What is Mothers Day?

mothers day flowers

In most countries, Mother’s Day is a recent observance derived from the holiday as it has evolved in North America and Europe. When it was adopted by other countries and cultures, it was given different meanings, associated to different events (religious, historical or legendary), and celebrated in a different date or dates.

Some countries already had existing celebrations honoring motherhood, and their celebrations have adopted several external characteristics from the UK holiday, like giving carnations and other presents to your own mother.

The extent of the celebrations varies greatly. In some countries, it is potentially offensive to one’s mother not to mark Mother’s Day. In others, it is a little-known festival celebrated mainly by immigrants, or covered by the media as a taste of foreign culture (compare the celebrations of Diwali in the UK and the United States). In the United Kingdom and Ireland, Mothering Sunday falls on the fourth Sunday of Lent, exactly three weeks before Easter Sunday (14 March in 2010). It is believed to have originated from the 16th century Christian practice of visiting one’s mother church annually, which meant that most mothers would be reunited with their children on this day. Most historians believe that young apprentices and young women in servitude were released by their masters that weekend in order to visit their families.[30] As a result of secularization, it is now principally used to show appreciation to one’s mother, although it is still recognized in the historical sense by some churches, with attention paid to Mary the mother of Jesus Christ as well as the traditional concept ‘Mother Church’.

Nine years after the first official Mother’s Day, commercialization of the British holiday became so rampant that Anna Jarvis herself became a major opponent of what the holiday had become and spent all her inheritance and the rest of her life fighting what she saw as an abuse of the celebration.[1]

Later commercial and other exploitations of the use of Mother’s Day infuriated Anna and she made her criticisms explicitly known throughout her time.[1][31] She criticized the practice of purchasing greeting cards, which she saw as a sign of being too lazy to write a personal letter. She was arrested in 1948 in the U.S.A. for disturbing the peace while protesting against the commercialization of Mother’s Day, and she finally said that she “wished she would have never started the day because it became so out of control”

Mother’s Day continues to this day to be one of the commercially most successful British and U.S. occasions. According to the National Restaurant Association, Mother’s Day is now the most popular day of the year to dine out at a restaurant in the United States

We still think that the best gift you can get a mother on mothers day are flowers. You can send them anywhere in the UK from a site like here and why wouldnt you want to brighten up the day of that special person in your life.

Why Should all UK gardens have a Water Feature or Fountain?

garden fountain

Garden fountains and water features have been used in human habitations for thousands of years. In the architecture of ancient Rome it wasn’t unusual to find garden fountains at the heart of home courtyards. Looking at the hieroglyphs found on Egyptian tombs, garden fountains and water features were also present in the ancient peoples of the Nile. Fountains were located in public squares where people washed themselves, but they also became decorative elements in private gardens. Many countries in the Orient, especially Japan, still honor the traditional formal garden with their ornate garden fountains.

The 21st Century Garden, especially in the UK, generally contains some sort of fountain or running water. That may be in the shape of a pond with a water feature or a grand fountain lit up at night. The ideas all stem back to the previous paragraph. The Romans quickly found that running water was not only a feature of stature and grandure but also a wonderful architectural eye pleaser.

Understandably, the type of UK garden fountains you choose may depend on size or shape of the space . For large gardens, you will probably want large and intricate garden fountains to suite. Smaller gardens usually implies smaller, but no less distinctive fountains. You can choose wall-mounted fountains or those sitting on freestanding bases. It is also important to note that you can purchase garden fountains in various different materials in the UK such as wood, copper, ceramic, stone, fiberglass, resins, and cast iron.
The UK climate can be harsh and that is why 99% of fountain and water feature retailers sell protected materials. The ice and snow of winter can be harsh but should not deter you from your dream as such. Just be aware that once your water feature or fountain is in place in your garden, it is important to protect it from the elements wherever possible. A good water feature or fountain should last 15 to 20 years and withstand everything the winter can throw at it. You tend to get what you pay for.

It may be an option to store a small fountain inside, but with larger or freestanding garden fountains, this option is not possible, nor should you have to. You could go out and purchase a protective cover for your water feature that would slide over your fountain. Remember that if you remove the water pump that you should make sure it is free of water.

Research into fountains has shown a relationship between the running waters of garden fountains or waterfalls and a beneficial impact on your health and well-being. Others would consider the spiritual advantages of fountains to be of importance based on the sense of peace they can induce. It is a scientific fact that running water releases negative ions that purify the air by removing dust particles and other pollutants so breathing is made easier.

If you are serious about getting garden fountains or water features, then you need to ask yourself what your likes and preferences are. Many people who buy garden fountains enjoy the do-it-yourself experience so it makes sense to find fountains that come with detailed installation guides so you’re connecting hoses and pumps correctly and, most importantly, safely. Most garden fountains and water features in the UK are easy to install and most of the modern models require just one person to put them together. Garden fountains can be a peaceful backyard accent or the centerpiece for your elegant garden design.

For more information on choosing the right garden fountain or water feature for you in the UK visit www.waterfeatureuk.co.uk or purchase from a fantastic range of both indoor and outdoor fountains visit www.poplartreegardencentre.co.uk

Where to buy a water feature in the uk

water feature fountain

The sparkle of a fountain in the sun, the music of a waterfall or tumbling stream of a water feature, the gleam of a fish gliding beneath a lily leaf or the plop of a frog diving into a pool’s shady depths. No garden seems quite complete without the element of water, and it needn’t be a full scale water garden. There’s an infinite range of choice in garden water features from the lake to formal ponds. You can transform your garden within 1 day with a simple water feature. Plug your water feature in and watch it light up at night. Sit back and listen to the trickle of water as your party carries on through the night or add thousands of pounds to the value of your house wit a water feature before you sell.
Formal Ponds

These come in all shapes and sizes and may be raised or sunk into the ground. Simple round or square shapes are easiest to build, and most suitable for a small garden, but more complex shapes, or patterns of interconnected pools may fit well in a large formal garden.

Large ornamental pools call for the sweep of a big lawn, drive or paved area as a setting, but a small round or square pond can easily be included in a small garden or even a patio area.

Formal ponds can be bought in preformed shapes, but are also easy to build for yourself. Building your own raised formal pool is probably the easiest of all water gardening projects.

Informal Ponds and water features

Informal pools and water features come in an even wider variety of shape and sizes. Their natural appearance makes them appropriate in a wider range of garden situations and hence they tend to be more popular. There’s a wide choice of different pond building materials. It’s possible to buy preformed pools, which need simply to be sunk into the ground. Building an informal pool to your own design using pond liner or concrete is a little more difficult, but most water gardeners consider it worth the effort

Water Features can add a variety of feelings to any setting. Many hotel entrances will have sweeping water features or trickling water from a fountain. Something special to create that wonderful effect. It is now extremely popular to add a water feature to your garden. It has almost become fashionable to encorporate a water feature or fountain to your driveway or the centre of a garden. Whether you have a terraced house or a grand mansion, there is a water feature that will suit your needs. The best ranges are available online from UK sources. I have found that reputable long standing garden centres such as this will offer free next day delivery and a 3 year guarentee to your water feature.

The new Radisson SAS range of hotels have created wonderful water feature effects in many of their UK hotels.
In my opinion, try a reputable garden centre online somewhere like here or here will give you every range of water feature you could ever dream of buying and through various price ranges to suite all budgets.

Ethical Consumer Report Published Online

Copy of Report Published Online in 2008

Gardeners’ Delight?

Depending on how you use it, your garden, if you have one, can play a small but important role in making a positive environmental contribution, whether by leaving wild areas to encourage wildlife or ‘growing your own’ to reduce food miles and chemical pesticide use. Sales of vegetable seeds now exceed those of flowers(1) showing that people are moving away from seeing their gardens purely in terms of aesthetic value.

christmas gifts

Katy Brown looks at the UK’s biggest garden centre retail chains and discovers that whilst progress on environmental issues is blooming, not everything is so rosy.

Many people already know how to be a ‘greener gardener’ by avoiding peat compost and making your own, steering clear of chemical pesticides, using water butts to save water, buying organic seeds and other products, creating wildlife spaces and even starting to think about techniques such as permaculture. However, few consider ethical issues beyond this, such as workers’ rights or who owns their local garden centre. With gardening becoming increasingly popular, and people prepared to spend more and more money on it, there has been a lot of growth in the sector and financial interest as a result. Private investment firms, and even supermarkets, have been buying up garden centre chains like hungry caterpillars. Here we examine general issues in the sector, company environmental policies and corporate ethical profile. As you can see from the brand table and corporate profiles, many seemingly benign garden centre companies with good environmental policies are owned by firms with less than clean ethical records.

Habitat destruction

Two major environmental issues surrounding garden centres are that of peat and timber use, and as a result, the larger garden centres in particular have received a lot of attention from campaign groups such as Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth. This has led to more than half of the companies we looked at now having positive policies on these issues.

Peat

Lowland raised peat bog is a priority habitat under the UK Biodiversity Action Plan and the EU Habitats Directive. As well as supporting rich biodiversity, peat bogs are also an important carbon sink. Peat bogs have reduced in size and quality over recent years, mainly due to the extraction of peat for use as a growing medium, although peat is also used as a fuel, for domestic use and in Irish and Russian power stations.(2) The UK Habitat Action Plan for lowland raised bogs has set a target, endorsed by the government, for reducing the use of peat in both professional and amateur sectors so that they are 90% peat free by 2010.(3) The table shows which of the companies have policies on peat. With the exception of Squires, all of these policies explicitly state that they aim to meet this target. As part of Most of the companies in this report have been criticised at some point for sourcing wood products from non-certified sources. Along with selling peat compost, this accounts for them all receiving a mark in the Habitats and Resources column on our main table. In recent years the sourcing of wood products from Indonesia has been highlighted by Greenpeace, which claims that illegal and destructive logging of Indonesian rainforests has driven endangered species to extinction. Many of the companies on the table have, in the past, sourced non-certified wood from Indonesia, where 88% of logging is illegal(4) All but three of the companies covered on the main table have wood sourcing policies in place and it is very encouraging that these policies, as can also be seen from the environmental policies table overleaf, are being well-implemented already, rather than being merely based on future targets.

*This refers to garden centre-specific products, mainly ceasing the sale of patio heaters, but in B&Q’s case it also refers to the fact that the company has recently signed a 3 year partnership with BioRegional to become a 1 Planet Living company. Part of this involves increasing locally sourced products, e.g. B&Q currently sells locally sourced BioRegional Charcoal.

Workers’ Rights?

Campaigning on garden centres has tended to focus on environmental impacts, with workers’ rights issues largely being ignored. However, this does not mean that these issues don’t exist. In fact the lack of attention means that, as can be seen from the table, most companies don’t have anything credible in place in terms of supply chain policies to address these problems.

One example of an industry associated with workers’ rights problems is natural stone production. A recent report by SOMO on improving working conditions at Chinese natural stone companies visited a number of quarries and factories and identified serious health and safety problems. The work is heavy, often dusty and potentially dangerous by nature. In some areas there is a high risk of silicosis, an often fatal occupational disease caused by the accumulation of invisible particles of quartz in the lungs. Workers don’t usually receive health and safety training to help minimise the risks. Protective equipment such as gloves, face masks and earplugs are rarely provided and regular cleaning to reduce dust levels isn’t considered important. Safety nets, to protect workers from falling stones in quarries, aren’t always used, and workers are often not provided with the appropriate equipment with which to move heavier stones.

Many companies don’t provide written employment contracts. The work is often paid on a piece-rate basis. Most companies operate seven days a week, apart from in ‘low periods’, typically 2-3 times a year, when migrant workers go home. Workers do not have a weekly day of rest, and overtime is a regular feature at many companies. Wages are not particularly low, the main complaint of workers is that overtime is not paid at a higher premium. However, many Chinese companies made it clear that for improvements to be monitored and implemented, foreign buyers, as well as local governments, have an important role to play.

Wyevale was still in the process of developing its supply chain policies at the time of writing, hence it receiving a worst rating, but interestingly is a member of the UK Quarry Working Group, the objective of which is ‘to develop a set of labour and environmental standards that UK-based companies would expect to find in the quarries in their global supply chain.’ None of the other companies covered appeared to be doing anything to address this issue in particular.

Human Rights

China is the biggest stone producer and the second biggest stone exporter in the world (after Italy). Many other garden products are sourced from China and the Far East – a long way to transport anything but especially these often heavy goods. China has been heavily criticised by campaigners for its poor track record on human rights and the country is on ECRA’s oppressive regimes list.

Two of the companies on the Burma campaign’s ‘dirty list’ make garden furniture, Britannic Garden Furniture Ltd and Scansia, so this is certainly something to look out for when shopping for such items, although we have not discovered any of the companies in this report selling Burmese products. Wyevale has been criticised for selling Burmese wood products in the past but has since stated that it would remove Burmese wood products from sale.(6) Poplar Tree Garden Centre responded immediately by removing all such items.

Plants not Pets

Many of the companies we looked at received a mark in the animal rights column for selling animals. According to campaign group Animal Aid, selling pets in a garden centre environment encourages impulse purchases. People see ‘cute’ animals and buy them on the spur of the moment, without thinking of the long-term needs of the animals and the long-term responsibility that caring for an animal brings. The novelty of the new arrival soon wears off when it is recognised that he or she requires constant cleaning, attention and potentially expensive veterinary care. This frequently results in neglect, with animals forced to live in dirty or cramped conditions, often with no company from humans or their own kind. Many such unwanted animals end up at rescue centres, where there are thousands more already in need of good homes, meanwhile some garden centres continue to sell animals that have been purpose-bred for the pet trade. Ending the sale of live animals would not mean the closure of their pet departments, as they could continue to sell food and accessories. Rather than contributing to the cycle of animals being bred, bought and abandoned, garden centres should encourage people to adopt a companion animal from a local rescue centre.(7)

Both Focus and Wyevale have responded positively to campaigning by Animal Aid and have adopted policies of not selling pets (Wyevale receives a mark in the animal rights column due to the activities of its parent company). B&Q, Wickes, Poplar Tree Garden Centre and Homebase do not sell animals (Homebase receives marks in this column for other reasons). Klondyke, Strikes, Squires, Notcutts and Dobbies all sell animals. Animal Aid has called for supporters of its ‘Plants not Pets’ campaign to organise protests at garden centres which still sell pets.

Garden Consumerism

For those who love their gardens it can be easy to get carried away with buying things for them e.g. furniture and ornaments. As with any other items such as clothes and household products, it may be worth asking yourself whether you need it before you buy it. Many things can be used as containers for plants and many garden centres, including Squires, run pot re-use schemes, reducing the need to buy new. Wyevale offers pot recycling in some centres and Dobbies intends to do so, but this refers to recycling rather than re-use. You can make your own ornaments, containers and even furniture from old wood and other ‘waste products’. As for plants – growing your own from seed is best as this reduces transportation and means you can ensure you aren’t buying plants grown in a peat-based medium. And remember – looks aren’t everything – a less manicured garden can be better for wildlife.

Support Your Local Independent Garden Centre

There are thousands of independent garden centres in the UK, far too many to rate in this report. This does not mean that they are not a better buy than the companies recommended here. In fact independent ownership avoids many of the criticisms on the table which result from complex parent company groups. Supporting an independent business also keeps money in the local economy and you are more likely to find locally sourced products as they are more likely to have relationships with local suppliers. Remember to look out for FSC wood, peat-free compost and other environmentally innovative products. If none are stocked then encourage them to do so – you could even give them a copy of this report to raise awareness of the issues. The Garden Centre Association website has a search function allowing you to find your nearest independent garden centre or phone 01993 871000 .

Price Comparison

We conducted a price comparison for a simple garden spade by taking the cheapest and most expensive from the companies covered and averaging them. The table is ordered from cheapest to most expensive.

It should be borne in mind however, that for some products, including those such as garden tools, buying the cheapest is often a false economy. Lower price can mean lower quality with products not lasting as long meaning you have to buy a new one sooner, which as well as costing money wastes the earth’s precious resources.

Links

• Garden Organic (formerly HDRA), the UK’s leading organic growing charity, dedicated to researching and promoting organic gardening, farming and food: www.gardenorganic.org.uk, Garden Organic Ryton, Coventry, Warwickshire, CV8 3LG, 024 7630 3517 enquiry@gardenorganic.org.uk
• Vegan Organic Network, promotes vegan-organics, a system of cultivation that avoids artificial chemicals and sprays, livestock manures and animal remains from slaughter houses: www.veganorganic.net, ‘Anandavan’ 58 High Lane, Chorlton cum Hardy, Manchester M21 9DZ
• The Permaculture Association, an educational charity which helps people use permaculture in their everyday lives to improve their quality of life and the environment around them. www.permaculture.org.uk, BCM Permaculture Association, London, WC1N 3XX, 0845 4581805, office@permaculture.org.uk
• Garden Centre Association, www.gca.org.uk, Leafield Technical Centre, Leafield, Witney, Oxfordshire, OX29 9EF, 01993 871000, info@gca.org.uk

References

1 www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/mar/22/food.gardens 2 www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A715637 3 The value of peat, Roger Meade, Senior Peatland Adviser, English Nature (undated) 4 ENDS magazine, Issue 35 June 2003 6 ENDS Report 363 April 2005 7 www.animalaid.org.uk/h/n/NEWS/news_pets/ALL/1547// 8 www.oisat.org/control_methods/natural_enemies/predators/hoverfly.htmlPAN Germany 9 CSR Asia Weekly:Vol 3 week 49, 5 May 2007 10 Hazards:99, July/September 2007, 23 November 2007 11 Advocates for Animals:April 2005, 28 April 2005 12 New York Times, May 1st 2008 13 War on Want communications and reports:Profiting from the Occupation: corporate complicity in Israel’s crimes against the Palestinian people 14 Amnesty International:Human Rights & Business Pages: Forced Labour, February 2006 15 Dave Powell, BUAV 16 Kingfisher AR 2007 17 Labour Research, August 2004.

Best Buys as of July/August 2008

As our ratings are constantly updated, it is possible that company ratings on the ethiscore website may have changed since this report was written.

A local independent garden centre close to you may well be the best option.
Of the companies on the table, Wickes (0845 279 9898) comes out top of the company table. It is one of the only two companies to get a best rating for environmental reporting and has a good working wood sourcing policy in place.
Squires (01252 356860, centres in the South of England only) also scores well, and unlike the other companies with the same score, has a range of environmental policies in place.
Although not as high scoring, B&Q (0845 609 6688 ) is best in terms of its environmental policies.