Another week and another page on the the PR calandar.  This time its Fairtrade Fortnight which is a cause close to our hearts.  The primary focus of the Fairtrade Foundatoin has been on helping small farmers get a fair price for their crops like these fairtrade red bananas in Tanzania.  Some economists argue that price guarantees do not help economies to grow, but on balance it must be a good thing.

And the focus of fairtrade is now broadening to other small producers which have traditoinally been exploited, like the production of panama hats in Ecuador.  Our fairtrade panama hats come from a women's cooperative which guarantees good working conditions and fair wages to all its weavers.  Let's hope it won't be long before all hats are made this way.

Every cause tries to lay claim to a week in the PR calendar these days.  This week is national nest box week.  Hats off to the BTO which succeeded in getting a good piece onto the Today programme this morning, using two architect designed birdboxes as the story.

Both houses are wonderfully creative visions of the sort of homes they would like birds to live in.  But if you would rather have something which is easy to make and clean, which naturally blends into your garden there are simpler birdbox designs.  If you want to make it a bit more exotic, you could always try a sedum nest box, which is good for the birds and for the environment.

Cleaning flower pots and seed trays is not something that I imagine anyone relishes, but it is worth the effort.  I find a combination of a pot brush and an old vegetable brush will brush up most plastic and terracota pots pretty well.

The reason is to avoid residual pests and soil borne infections which can destroy new seedlings.  A small amount of soil left on the side of a pot can be enough to harbour desease.  If you're feeling particularly energetic a scrub with a natural disinfectant such as white vinegar should see off any last bugs.

1st Feb is the start of the snowdrop season.  Many will have been flowering for sometime, but the next couple of weeks is the best time to take a stroll to admire these wonders of mid-winter.

I reckon in our garden we have no more than 3 varieties of snowdrop, but in some you will find over 200.  To find the best snowdrop walks near you, go to www.ngs.org.uk or www.rhs.org.uk.