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170- No Mow May...and other garden-based animal-friendly tweaks
0 Playsin 2 days
It's nothing to do with your body hair shaving routine...No Mow May is in fact an initiative looking to promote wildflower growth...which it turns out may just be more effective than you think, in terms of helping out animals too. In this episode, Ant & Julie dip their toe into a few different tweaks folk could make with a garden- or similar space- to help improve outcomes for animals.
For more on No Mow May, visit https://www.plantlife.org.uk/campaigns/nomowmay/
Vegan composts can be found at the following retailers (amongst others), but read the label carefully, as some of these companies do still sell animal-derived composts too:
https://www.fertilefibre.com/collections/organic
https://cocoandcoir.com/blogs/coir-compost/the-guide-to-vegan-compost/
https://rocketgro.co.uk/products
As ever, we love hearing your views on the topics under discussion (or anything else!) so do drop us your thoughts via enoughofthefalafel@gmail.com
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Enough of the Falafel is a community of people who love keeping on top of the latest news in the world of veganism & animal rights. With the Vegan Talk podcast, we aim to develop listeners' (& our own) thoughts around key issues affecting veganism & the animal rights movement; giving our opinions, whilst staying balanced; remaining true to our vegan ethics, whilst constantly seeking to grow & develop.
Each week we home in on one topic in particular and pick it apart in more detail. If you have a suggestion for a future show, do get in touch via enoughofthefalafel@gmail.com.
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Thanks everyone for listening; give us a rating and drop us a message to say "hi"; it'll make our day!
Julie & Anthony
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Transcript
Introduction to No Mow May
00:00:00
Speaker
Hello everybody! Are you ready to save some animals? Then you know what you need to do, you need to take a sledgehammer to your shed and smash up your lawnmower. That is according to Plant Life and their No Mow May movement, we're going to talk about that and we're going to talk about other vegan-y, animal rights-y things you can and cannot do in your garden.
Hosts Introduction and Vegan Topics
00:00:21
Speaker
I am Anthony, for this episode I'm also joined by Julie.
00:00:28
Speaker
So I think vegans go looking for trouble even when they're not looking for trouble. That's not what butter's used for. Protein. Take your lab-grown meat elsewhere. We're not doing that in the state of Florida. What about your protein and what about your iron levels? Should I call the media and say, hi, sorry. They're arguing like, poor woe is me.
00:00:47
Speaker
Hang on a minute. You always pick.
00:00:55
Speaker
of social injustice has connection with another. That's just what people think vegans eat anyway. As long as you didn't get the wee brunions with the horns you'll be alright. Does veganism give him superpowers?
00:01:10
Speaker
No, I cannot fly around the city. I don't have laser vision. Hello everyone, it's Julie here. Welcome to Vegan Talk.
00:01:21
Speaker
This is a little bit different to the Vegan Week news episodes that we do. It's a bit of a more in-depth talk on one particular subject and if you want to catch up on some previous episodes of Vegan Talk, they're available in your podcast feed. Indeed. Many, many shows that the theory is will never go out of date because we're talking about things that apply no matter what is going on in the news.
00:01:52
Speaker
Now, we're kind of covering a ah topic or starting off this show with a topic that kind of almost falls between the cracks here because it's specifically relating to May in that it is called No Mo May, the idea being that you do participate.
Understanding No Mow May
00:02:08
Speaker
mow your garden, you do not cut the grass in your garden during the month of May, and we'll get into why that might be. But we also thought we'd take the opportunity to start talking about other things that you can do or avoid doing in your garden to help promote a vegan way of doing things. And I'm not just talking about carving the word vegan into your grass when you do eventually cut the lawn or anything like that.
00:02:34
Speaker
Julie, why don't we kick the ball off by saying a little bit more about no momay and like why such a thing exists it's not just someone who's sort of wanting things to just look wild and fancy there's a bit more reasoning behind it isn't there there is so think of it as being a bit like veganuary but for gardeners because veganuary is about not consuming animal products for the month of january
00:03:07
Speaker
But it's about more than that, isn't it? that We're hoping that people then make that change and do it all year round. Well, here you go. i didn't know this until very recently.
00:03:18
Speaker
No mow May is exactly the same. It is not the case that in order to participate, all you're doing is not mowing your lawn for the month of May and then just carrying on as normal the rest of the year.
00:03:33
Speaker
I thought that it isn't the case. Even though I thought that, here we go. My first kind of full disclosure here. i had already mowed both of my lawns by the 2nd of May.
00:03:48
Speaker
and So, yeah, here we go. I'm on the journey with you, listeners, if you're going to give this one a go. I'm right there at the very starting grid with you.
Environmental Benefits of No Mow May
00:04:00
Speaker
So... But getting back to what No More May is about, it is a nice little jingle, little gimmick to get you interested. And yes, the starting point is that May is a good time.
00:04:15
Speaker
to let your lawn grow long so that wildflowers can start to floriff proliferate within it and then little insects and depending on where you live, you know, other forms of wildlife.
00:04:32
Speaker
So it's about getting away from the idea, which is very close to my heart, that our lawns need to be these couple of inches long uniform lawns ah little um environments where there's nothing but grass and that's it and that wild plants and flowers that grow within them are dug out and you know all the rest of it it's about letting other species flourish within our lawns and letting the grass grow a bit longer so that it provides cover and food and things for little beasties that's what it's about and so yeah habitat for insects and wildlife and for
00:05:21
Speaker
biodiversity and for providing some kind of what do they call it kind of carbon sink kind of thing so yeah lots of environmental benefits to having what really is the equivalent of a kind of swathe of wildflower pasture However small your garden is, there's even a section on the website that I've seen where even if you do not have a garden, you can green other spaces, you know.
Traditional vs. Wild Lawns
00:05:54
Speaker
i am
00:05:54
Speaker
So, yeah, it's just about introducing a bit more nature into our environment to sort offset all of the overdevelopment and all the concrete and gravel and slabbing and all the other stuff.
00:06:09
Speaker
you know, that exists. There's a lot to it. It's not just a simple do not mow your grass. There are tips that you can follow about having your grass at different lengths in different parts of your garden, still having pathways.
00:06:25
Speaker
When there isn't it's not a blanket ban on mowing either, it's just about mowing with a bit more awareness and being a bit more selective about the frequency of mowing.
00:06:36
Speaker
And even the way you do it to let wee beasties have time to get out of the way, believe it or not. So... There's a lot to it. and The link in the show notes gives you the link to the the website that I've been looking at, which I would recommend. It's very good explaining what it's all about. I would recommend having a wee look at that.
00:06:58
Speaker
I'm a real big fan of this as a concept. And there's a like I think the analogy with veganuary is a great one, Julie, because... It's just about getting the cog starting to turn on certain issues. I think it's fair to say, certainly in the UK, where we're both recording from today, the norm is pristine gardens that are, you know, a very neatly ornately kept and grass is is cut to, you know, within, well, li literally an inch of its life. And it's, you know, it's very uniform. It's very pristine.
00:07:34
Speaker
And that is why increasingly you see gardens where folk are just buying artificial grass that doesn't grow and it just stays at that length and you don't have to do anything, blah, blah.
00:07:45
Speaker
But of course, there are really poor implications, both immediately in terms of that you know, that the loss of wildflowers and and, like you were saying, the the carbon potential for for storing that beneath the soil and things like that.
00:08:01
Speaker
But also, I think we're already so far removed from nature as as a generalisation in this country, certainly, to remove the tiny bit of nature that you might be lucky enough to have in front of your house and at the rear of your house if if you're lucky enough to to do so the the more removed we are from nature I'm convinced that that the worse it is the worse it is for ourselves the worse it is for that environment the planet and the and the beings on it so having some of your space be a bit wild and there be some natural growing stuff i mean uh we're very lucky we have a very small front garden and our back garden is maybe five meters squared and there were there was a time where it got really wild like you know
00:08:52
Speaker
I'm not very good at measurement. Let's say a foot. Let's say the grass got to about a foot long. Like it was really quite wild. um And when we did eventually cut it, we probably rescued 20 little frogs that had just taken up residence there.
00:09:10
Speaker
You know, we could, it wasn't too difficult to work out where they'd come from. that There's a little little ditch around the front of our house. So we were we were able to rehome them there.
00:09:21
Speaker
But like, it doesn't take much for you to be providing a ah home for for animals and for wildflowers and things like that. and And as well, you know you know, you don't have to have your whole garden be be taken over. that That was an unintentional ah event that I've described there. And in in a sense, it's quite a contrary one that I've said. I almost regret saying it because like we we went back on it. But you can, as you've said, Julie, you can have little pockets of your garden where this is the case and it can have a real difference but I think it's like a mindset difference isn't it so you're you're not just saying oh my garden is a place that you know has to be kept in this way and it has to be it has to look like this it's got to be pristine and to help it stay pristine I've got to put loads of you know horrible chemicals on it to to keep it like that and I can't let any animals do this that or the other to it
00:10:14
Speaker
It's a bit of a mind shift. All of that said, do you think, Julie, like there could be an argument for saying this isn't a battle worth fighting as vegans? Like, you know, if we're concerned with animal rights...
00:10:27
Speaker
We've got limited time, energy, resources.
Transitioning to Wild Lawns
00:10:31
Speaker
This isn't a thing to focus on too much. Do you think there's an argument for saying that? Well, potentially. i mean, certainly from my point of view, as somebody who will need to be rehabilitated out of the My Garden is Immaculate school of thought, ah it would free up more time for me to do research before the podcast if wasn't out.
00:10:55
Speaker
edging my lawn every week in the summer because I am one of these people who will cut the lawn, rake the lawn, weed the lawn and edge the lawn every time I cut it. So ah it would actually free up time and and mean that my gardening was more laid back and yes that I was more relaxed about it but am I am gonna have to do quite mind shift so I think if it's for you it's for you it certainly is very much in alignment with um vegan values yeah I think go for it but don't beat yourself up if maybe you decide it just is not
00:11:36
Speaker
For you, there are other ways that you can be helping wildlife out with your own garden. You know, don't get too hung up on it, I would say. But great as a bonus if you can do even just one thing with one part of your garden.
00:11:51
Speaker
That is definitely, you know, a good thing to be looking at. Doesn't need to take up a lot of time or effort or energy. No, no, exactly. And, you know, that the fact is that so many of us have been brought up with this norm of...
00:12:05
Speaker
looking after your garden and looking after that space means following these steps and and and actually if it's gonna cause massive amounts of stress i mean that that it's like i say it was unintentional when our grass got super super long and it was stressful looking out the window every day i know that's a bit of a first world problem but like it really was like annoying and upsetting us and then that put us off dealing with it like if it's having that impact on you and that's you know that this is energy that could be used you know living your best vegan life and advocating for animals and things like that then you know i i wouldn't say it's the hill to die on but i think it's it's a great way of of just breaking some of these norms that
00:12:49
Speaker
it's not too many steps to follow them to, to kind of realise that it's, it's further divorcing us from nature, in my opinion. Could say as well, though, that in solidarity with the people who live in other parts, other than the UK, that there are some parts of the world, I think America is one of them, or some states in America, where actually, there are sort of local laws that say that you've got to maintain your guard and So, you know, people might have those kind of pressures as well to not be embracing these slight kind of rewilding type principles into their own a domestic gardens. So there's there's that pressure on people as well.
00:13:30
Speaker
um And even just without it being a regulatory thing, you might have neighbours who are very much opposed to you having And do you know what?
00:13:43
Speaker
I've been that neighbour. I've been that neighbour. I spent quite a lot of money. and My front garden was an absolute sea of red windchips when I moved into this home that i live in now.
00:13:56
Speaker
And I lifted them all up by hand. It was literally tons upon tons of them and had bought turf. So put a lawn down and me being me and having spent that money and having my conventional mindset, I wanted my lawn to stay free of weeds.
00:14:15
Speaker
So I must admit, I was... I didn't say anything to any of my neighbours about, you know, not having weeds in their garden, but i i was looking at their gardens and really wishing that they would, you know, the dandelions in particular, you know, that they would be doing something about their dandelions, which spread so quickly and easily. They're a fantastic plant. I love eating them and using them for food and nutrition, but I don't particularly want them growing in my lawn.
00:14:47
Speaker
So yeah, that I've been that neighbour in my head anyway, so I totally get it. Yeah, ah absolutely. It's a generations-long project and education piece, isn't it? and Change is slow, change is slow.
00:15:04
Speaker
Obviously, if and when you do have a bit of a wilder garden, one of the benefits is it can be introducing or encouraging animals very, very small, you know, micro-level animals.
00:15:15
Speaker
as well as larger ones, whether they are birds or possibly other animals into the space. And that can bring with it challenges, opportunities too. And Julie, you wanted to talk about ah a particular animal that can sometimes take solace or seek opportunities in gardens and how some folk can deal with them in way that is not in their best interests.
Feeding Hedgehogs: Help or Harm?
00:15:42
Speaker
Yeah, i'm I think you're alluding to hedgehogs, which I think if they wander into your garden and because of your beautiful natural garden, find lots of wee beasties to eat and they're happy there, that's a lovely thing. You've done a great job there.
00:15:58
Speaker
What I am witnessing, though, where I live... is a growth in hedgehog projects where they are saying that what they're doing is promoting the welfare of hedgehogs and in fact what they're doing is lending out camera equipment so that people can view the hedgehogs that come into their garden and lending out sort of feeding stations and little tunnels and things so that these animals can be encouraged in and fed and filmed and then you know shown and to children and all the rest of it and it concerns me that when an animal is free from
00:16:47
Speaker
and living hopefully its best life, you know, and choosing its own food appropriately, that if we start to encourage them into our gardens, across roads, and we might make guesses at what might be appropriate to give them,
00:17:04
Speaker
that we might actually make them really unwell. The thing about hedgehogs that I was reading is that actually they're quite solitary animals and if they are sharing a feeder with lots of other hedgehogs, the potential for them to become unwell, just passing on germs to each other, is quite high.
00:17:23
Speaker
But the potential for us to make them very unwell by feeding them inappropriately The food that apparently is appropriate to give to hedgehogs is not something that any vegan would have in their home anyway.
00:17:35
Speaker
So would a vegan then be going out and buying, you know, meat based cat food? Well, that's... you know that's likely defeating the purpose of being concerned about the welfare of hedgehogs if you're then supporting animal ag and the slaughter industry and the process so but I do just feel that when you start to feed wild animals that's about you
Critique of Hedgehog Projects
00:18:00
Speaker
it's not so much about their interests and you can actually do them quite a lot of harm So I am not really seeing the benefit for hedgehogs directly in this behaviour, but I am seeing lots of posts on local groups that I'm in of people going, oh, wow, it's so cute. And it's almost like a little...
00:18:20
Speaker
ways I pet for them you know that they're feeding it there's ah you know it's mainly women I have to say who are who are just of that nature anyway that they just like feeding things and I just think you know that is all about you and in fact putting a load of clut and equipment in your garden There's nothing natural or nature or nice really about that. It's it's just not very good. to i mean, these are charities. There's one where I live, you know, the Pledge Hog Project.
00:18:50
Speaker
They are looking for donations, you know, to buy all this stuff. And you just think, know, if people want to do nice stuff for animals, spend your money else. We're not on cameras to just ogle at them.
00:19:04
Speaker
I know that they're making a... a claim that oh well if we know where they are we can try and make the environment better for them but there's only so much you can do in a scheme of houses you know ah yeah I just I kind of slightly smell a rat with a hedgehog project yeah it's i think what you've touched upon there is increasingly humans in an in an information age if we can call it that where information is like the currency isn't it like knowing stuff the thought of leaving a wild animal to just live its life and we don't know what it's doing it's quite counter to pretty much everything else that we experience isn't it it's kind of you know if you say oh there's
00:19:50
Speaker
this listen this little corner on the map here, and we don't actually know what's there. Like there could be a wild tribe living there, or there could be wild animals, or we don't know. Like our instinct, um increasingly so in this information age, is to be like, well, we need to know, we need to find out, we need to blah, blah.
00:20:06
Speaker
we'll just leave them to it. It's fine. Like that, that I reckon the hedgehogs are fine so long as we're not interfering with them. So like, we are clearly the biggest problem.
00:20:17
Speaker
Like the thing we need to do is to just learn to be okay with not knowing things. or And of course, if you have a chance to take a picture of one without it interfering, then, then fine. look I'm not being a killjoy, I hope, but like,
00:20:34
Speaker
we do need to be okay with like just accepting that, do you know what? Something can just live and it can it can be fine. and And it's it's it's harsh, isn't it? Because for for that hedgehog that's that's found itself onto a, you know, as part of a ah human residential housing estate, then yeah, some of the odds are against it. So there's there's a very strong argument for saying, oh gosh, what can we do? But like you say, Julie, like however many animals are,
00:21:02
Speaker
needlessly being exploited and killed in those people's lives just by what they do day to day i'm gonna say it focus on that first you know yeah like absolutely absolutely but yeah again maybe just don't encourage wild animals into environments where they wouldn't normally be Because there might be things like cars, dogs, date hazards for them that they are not as little wild animals equipped to deal with, that you're bringing them into danger and encouraging them to be there.
00:21:32
Speaker
I would just, you know, help them get the hell out. If they're in your garden, you know, if it's not really, unless you live absolutely in the countryside, you know, I would help them get away safely and don't encourage them to breed and to remain there.
00:21:50
Speaker
Because who knows, you know, if we encourage them too much, when does the tipping point happen? And we start saying, oh, and we're going to have to start controlling number of these. There's too many.
00:22:02
Speaker
You know, it's causing a problem and they're bringing fleas and disease and, you know, all the rest of it. Who knows? Yeah. i um When I lived in a city, my next door neighbour would feed foxes cat food whilst also saying, oh, I hope they don't get too tame. It's like, what do you mean?
00:22:24
Speaker
like you're literally feeding them cat food. And like you say, Julie, it's fine and it's cute. and But I bet if it's if that same fox started going through her bins and the mess was going everywhere...
00:22:36
Speaker
wouldn't have had a problem with it that they simultaneously would you know would be eating animal products every day i don't know that for sure but my issue of the vegan society magazine used to get delivered to her house by mistake and she always brought it around to mine so i don't reckon she was vegan because she would have just you know read through it first um anyway i wanted to just briefly touch upon something something that you can do as well as something you can avoid doing in your
Animal-Based vs. Vegan Compost
00:23:04
Speaker
garden. I'm not an expert gardener, but I do work on an allotment.
00:23:10
Speaker
um And so there's lots of people growing things and lots of compost is brought on to sites to help the growing happen and much of it is animal based.
00:23:22
Speaker
I end up shoveling a lot of horse poo at this time of year. Not for myself, I should point out. It's it's for other other allotment holders. And one of them asked me earlier this week, they said, how do you feel then as a vegan about growing food, you know, plant based food on animal-based compost? Like, would you still eat it? And my, I mean, my initial response was, well, I assume most of the fruits and vegetables that I eat have been grown in such a way because I, unless I'm completely missing a trick, Julie, like when you, when you get something from a ah supermarket or from a
00:24:00
Speaker
you know, a farm or whatever, I assume that some animal products have been in the fertilizers and and things, unless there's a label I'm missing somewhere. No, I think you're absolutely right. um But if you are lucky enough to have a space somewhere where you are growing some of your own food,
00:24:20
Speaker
um or food for others, then you do have the opportunity to avoid using animal-based compost and indeed invest in compost that has not come from animal-based sources. And we're putting the links of all of these in the show notes.
00:24:39
Speaker
Now, now I think one of these companies might deal exclusively in plant-based things. There is a product called Coir. It's C-O-I-R. I don't know if I'm saying that right or not, but it basically is coconut derived, which obviously is plant-based in itself, but I don't know whether they sometimes will mix it with animal stuff too.
00:25:03
Speaker
and But there's a company called Coco & Coir. They do vegan composts, but also Fertile Fibre and Rocket Grow. They all do ones that are labelled. The ones by Fertile Fibre, they've got the Vegan Society um logo on it too, so it's kind of been verified.
00:25:23
Speaker
externally, it's remarkable, remarkable, the range of animal products that are put into some composts. I mean, some listeners might have come across like fish blood um and things like that, but um even penguin poo,
00:25:41
Speaker
um is it' added to some is you just think well how are you harvesting this anyway the good news is that there are vegan alternatives you might need to mail order them and so the ones by Fertile Fiber they work out about a pound per pack 15 liters it's about a pound more than the stuff that you might find in a regular garden center but you know it's free delivery might even be better and cheaper than driving to your local garden center and what what have you.
00:26:12
Speaker
um But just to say that it's out there um and whilst at the moment it's difficult to influence larger food producers to avoid using animal compost, it is possible to grow stuff without animal-based compost because of course, you know, that they are receiving money for these services so they're still subsidising, unfortunately.
00:26:36
Speaker
still subsidising animal agriculture or certainly animal use if we are buying animal-based composts. So they are all out there and um I shall definitely be giving them a Yeah, that's a great tip.
00:26:50
Speaker
And, you know, I don't know if my local garden centre have these products, but I will check them out. And if they don't, I will ask them to order them in for me. So, you know, so you don't have to do the whole online thing necessarily.
00:27:04
Speaker
Maybe your own garden centre might be able to... Sources and then once they've got them, other folk will buy them as well. Absolutely. Why not? and And actually, you know...
00:27:14
Speaker
Our good friends, the flexitarians, I'm convinced that when there is a vegan label, if you catch someone in the right mood, a vegan label will sway some people um to say, oh, do you know what? Yeah, it is the right thing to do. Yeah, come on, for this meal, I will get the vegan option or whatever.
00:27:34
Speaker
If things are in a garden center and it says vegan on it, I'm sure you would get people who do not strictly follow a vegan lifestyle fully yet. but actually you catch them in a good moment and they go, oh yeah, probably ought to, probably ought to. And you know for some people, it seems to need to be a slowly, slowly thing rather than ah cutting all ties. So um all for it, all for it.
00:27:59
Speaker
Those are three different things that we have started the conversation about there with regards to um ways that you could use your garden or similar spaces to to be more pro-vegan, more pro-animal rights, but I'm sure there are more out there.
Listener Engagement
00:28:15
Speaker
You know our email address, but I'm going to tell you it again anyway. It's enoughofthefalafel at gmail.com. So do get in touch if you've got some more ideas, or maybe we've got something wrong, or you disagree with our opinions.
00:28:27
Speaker
And we'd also love it if you were able to do us a little cheeky favour. If you've enjoyed today's show, we'd love it if you could take just a few seconds to share it with someone else you think might enjoy it too.
00:28:42
Speaker
We don't have a marketing team or a budget to spend on advertising, so your referrals are the best way of spreading the free Enough of the Falafel Joy further still. And if you haven't already, we'd be really grateful if you could leave us a rating on your podcast player.
00:28:58
Speaker
That will also help the show pop up when people search for vegan or animal rights content online. Thanks for your help.
00:29:10
Speaker
So the next Enough of the Falafel episode is coming out on Monday the 12th of May and it will feature Anthony, Mark and Chantel and it's going to be a Vegan Week episode which is our usual weekly roundup of the latest vegan and animal rights news.
00:29:30
Speaker
Anyway, that is enough of the falafel for this episode. Thank you, Julie, for all your contributions. Talking with you is like taking a good bath in vegan and animal rights logic and just common sense. It's excellent. I enjoy every single time.
00:29:45
Speaker
Thank you, everyone, for listening. I've been Anthony, and you've been listening to Vegan Talk from the Enough of the Falafel Collective.
00:29:56
Speaker
This has been an Enough of the Falafel production. We're just a normal bunch of everyday vegans putting our voices out there. The show is hosted by Zencaster. We use music and special effects by zapsplap.com.
00:30:11
Speaker
And sometimes, if you're lucky, at the end of an episode, you'll hear a poem by Mr Dominic Berry. Thanks all for listening and see you next time.
00:30:37
Speaker
This episode may have come to an end, but did you know we've got a whole archive containing all our shows dating back to September 2023? That is right, Dominic. There's over 100 episodes on there featuring our brilliant range of different guests, people's stories of going vegan, philosophical debates, moral quandaries, and of course...
00:30:58
Speaker
around a dozen news items from around the world each week. So check back on your podcast player to hear previous episodes. And remember to get an alert for each new episode, simply click like or follow and also subscribe to the show.
00:31:13
Speaker
Thanks for your ongoing support wherever you listen to us from.