WATER SAVING INSPIRATION FROM ELHO

Press Release

We're in the middle of a heatwave and saving tap water is becoming increasingly important. Any rain that falls is precious, so it makes sense to catch it while you can. With the Pure Raindrop water barrel, doing the right thing doesn't have to be dull. This award winning beauty is the designer option in rain barrels.

An economical alternative that looks great

The Green Basics Rain Barrel is a good value option that still looks great. With an integrated planter on top it's also an eco-friendly way to add some colour to your garden.

Built in water reservoirs

Many Elho pots and planters, including the funky Loft Urban collection, come with a built-in water reservoir. If you overwater, or there's a heavy summer downpour, surplus water is saved in the base of the pot for your plants to absorb when they need it. The overflow pipe makes sure that when it finally does rain your plants won't drown.

Watering cans

Sustainability isn't just about saving water. The Green Basics Watering Can in Living Black is made of 100% post-consumer waste material - about a dozen old detergent bottles. So your more delicate or precious specimen plants can have a much needed drink, even when there's a hosepipe ban.

Caring for your houseplants

Don't forget about your indoor plants when the weather is warm. A lot of houseplants need more water during the Summer months, which can be particularly problematic if you are going away for a few days. The Aqua Care watering system ensures your indoor plants get the right amount of water whatever the weather.

Elho pots and planters are widely stocked at all good garden centres, retailers and available online.

W: www.elho.com. F: www.facebook.com/elho

About Elho

Elho is a family-owned company and the leading innovator in the synthetic pottery market. For more than 53 years, Elho has dedicated itself to the product development and production of grow your own, outdoor, indoor and designer pots and planters. Every year Elho launches dozens of innovations that continuously inspire people with fun, functional and creative products.

Give room to nature

Nature makes you feel healthier, boosts your energy and makes you happier. That is what the purpose of Elho is about; inspiring people to bring more nature into their daily lives. With the Elho collection you can give room to nature in and around your home. At Elho we are green in everything we do. Most of our pottery collection is made of recycled material, all of our pots last for a long time and are produced with 100% wind energy. Our aim is to be circular by 2020. Enjoy nature with Elho in a sustainable way.

Fewer toys definitely beneficial for children

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

The other day I observed a small boy – about five to six years old – in the Park, while I was cutting the grass on the estate, playing for hours happily on his own with a toy truck while his adults were sitting on a bench.

With one single toy he was occupied, and seriously engrossed in play, on his own, without getting distracted or fidgety. I assume that, had his adults not wanted to leave, he would have happily been there for another few hours still playing with the self-same toy.

While parents seem to believe, all too often, that the more toys the child has the happier he – or she – will be and the more play and better play, and play experience, they will have. The opposite, however, seems to be the case rather, as also some research appears to strongly suggest as well.

The more toys a child has the less he (and the he stands for both genders here in the continuation of this piece) will be using his imagination during play but using imagination in play is what makes play the work of the child, as Maria Montessori said about play, especially unstructured play.

When we were children we, more often than not, made our own toys, often from scrap, wood or other, some of it waste materials, and from natural wood. We made slingshots – yes, working ones with rubber bands and leather pouch – stick guns, you name it. Sticks and stones often also were the materials for play constructions and we had fun for hours on end making our own entertainment.

On the other hand, even then, children that had (too) many toys – even though we did envy them at times – got bored with one thing very quickly and moved on to the next, never being able to link their play in the way that we did, looking back at it now, with hindsight. What we lacked in store-bought manufactured toys we made up for in imagination in play and in creating our own toys and stuff.

Too many toys in a child's toy box seem to distract play and learning and actually seems to lead to boredom rather than the opposite. In other words, masses of toys are not boredom killers but rather boredom creators because the child gets soon disinterested in the toys. There are just too many which is overwhelming. Fewer toys also make for less clutter in the playroom, bedroom, or any other room where the kids may play.

© 2018

DIY gardening apron from an old pair of jeans

By Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Upcycling an old pair of jeans into a gardening apron. Almost costs nothing and should give a long service, especially if sharp tools are put into the pockets in pocket protectors, made from old leather or plastic lotion bottles. 

© 2018

The madness of perpetual growth on a finite planet

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

It is amazing how many, apparently same, people believe that you can have infinite perpetual economic growth on a finite Planet such as ours.

Perpetual economic growth and its cousin, limitless technological expansion, are notions and beliefs so deeply and firmly held by so many in this culture that they often go entirely unquestioned.

Even more disturbing is the fact that these beliefs are somehow seen as the ultimate definition of what it is and means to be human: perpetual economic growth and limitless technological expansion are what we do.

We cannot have perpetual economic growth and limitless technological expansion on a Planet that itself cannot grow; no planet can grow above its size. It is also impossible to have those two, each on its own or combined, with the limit of non-renewable, many of which are, almost, exhausted, as we speak, so to say.

Perpetual growth is a capitalist idea to keep profits flowing into the coffers of shareholders and CEOs to the detriment of the Planet and the poor that live on it. The entire idea of capitalism is based on this exploitation of the Planet and of the poor. Instead of the Earth's resources benefiting all creatures on this Planet, including humans, they are being exploited for the benefit of some rich elite, including water.

We have to change the system, the world over, in order to save the Planet, so to speak, and all of us. Tinkering around at the edges is not going to work and neither is reforming the system. The system is not broken, it was designed that way. Thus a new system is needed. A system when everything on the Planet counts, and not just profits for the few.

© 2018

In the heat do not drink (ice) cold water

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Water, yes, lots of it, but (ice) cold no...

We have all heard, and often assumed it to be an old-wives-tale and thus even discarded this warning, not to drink really cold water in hot weather conditions. Turns out though that it is good advice.

Apparently, if you are too hot and chug a bottle of cold water, it can send your body into shock. The body thinks that the stomach is suffering from hypothermia and so it takes the warm blood from your hands, your feet and head and sends it to the stomach. You will lose consciousness. And, in certain circumstances, that could be fatal.

Cold water is good, but only in sips. Room temperature water is better if you need fast rehydration. So, when (over)heated don't grab the ice cold water but the slightly warmed up one instead.

© 2018

Young people and knives in Britain and elsewhere

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

We have had knives in our homes, etc., for how long? Boys used to carry a knife on them, in years gone by, and that is not really that long ago, more or less routinely, especially in rural areas, from the simple pocketknife to fixed bladed sheath knives. They also took those knives to school often and how many stabbings did we have among children and young people? Almost zero.

Boy Scouts from Cub Scouts upwards carried the traditional Boy Scouts knife – first in the form of the “official” pocketknife, later the sheath knife – on their belts, openly, and even the Scout hatchet. They attacked each other or others? No.

Now we have this so-called knife culture (sorry, the people who phrased that term have no idea of true knife culture) with all those stabbings and such. When did this phenomena appear? Around 30 years ago or so. And what happened at that time? The proper disciplining of children was outlawed, more or less. A correlation? I sure think so.

The same goes for guns, say, in the United States. People in the Unites States have had guns in their homes for 200 years and more. Mass shootings, including and especially those in schools, perpetrated by students, have only become a problem in the last 30 years or so. If you look closely enough you will sure see the correlation between gun shootings and the decline of and in disciplining our children. Children today believe that they can do as they like having to fear no consequences, as they no longer are permitted, by law often, to be spanked.

When the paddle and the cane were removed from home and school the trouble started. We had – virtually – nothing of this kind in the years until that time. And still people refuse to see the correlation between the two. In addition to that ever since then there seems to have been an increase, generally, in aggression and violence in children and young people, against one another and against other people.

Treating the kids today with Ritalin for supposed ADHD and ADD also is an additional problem for one of the side effects, apparently, of that drug, and of Prozac, is what? Hold on to your hat. According to some medical professionals the side effects are uncontrollable anger. So, while it may dull the kids down when they explode they really do and have – almost – no control of their anger.

Yes, admittedly, violent TV and cinema, computer games and especially virtual reality also have a great deal to answer for but when one looks close enough there seems to be only one real reason for all this malaise and that is that, today, parents and others may not guide their children by the use of proper methods of discipline and chastisement.

Any animal parent chastises their offspring and maybe some people would do well to observe the ways in which this happens but then, most of the do-gooder brigade have so much lost such a connection with reality and Nature, as have our nations' children, that they would not comprehend those ways.

In many other countries that, on one level, have higher cultural values and where the community, in raising kids, is more the focus than the individual, and especially those in the East, and where there is also a lot more focus – in the family and community – on disciplining of children, including physical chastisement, the problems that we, in the so-called liberal West have, seem almost non-existent. But when in those countries and cultures those old values are eroded or abandoned almost the same problems arise.

And still almost no one is willing – in the West – to see a correlation between the abandonment of proper chastisement of children and the rise of the issues that we are faced with, from lack of respect for people and property over general anti-social behavior and mindless violence all the way to knife- and gun crime and the rest.

Talking about rest... I am going to rest my case here; it is becoming rather heavy.

© 2018