth and Kinross Council also offer free compost!

Please get in touch if your local council does something similar!

Persil have launched a new formula that beats even more of the stains your family inflicts on their clothing! If you love your kids to play outside then you’ll know the horrors of getting grass stains out of knees and bottoms of trousers. It’s not just the adults guilty of getting their clothes dirty in the garden though. Gardener’s know all too well about kneeling or sitting in the dirt to do essential tasks like weeding or planting. It’s called Persil Small and Mighty – because it’s concentrated so is in a smaller container and it has mighty cleaning power too!

Whilst a lot of gardner’s keep an old pair of trousers for wearing when doing jobs in the garden it’s easy to find you’ve ruined a good pair of jeans by accident after you’ve just stepped outside to dead head a few flowers, lift the watering can or even play with the kids on the lawn! Playing out means grass stains and these can be quiet tough to remove.

Persil is very effective at removing stains though – so it’s something to use on those tricky grass stains. This means you don’t have to worry about what the kids are wearing when they’re playing football!

In order to encourage more outdoor activities that are essential for getting exercise for healthy living Persil have built a section of their web site to list the games and activities that children can take part in! Persil stops you worrying about your kids getting grass stains and you can relax knowing you can get their clothes clean no matter how much mud they play in!

Always read the labels on clothes to see what temperature they should be washed at.

Persil now comes in an even more concentrated form with one bottle doing 42 washes. It’s a small bottle too! It’s an impressive effort to reduce packaging and transport costs. An average family does about 5 loads a week so this bottle contains about two months worth of washes!

If you want clean soft clothes, then wash with Small and Mighty Persil! Your clothes will smell amazing too and they’ll feel so soft! Essential laundry power for anyone who spends time in the garden!

Persil has some great ideas for training exercises to play with World Cup obsessed kids as well as loads of great ideas for activities to keep them busy! Visit the Persil Tips for Mums page here for loads of great games and ideas.

Football games from Persil that your kids will enjoy practising all summer long!

Every child wants to impress on the football field, and as the old saying goes, ‘practice makes perfect’! Here are some great football practise games that you can play with your kids, or teach your kids to play with their friends.

The Light
– Each player has a ball, except the one player that is designated as the “light”.
– Lines from start to finish should be approximately 20 – 30 yards.
– Players start from the line opposite the “light”.
– The “light” then turns away from the group shouting out “GREEN LIGHT”.
– At this signal, the players start to dribble towards the “light”.
– When the “light” turns round, calling “RED LIGHT”, players must freeze and stop their ball.
– If the “light” catches players or a ball still moving that player must take 5 steps back.
– The first player to cross the line where the “light” is standing is the winner and becomes the new “light”.

Blob Tag

– Mark out a square in the garden
– All the players are inside the square. All but two have a soccer ball at their feet and those with a ball should attempt to dribble the ball continuously.
– The two without a ball form a ‘blob’ by holding hands.
– The blob moves freely within the square and tries to kick any player’s ball out of the grid.
– If a player’s ball leaves the grid he/she joins the blob.
– Once a chain has six or more players, have it break apart into two smaller chains (of three people each).
– The last player dribbling is the winner.

Another training game you could also play is dribbling round cones – if you don’t have cones you could save and use the Persil Small and Mighty bottles – but be warned it’s a very long wait for one to become empty! Save your empty bottles – rinse and remove the labels and paint them if you have some bright paint – and then weight them with sand so they stay upright. They are the same height as toy cones that you can buy in the shops!

The way I grow tomatoes is to start them in a small seed tray and then pot them up when they get big enough to handle – but only into small pots – not their final ones. It’s fairly easy to pot them up if you’re gentle with them you should have 100% success.
When it’s time to put them into bigger pots you can tell as you’ll notice little white roots sticking out of the bottom of the pot.

Start off by getting your tomatoes watered. I think it’s easier to get them out of the pots if they’ve had a drink first!
Get your grow bag material and if you’re using one the container you’ll be using. Some people put a growbag with a collar in their greenhouse and plant into the collar. You need to put extra grow bag material into the collar section.

What I do though is get some decent size plastic tubs and make sure they’ve got good drainage. A small drill bit is your friend here if there’s no drainage or not enough. Drill lots of holes – at least 6 in the lowest part of the base.

Get your sack of growbag material ready. I tip mine into a large plant pot as it makes it easier for me to do. You might want to tip your growbag into the pots themselves – it’s entirely up to you how comfortable you are lugging great bags about.

Fill the container almost to the right level and make a hollow space in the middle.

Next take your tomato plant and tilt it to the side and gently squeeze the sides of the pot. If it doesn’t start moving then rotate it 90′ and squeeze the other sides of the pot. Don’t tip it upside down and shake though!

Once the tomato plant is out you’ll see all the little roots. Avoid damaging these and don’t break the stem!

Gently hold the plant and turn it and put it into the prepared pot. Make sure it’s sat level and then start filling in around it. Add soil up to the level of the first two leaves. The tomato stems are good at putting out roots and will develop roots in this section of stem and make it more stable.

After you’ve filled it press down gently to make sure it’s bedded in well. You should give it a water and put it in it’s final place.

Tomatoes need plenty of looking after – you certainly need to attend to them every other day as a minimum and you’re best checking on them everyday. In very hot weather they need to be watered a lot too. Feed tomatoes once a week once they start producing fruit.
There’s lots of advice about pruning leaves and shoots off to make sure the plant puts enough energy into growing the right amount of fruit. Nip out the little side shoots with your thumb – I’ll add photos of these as my own tomatoes grow.

Ecover Heavy Duty Hand Cleaner is ideal for gardeners who’ve not worn their gloves! Whilst we all know we should cover up our hands whilst digging about in the soil and weeding to protect them, we don’t always. There’s always a time when you slip your gloves off to do something delicate with a plant and then end up getting your hands really rather grubby.

This hand cleaner is very easy to use. It’s a screw top which undoes easily so you can get at the product inside. You squeeze a little blob of it and it’s very controllable which is good for avoiding wasting the product. It’s also good for the environment – the less you use the less goes down the drain! This product can be used if you have a septic tank too!

The first thing you notice is the colour – Ecover Heavy Duty Hand Cleaner a light brown beige colour with speckles in it! The secret power of the cleaning agent lies in the speckles. It contains amongst other things Cocos Nucifera Shell Powder – which I understand to be the slightly rough particles within the cleaning product. It’s designed to be used in the same way as facial scrubs are used – to gentle exfoliate away at the dirty skin to remove the grime! It’s a really interesting product to use – anyone who’s ever used a facial scrub will be familiar with the feeling of rubbing a slightly rough product into your hands. The action of rubbing it in is very soothing and relaxing and works well on those tough stains from dirty or weeds that you get after a hard afternoon’s weeding. Ecover have designed this product to smell nice too – and it smells almost edible like lemon pudding! This heavy duty hand cleaner contains a natural essence called limonene which gives it this fantastic lemon smell.

Carry on massaging it into your hands as you wash them in warm water. You will be surprised how smooth your hands feel after and how gentle the product is even though it feels almost gritty. It’s effective and smells delightful too!

As you’d expect from Ecover it’s completely biodegradable and has minimum impact on aquatic life. This should make it the first choice for anyone concerned about chemicals in cleaning products and their effect on both humans and the environment. The container and lid are both recyclable being made from polyethylene and the cap from polypropylene. The hand scrub itself is made from plant based materials. Once opened it should be used within 12 months.

You only need a small blob of hand cleaner so it’ll last a long time. It’s a great product for getting ingrained dirt out of your hands and fingers and is easy to use. It rinses off easily too once your hands are clean! Ideal for keeping next to the sink you use when you come in from the garden – Ecover Heavy Duty Hand Cleaner is safe for kids to use too!
It should be the hand cleaner you use each time you’ve been doing any DIY in the house or on the car too. It’ll be really good at getting off those flecks of paint you get on your hands if you’ve been painting!

Chinese leaves

Unwins sell:
Cabbage Baby Wa Wa Sai Seeds

These can be sown from April until August so if you’ve planted nothing yet but fancy having a go they’re an ideal seed to try.
You can use these as baby leaves for cold salads or allow to grow on to form succulent hearts for use in stir-fries. These leaves have a nice sweet flavour.

Cabbage Kilakin Chinese Seeds (Gro-sure)Clubroot resistant & strong against bolting and can also be used in salads and stir-fries.

Buy both these Chinese style cabbages at Unwins now

Tailball is a fantastic garden game! You only need a small lawn to play on,
or even a driveway would do! It’s a neat little game made by the people who
bought us Swingball! Tailball is available as Tailball Back Pack Attack – which
comes with a net and a handy back pack – perfect for taking to the park or the
beach. Tailball Extreme is suitable only for outdoor play and is a blue colour.
Tailball light which we’ve just reviewed is suitable for indoors or outdoors!

You get two bats and a special ball that’s light and has a tail! Hence the
name – tailball! The game is just like tennis but easier to play! Because the
tail stops the ball going really fast or far and slows the game down to make
it easier for younger children to get a grip of the game and have fun whilst
playing. In contrast to swingball which can be quite fast and frantic, it’s
a more relaxed game. People with lots of flowers and plants in their garden
needn’t worry about damage either – the game is fairly gentle and the ball doesn’t
go fast enough to cause damage to plants. Another great thing is you’re not
going to worry about windows being broken by kids playing this game – unlike
if they played tennis with a proper tennis ball, and it flies much better than
the alternative to a hard tennis ball – a foam ball. A foam ball can be quite
frustrating in even slight breezes but the tailball isn’t! This gives it much
more appeal!

If you want to have fun in your garden, or want to encourage the kids to play
outside more then this is one game that’s guaranteed to keep them occupied for
hours and all their friends will want to play too! . It’s going to be affected
by very strong gusts of wind but in moderate winds it’s fine – the tail helps
it fly.

It’s fun for adults too – and even grown-ups hitting it really hard isn’t going
to damage anything! This makes it a safe and fun game and something every family
should have. Tailball is a neat game that will pack away in any beach bag and
it’s light to carry too so can be taken out on picnics and day trips to the
beach! The tailball itself has a cute case that it packs away into so you don’t
damage the tail during travel. The bats are sturdy but very light to hold.

Although there’s more picking up of the ball than swingball this is certainly
going to be a contender! It’ll make a great game for kids of all ages. You can
even play tailball light indoors! Tailball is another great way of encourage
the kids to be active, and because it’s so much fun you’re not going to have
to fight to get them to play. As it’s slower than normal tennis it is much easier
to play, but can still be played in a more challenging way by experienced players.
If you love tennis and would love to play in your back garden but can’t because
you don’t have enough room to play without hitting plants or windows, then this
game is for you. You’ll love playing tailball! Highly recommended!

Tailball is available to purchase at Toys R Us stores nationwide with an RRP
£12.99