Free shipping on orders over £30
Shop ALL

Published 22 May 2019

Get your hands on our all-natural gardening products in time for the Summer

As you know here at Chimney Sheep we have a great range of all-natural gardening products. With summer just around the corner, now is the time to start thinking about your lovely gardens – we want them in full bloom just as much as you do!

The gardening products we produce are made with natural materials such as jute and wool; we have worked hard to repurpose wool to create several products that allow you to make sustainable gardening choices.

To help you choose the best gardening products for your needs, we have highlighted some of our favourites!

Jute Mulch Mats

Our garden jute mulch mats have been designed to suit both single trees and plants. We think they are particularly special as they are made from recycled hessian coffee sacks, producing a 5mm thick, dense jute mat, and so are 100% sustainable.

Here at Chimney Sheep HQ, we love using the mulch mats for both our trees and potted plants, so we have cut the mat into discs of either 40cm and 35cm in diameter which are designed for use as tree spats and have also cut three standard plant pot sized discs of 10”, 8”, 4”, to be used as plant mulch mats.
Don’t think those will fit for your requirements? Not to worry, just drop us an email and we can cut the jute mulch matting into a bespoke sizes according to your needs.

How to use the all-natural Jute Mulch Mats this summer

The jute discs are perfectly designed to slot around the base of the tree or plant and start acting as a protectant immediately – simple!

100% biodegradable the mulch mats create a chemical-free way of reducing weed competition whilst also retaining moisture and airflow into your soil – definitely something your plants will thank you for. As a bonus, the coarseness of the material, means the mulch mats also act to deter both snails and slugs, giving your foliage the best chance of survival!

Jute felt chippings

We try to reduce waste as much as possible so all the offcuts produced during the jute mulch mat production process are then cut even smaller for use as jute felt chippings. This is the perfect all-natural garden saviour that can be used over larger areas, such as flower beds and has similar properties to using the mats. It’s more jaggedey creating a rough surface that is unpleasant for slugs and snails to slime over. We can’t promise it puts them off completely but if you have a plant barricaded by jute chippings, and one that is not, the lazy things will choose the unbarricaded one unless they are desperately hungry. If you give it a soak in the RHS Hole-less Hostas garlic concoction then this will fortify your plants against them even more.

A recipe for boiling garlic cloves in water to create a liquid to pour over the slate shillies in order to deter slugs and snails

Horticultural Felt

One of the most popular products in our gardening range in the ever-so-versatile horticultural felt. This is made with a mixed sheep wool that has been cleverly felted onto a jute carrier material. Like the jute mulch mats, our horticultural felt is 100% natural and biodegradable – all foliage friendly! We source this on a big roll, so just let us know how much you need and we can cut it to your requirements.

pure mixed colour wool felted onto jute for natural wool mulch

How to use the Horticultural Felt this summer

The felt has a multitude of uses, both commercially, such as a bed protector for growing organic crops and on a smaller scale within home gardens or allotments. Over the years we have tried out lots of different ways to use the horticultural felt, but our favourite ways to use it over the summer are:
● A ‘no-till method’ of starting a vegetable bed.
● A root protectant when planting out trees to retain water
● An all-natural capillary matting for potted plants.

A collection of plants in pots, with jute mulch mats covering the soil and wool felt capillary matting underneath
All-natural Herdwick Wool Felt Chippings

Our Herdwick wool felt ‘chippings’ are one of our favourite gardening products. Why you ask? Because they are made with wonderful Herdwick wool of course! The Herdwick chippings are reminiscent of the traditional slate chippings or ‘shillies’ as we call them up here in Cumbria. As we mentioned above, WE HATE WASTE, so the idea of the Herdwick chippings came to us during the manufacturing of The Chimney Sheep®. We saw that there was quite a bit of off-cut material and thus was born our wool chippings – we just chopped the off-cuts down further and voilà!

How to use the Herdwick Wool Felt Chippings this summer

The Herdwick wool felt chippings are the perfect mulch for gardens this summer. The chippings are wonderful at naturally killing those pesky weeds and grass by depriving them of light. As an extra bonus, due to its biodegradable properties, the wool chippings will also slowly decompose, releasing nitrogen into the soil, without the use of further chemicals – winning!

We sell the Herdwick wool felt chippings in 1kg bags which will cover an area of approximately one square metre.

Try our gardening products for yourself! Click here to see our full range and get started on making your garden a success this summer.

Sally Phillips

Inventor of Chimney Sheep

allotment
compost
deter slugs and snails
fertiliser
garden felt
garden fleece
gardening
gardening tips
grow your own
mulch
mulch mat
no dig gardening
organic garden
peat free
pest control
pesticide-free
saving water
slugs
soil enricher
summer
sustainability
wool
PlanetCare Microfibre Filter Starter Kit

PlanetCare Microfibre Filter Starter Kit

55.00 GBP

How does it work?

This ingenious washing machine microfibre filter kit uses cartridges to physically catch and retain the fibres that come loose when you wash your laundry. Each cartridge will last around 15-20 loads of laundry and is easily replaceable in just a couple of minutes.

No chemicals are used in the construction or the functioning of the filter. Fibre retention is based solely on physical retention with the help of clever patent-pending technology.

You can also send the used cartridges back to us and we'll forward them on to PlanetCare. They will ensure that they are reused or recycled.  This ‘closed loop’ system ensures that there is minimum wastage throughout the whole process.

Something to think about:

Doing the laundry can have a huge environmental impact, whether that be using tonnes of energy running the washing machine and tumble drier - or the pollutants that are released from the products you use. Using a microfiber filter is just one way of reducing that impact. Why not make a few more changes - we've tonnes of handy tips in our blog.

 

What's in the box?

You'll get everything you need to fit your PlanetCare washing machine filter with these handy starter kits, meaning you can get it in place and start catching microfibers straight away.

The Mini Starter Kit includes:

  • 1 housing top with a cup, 1 holder, 4 screws, 1 tube (1.5m), 1 silicone lubricant, 1 counter, and 3 filter replacement cartridges.
  •  3 cartridges. These can last up to 60 washes.

The XL Starter Kit includes:

  • 1 housing top with a cup, 1 holder, 4 screws, 1 tube (1.5m), 1 silicone lubricant, 1 counter, and 3 filter replacement cartridges.
  • 13 cartridges. These can last up to 260 washes.
    Note: All the filter cartridges are 100% recycled and refurbished for use again and again via a closed-loop service.

       

      Is it easy to install?

      The microfiber filter is very easy to install. In fact, for most washing machines this process takes less than 10 minutes. The filters are compatible with all types of washing machines.

      There's actually a handy how-to video and a useful installation guide  you can take a peek at if you need a little bit more guidance.

      It’s a good idea to position it high enough above the floor/surface so the cover can be removed to change the filter and position the device so that it is easy to screw the cover back after each filter change.

      Please note: you will need 13 cm on the side of the washing machine and approx. 60 cm in height clearance so that you will be able to easily unscrew the housing and change the filter comfortably.

      The filter must be placed outside the washing machine on the drain hose. It should not be raised above the height of the drain hose exiting the washing machine. The hose length should be held to a minimum. Raising the filter and a long drain hose will both reduce the efficiency of pumping and filtering and should be avoided.

       

      What are the dimensions of the filter housing?

      The filter housing alone, without any attachments, measures the following:

      • height 325 mm, width (hose attachment direction) 122 mm, and depth 130 mm.

       

      Is the microfiber filter easy to use?

      For the first load, just make sure the filter cover is replaced correctly and screwed tight before using the washing machine. Try a short wash and make sure all connections and covers are fixed and watertight.

      It’s also a good idea to hold the top of the device when replacing the filter cover to avoid putting pressure on the bracket fixings when unscrewing the cover.

      After that, you do not need to do anything until the cartridge is full.

      >Easy!

       

      How does the closed-loop system work?

      When your cartridge is full you can send it back to us directly, simply go onto the delivery website Parcel2Go and produce a label to send the cartridges to us, don't forget to include your order details as we'll refund you the postage cost. We then send these off to PlanetCare who disassemble the cartridge and remove the fibres and filtering medium.  This is done in a controlled environment, ensuring that caught fibres do not pollute water or the environment.

       

      What does Planetcare do with the fibres?

      >At the moment PlanetCare is safely storing the used filtered materials. Once they have sufficient quantity, they will reuse/recycle it all. At the moment they are planning to reuse the materials by converting them into insulation mats. But, they're always on the lookout for viable solutions and will choose the best available option to reuse/ recycle the fibres.

      The waste will never be burned or sent to a landfill!

      The remainder of the cartridge is cleaned, and fitted with a new filtering medium ready to be used again.

      Read More