Man v Nature Countryfile Summer Diaries

All this week, we're bringing you the top countryside stories

that define our British summer.

The team has been travelling the length and breadth of the UK...

Wow!

..discovering the seasonal stories that affect you.

I've seen many things released into the wild before,

but never via a pipette.

Don't you get sick of peas?

I eat 16 plates, three times a day.

I'm surprised you aren't glowing green!

How much is my effort worth today?

Would you really like to know? MARGHERITA LAUGHS

One's laid an egg! Ooh, one's laid an egg!

LAUGHTER

This is Countryfile Summer Diaries.

And here's what we've got for you on today's programme...

Hailstorms of biblical proportions wiping out crops in summer.

This could be retribution

for all the terrible thunderstorm forecasts I've given.

Keeley investigates how farmers are fighting back

in the battle against nature.

And find out how discarded sheep's wool is an ingenious way

of protecting your fruit and veg from pests this summer.

And Margherita reports on how a treasured family recipe

grew into a multi-million pound business.

And it all starts here, with the humble elderflower.

But first, summer is a fantastic time to spot the sea life

around our shores.

Yet, an unwanted intruder washing up on our beaches

is putting it at risk.

60% of all the litter that is found on Britain's beaches is plastic,

which can take centuries to break down.

Jules now reports on the rise

of this unwanted, unpleasant addition to our shoreline.

Welcome to our marine litter museum.

Now, as an archaeologist, of course, I'm used to raking through

the rubbish of the past, but most of that is buried underground.

This collection is unique, because it's been picked up from beaches

right around the UK, and many of these items have now become

historic artefacts in their own right.

For example, when did you last see a packet of crisps like that

you could buy for just 5 pence?

Or, indeed - this is one of my favourites -

a good old-fashioned can of Ajax

that you could've had for the same price.

The point is that many of these items have been floating around

in the ocean for well over 30 or 40 years, pre-decimalisation.

And this, of course, is just a tiny selection of what's still out there.

The use of unnecessary plastic in everyday items and cosmetics

is destroying our oceans and killing our wildlife.

All seven species of sea turtle are endangered.

To a turtle, a plastic bag looks exactly like a jellyfish,

which they feed on.

Once swallowed, the bags block the stomach,

leading to death by starvation.

They also prove fatal to other marine life,

as countless autopsies have shown.

Every year, an estimated eight million tonnes of rubbish

makes its way into our oceans, much of it washing up on our shores.

So, as you can appreciate,

keeping Rhossili Beach beautiful is a full-time job.

Local volunteers, led by the National Trust,

are doing their bit to help keep the beach litter free.

Well, this is what I've managed to find over just 100 yards or so

of the tide line here today.

And, as you can see, by far the biggest culprit is plastic.

And it's thought that much of this can't break down

in any way, shape or form for around 500 years,

so it could be floating around out there until the year 2516.

Beach litter is at its highest level since records began,

so beach clean-ups like this are a short-term solution.

Some believe that tracing the source of this litter is the only way

to prevent the flood of plastic that's washing up on our shores.

That's one of the aims of Surfers Against Sewage,

led by campaign manager Hugo Tagholm.

Hugo, nice to see you. Hello.

You've assembled a fascinating

and somewhat nostalgic collection of rubbish.

But you're also finding things that are far more up-to-date.

We've got a great example from the South West - these stoppers.

So, this is what we call an unidentified floating object, a UFO.

Some people think they're earplugs,

some people think they're test tube stoppers,

some people say they're to do with central heating.

But we don't know what they are, we don't know where they come from.

So, if anybody's watching at home, and knows exactly what that is,

then contact Surfers Against Sewage and help solve the riddle.

Once we know where they come from,

we can stop them from ending up in the ocean and on our beaches.

We've had a great success story with these up in the North East

and along the south coast and these are taprogge balls.

What's a taprogge ball?

Well, taprogge ball...

a cleaning, a scouring pad that is used

inside power station cooling systems, so we found out.

And they were wearing out and becoming smaller and smaller

and then escaping past the screens that were meant to stop them.

So, you were able to contact the power stations,

make them aware of the problem

and bring the whole thing to a successful close?

Only by cutting down on our use of household plastics

and ensuring its safe disposal

can we ever prevent plastic litter from clogging our seas.

Later, I'll be catching up with a crack team of divers,

who are going to great depths to fight ocean pollution.

And I'll be finding out how changing something

as simple as your shower gel

could help save our seas and protect our marine life.

Now, freak summer weather is an all-too common occurrence in Britain.

Hailstorms have been known to wipe out whole crops

in a matter of minutes.

Keeley now investigates the battle of farmer versus weather.

THUNDERCLAP It's no secret that the great British weather

can be a bit unpredictable, especially in summer.

For our fruit farmers, it's a testing time.

A family of apple growers in Worcestershire

have had their entire crop wiped out in a freak hailstorm.

THUNDERCLAPS

'Carmella Meyer and her family have been growing fruit on their farm

'for the best part of a century.

'She knows only too well how devastating the storms can be.'

I've grown up on the farm all my life and, as a small child,

I'll never forget the memory of my mother standing at the window

crying her eyes out...

It's making me emotional, you see.

..at this hail that was just coming down and ruining everything.

In five minutes, it was devastating.

So, a big hailstorm in the middle of summer,

right when these are about to be picked could ruin the entire crop?

We have had about three years in eight when we have hailstorms,

which ruin some part of the crop.

The whole livelihood of not only us, our business, but our employees.

Everybody's at stake.

So, the farm takes protecting its summer crop very seriously.

As one of the UK's biggest fruit farms,

they produce nearly 70 million pieces of soft fruit a year.

So, you've got a completely artificial environment here

that doesn't rely on the unpredictability of the weather at all?

Absolutely, I mean, it can be raining cats and dogs

and it doesn't matter to these raspberries.

So, by heating the glass we can bring the crop forward.

We irrigate, ventilate, so there's not too much humidity,

and we create the best growing environment for the fruit.

There's been a huge increase in the berry market and berry consumption,

like 132% over the last ten years.

We want to meet that demand.

But, when it comes to fruit trees

that grow in excess of 30 foot in height,

protecting the crops can present a greater challenge.

Farm director Robert England is tackling the problem head on.

He's experimenting with covering the entire orchard with netting.

So, just explain to me exactly how these things work.

OK, so the nets are rolled up on the top wire during the winter

and then we unfurl them and clip them together

and any hail that falls out of the sky will hit the net

and should run to the middle and drop down on the grass safely.

And how bad does it get, then, cos this is quite a lot of effort?

It is. Is it really necessary? It is. It is.

Sometimes, hail can come very, very violently and very, very large

and could literally reduce this crop from being

suitable to go to the fresh market to only suitable for juice.

I've actually seen a Discovery crop, just as we were harvesting it,

where hail the size of pigeon eggs fell and... Really?

..I literally was able to put my thumb

through to the middle of the apple. And can it ruin a crop like this?

Absolutely. In seconds.

So, does it actually work?

Well, I've got a little experiment I'd like to try with you.

So, we've got these two buckets of balls.

And I'm going to go up in that cage there, high above the net,

and I'm going to get you to stand underneath and I'm going to

pour them on your head. SHE LAUGHS

It's a bad day if these are falling out of the sky.

It certainly would be, but if it can stop those,

it'll stop anything smaller. Right.

OK, er...I hope these work.

So do I, so do I.

'But it's no laughing matter.

'The success of this netting could be the only thing standing between

'a hailstorm and the loss of a crop worth millions of pounds.'

WHIRRING This could be retribution

for all the terrible thunderstorm forecasts I've given!

WHIRRING OK. OK.

CRACKLING

SHE SHOUTS Ooh!

SHE SHOUTS

I'll tell you what, I'm safe as houses down here!

You can see how they all collect in this section here

and either fall through, or, if they were hail,

they just sit there and melt and gradually dribble through,

so it really does do its job, doesn't it?

It does. It does. Very well.

I think there's a perception when we get to summer that it's going to be

filled with long, hot sunny days and that's just not the case.

In fact, we can get some of our most damaging and destructive weather

at this time of year, in the form of thunderstorms and large hail.

And there's more pressure than ever before for farmers to create

the perfect fruit, so it'll be interesting to see in the future

if more farms take on radical practices, like this,

to protect their crops.

For many of us, one of the signs that summer is truly here

is the appearance of elderflower in the hedgerows.

Margherita has been discovering how a traditional family recipe,

involving elderflower, has become a global business.

Here they are.

'Pev Manners has been cultivating elderflower since the 1980s

'for a business venture born out of a treasured family recipe.'

Pev, this is seriously impressive.

Where did this all start? Well, this started in Mum's garden,

making elderflower cordial in the kitchen.

'It was 1984.

'We were growing strawberries, raspberries and blackcurrants,

'for a pick-your-own and Dad said to Mum,

'"I'm going to make a strawberry cordial". And she went...'

"Ah, why do you make an elderflower cordial?

"Because everybody seems to want this elderflower cordial I'm making.

"I've already got to make 10 bottles for Jane, 15 for Caroline,

"so-and-so for Amanda and, you know,

"why don't you try and make some of that?"

So he went, "OK, we'll make 100 cases."

Dad put them in the back of his car

and drove them round the delis and farm shops

and flogged them to them. And, to his astonishment,

they rang up and asked for some more.

Now, we're making about two million bottles of elderflower cordial

and it's still Mum's recipe.

We haven't changed it. Still the same recipe? Still Mum's recipe.

It's corny, but it's true!

How much of the elderflower cordial you're making

comes from the rows that you've planted?

Well, we farm about 80 acres,

but most of it comes from the wild hedgerows.

This is only about 10% of the flowers we pick.

And what do I need to think about when I'm picking?

I'll show you the difference between the good ones and the bad ones.

Here we have a branch with one which is absolutely perfect.

99% perfect. That gorgeous scent.

And a lovely smell. Mm. I'll pick that one.

And that one's still pretty closed.

I'll come back next week for that one. Next week's going to get

really hot, then the rest are going to come out at once.

It's going to be mayhem.

So, you really have just a small window

to really get that summer harvest in?

Exactly. All around the area, people are picking the flowers

and bringing them to us. It's perfect.

And people can make quite a decent stack of cash from this.

They love it.

When the time is right, the sun is shining,

the flowers are open and the heady scent of elderflower is in the air,

it's time to harvest.

So, it's all hands on deck and I've been given some top tips

on how to make the picking pay.

Pick your elderflower the same day you're planning to use it.

Store it in an open bag, but out of natural sunlight.

Otherwise, the elderflower will turn brown and start to sweat

and you're going to lose that gorgeous flavour.

Sometimes, cow parsley can be mistaken for elderflower,

but it doesn't have that lovely distinctive fragrance,

or the yellow pollen.

Our day's efforts are weighed and measured back at the farm.

32 for Casey.

There you go. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. See you...

Saturday. Tomorrow. Tomorrow! Ah!

LAUGHTER That's tomorrow!

Casey, I saw you arrive with a few bags of elderflower

and I thought I'd been busy, but this isn't...

This is real beginner status, I think!

Oh, my God. They're nice and fresh!

Is that good? Very good, yes.

Maybe I'll do all right at this?

Oh, yes, just continue doing it,

because today you've picked just a few.

Tomorrow maybe you can triple this?

So you're saying I need to get faster?

Yes. Yes!

The faster you do it, the more you get, you get more money.

OK!

'Pickers get paid ?2 per kilo.'

Put it all in there, all four bags in there, please.

'Phyllis Howard, affectionately known as Mrs Elderflower,

'has the important job of weighing the fruits of our labour.

'She's in her 32nd summer season at the farm.'

You're the person that weighs this treasure. I am.

And harvest. I am. I am.

Weighs and pays. Have I got the right stuff?

You've got the right stuff. It's beautiful stuff.

Does anybody try and get anything past you ever?

Oh, lots of time. Really? Lots of times.

What kind of cheeky things would...?

We've had all sorts of things, like dumbbells and...

No! SHE LAUGHS

..bottles of water and...

Actually, we've had a mobile phone, but I think that might have

been a mistake, the mobile phone. SHE LAUGHS

You've not hidden anything in the bottom, have you? No, no.

Are you sure? It's all flowers. I'll let you off with that one.

How much is my effort worth today?

Would you really like to know? SHE LAUGHS

?2 in money.

That won't even get you a drink.

SHE SIGHS Will it?

It might buy you a cup of coffee.

Maybe. If I'm lucky.

If you're lucky. Not in London, though!

OK, so I'm going to need to work a little bit harder.

I think you might have to, yes.

All right, OK, up my game. Up your game.

The elderflower cordial that's sold here is made on a grand scale,

but it still stays faithful to the old family recipe

and Pev's agreed to show me how it's done.

'First, make a sweet syrup by mixing water, sugar

'and a little citric acid.'

Don't forget, this is a drink we're going to dilate a lot.

'Then stir in some lemon juice

'before reaching for the magic ingredient.'

About 12 big lemon heads. God! Now, don't stir it, just leave these now.

One, two, three...

Just placed in the water?

Face down. Five... There we go. Bang.

Now, what we do is we take the spoon

and, not too hard, you just sink it in, like this.

You dunk it in.

And all that pollen that we were looking for...

Absolutely, you want to get these flowers, with their lovely pollen,

under the syrup, like that.

Now, that...

now needs to go in a cool, dark place.

Put it under the stairs or somewhere for a secret amount of time.

OK. Definitely more than one day.

You have to filter it very, very carefully.

Muslin is quite easily available. Pour it in and then you do it again.

And you end up with a real flavour of summer. Lovely...

Stick your finger in.

It's gorgeous!

Really fresh, tangy, vibrant.

Actually, I can taste elderflower. Amazing.

Already! That lovely hint of elderflower. Mm.

And it's going to get thicker and thicker with the flowers. Oh!

It's amazing to think that, in just six short weeks in summertime,

the elderflower for the year is harvested.

And what I love about it is that we can all get involved

and make some cash, too.

What's not to love about a great British summer?

Now, another summer spectacle, the butterfly, is under threat.

In the last 100 years, nearly 70 species have become extinct.

James reports on what can be done.

Fragile and beautiful,

butterflies live largely hidden lives,

invisible in the undergrowth.

And, right now, butterflies all over the world

are fighting an epic battle for survival.

So, how much do you know about butterflies?

Did you know there are 59 species in the UK alone?

But I bet that most of us can count the number we recognise on one hand.

Being a plant geek,

I want to find out a little bit more about these elusive creatures

and what we can all do to help sustain them.

This guy over here is amazing.

You think it's just a little dried-up leaf.

And it's always a little bit disconcerting for me

when insects do this, and they look like plants,

cos I'm never quite sure whether I should understand them or not.

HE LAUGHS

But someone who certainly does understand them

is pioneer conservationist Clive Farrell.

He's set up a ground-breaking sanctuary

for his beloved butterflies.

Clive, this is beautiful, but, as a botanist,

I actually feel pain to see that these plants are

being purposefully eaten by the things you're trying to grow here.

But these butterflies aren't native, are they?

No, these are all tropical butterflies in here.

Worldwide, mainly from rainforest areas.

There are 18,000 species in serious decline,

because their habitat is being destroyed,

so I like to think of these tropical creatures

as messengers from the rainforest -

"Look how beautiful we are and our homes are worth looking after,

"worthy of conservation."

That's a really beautiful way of putting it.

I recognised a lot of these ones

from when I was growing up in Asia as well.

They're absolutely beautiful.

'This one's the great tree nymph from South-East Asia,

'sometimes called the paper kite.

'And this is the heliconius from the Colombian rainforest.'

This isn't the world's happiest-looking canna here.

Well, you can see the fully grown owl butterfly caterpillars here.

So, that's the same one? That's just a little but older?

That's right. I wouldn't even recognise that as a caterpillar.

Well, I think it's worth sacrificing the plant,

because the butterflies themselves are so beautiful.

Ooh, I think you've got a debate on your hands there, Clive.

Oh, well, it might recover. So, which ones are these?

Which is the actual adult? What does it look like?

It's the giant owl butterfly and they feed on rotten fruit.

It's a butterfly that doesn't feed on flowers,

the juice from rotten fruit and other disgusting habits.

Great. Is that the one with the...

the kind of big eyes that make it look like an owl?

Exactly. And they're said to terrify their enemies,

because if they're disturbed by a bird and they flash their wings

it looks like a huge face looking at you. Yep.

So, have you always been into butterflies?

Yes, I mean, since I was a child.

It sort of started with a hairy caterpillar

I found in my back garden.

Like many children before me, I put it in a matchbox

and I just happened to be around at the very time

it hatched out from its cocoon.

And I watched it dry its wings

and it was one of those magic childhood moments

that I think we all look for later on in life

and I never grew out of it.

That's fantastic. Sounds a little bit like me with plants.

Outside, we have gardens and wild flower meadows

and the best habitats for our native butterflies.

The butterfly sanctuary isn't where you might expect.

It's sitting right next to the M25 and the M1.

Clive, this is almost surreally beautiful,

very Little House On The Prairie.

Well, we're in scarred landscape here.

The junction of the two busiest motorways.

You could say it's the biggest

butterfly service station in Britain. Yeah.

And we're trying to show that it is possible,

even in a situation like this,

to create a rich and diverse butterfly habitat

and a rich wild flower meadow.

Presumably, these are great for species that are under threat?

Well, we've seen such declines in even our common species,

any techniques that we can use to arrest that decline

and increase the butterfly population, well, I feel

it's our duty to generations to come, to our children.

So, what can be done to support our butterflies?

Ivan Hicks has designed all the meadows and gardens here

and I'm going to pick his brains

about making a butterfly-friendly habitat in my back yard.

Hey there, Ivan. Can I give you a hand? Hi, James.

Yeah, just in time. Come and help me log on.

LAUGHTER

Is it when you become a dad you develop dad humour?

I think so, I think so. You see, the old ones are the best.

So, what's this big log pile for?

Well, it's got multiple functions.

I mean, it will allow overwintering butterflies to hide in there,

which they do need, some of them, actually,

well, you might find in your shed, but it's also home for...

habitat for frogs and toads and all kinds of beetles and bugs

that need these conditions - sort of wet and dry logs,

which they can bore into and find a home.

And is there any particular rhyme or rhythm to this?

Not really... Big ones on the bottom, stick them out?

I suppose so, so it doesn't fall over. All right.

You're now the designer. LAUGHTER

Thank you very much.

So, this is something anyone could really do at home?

Oh, yes, it's just providing habitat in all its forms actually.

It's just, you know, multiple housing development, really,

for all kinds of bugs and beetles and reptiles.

Poolside property for them?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, high-rise!

LAUGHTER Book a flat now!

Well, this area here, James, is a good example

of how gardens can help butterflies.

Quite often, people are too bothered about getting the strimmer out,

tidying up everywhere, cutting down everything.

I think you need to relax a little more and just have an untidy area.

So, great for lazy gardeners, then, a fantastic excuse?

Perfect for lazy gardeners. Just sit in your deck chair,

keep that strimmer in the garage.

This is a place where insects, particularly butterflies, like to roost.

After they've finished nectaring,

they need somewhere just out of the wind where they can go.

And particularly a plant like nat weed,

which is just ambrosia for a number of our native butterflies.

Fantastic, so leaving in a couple of weeds and keeping it

a little bit messy is actually a fantastic excuse.

You're doing wildlife gardening, not just being lazy. That's right.

And there's one more job for me to do while I'm here

and I'm not massively looking forward to.

So, James, these are peacock caterpillars,

nearly fully grown and running out of food.

And you're going to help me release them. How are you with caterpillars?

Do you know, I don't know, I've never...

I don't think I've ever picked up one.

Well, now is your chance. I'll give it a go.

Grab this one that's making a break for it. Yeah, that's it.

You expect them to almost kind of feel a little bit spiky,

with these structures on the back, but they're really soft.

They're quite soft, aren't they? I thought I was going to be

a real wimp about this, but they're all right.

Well, it turns into one of our most loved butterflies - the peacock -

with those sort of RAF roundels on the wings. Oh, right!

That's one I do recognise.

Well, now, would you like to just release these now

on the stinging nettles just here? These are moving very quickly.

There should be enough there to sustain them.

These are moving quicker than I'd imagined,

so what do we do to release them? Do we just pop them on?

I think just introduce them to the nettles down here.

And is this the key thing that they eat?

Yes, almost exclusively the peacock eats stinging nettle leaves.

So it's really important,

if you want to continue having peacock butterflies,

to set a little bit of space aside for nettles in your garden?

Well, absolutely. It's the most important caterpillar food plant

for garden butterflies.

Right, so yet another reason not to do any weeding this summer.

I like it. Giving me excuses!

LAUGHTER

Every year, eight million tonnes of this stuff -

of plastic - gets dumped in the world's oceans and seas

and Jules is here on the Gower now,

reporting on what we can do to help stem this flow of pollution.

And one answer could be as simple as changing your shower gel.

Only 15% of the rubbish in our oceans

ever find its way back on shore.

The rest of it is out here.

We've got eight local divers today,

who will be going down onto the seabed 20 metres below us

and we're rigging the divers with cameras

to see what trashy treasures they find.

Marine animals, like whales, dolphins, turtles and fish,

are all under threat from the waste and litter in our seas,

with hundreds of species accidentally eating

or becoming entangled in the stuff that we just don't want any more.

There's more rubbish, more plastics...

Colin Whitehall and his fellow divers

have decided to take matters into their own hands,

removing litter, piece by piece.

In the ten years that I've been diving in the UK,

probably more than that now, there's a visible increase every year.

There's more and more flotsam and jetsam

we're picking up from the waters.

Crabs and other small crustaceans will get caught up

in line, in monofilament.

If someone's hooked a fish and it's broken the line or been snagged

into a rock, you often find the fish still tethered to the seabed

and we try and rescue what we can.

More than 600,000 tonnes of fishing gear

is lost in our oceans every year.

And it's not just a danger to sea life,

but also a deadly threat to recreational divers,

like Colin and his team.

How hazardous is it for you, as divers?

Our biggest concern, as a diver, would be nets.

Whether they've been lost over a wreck,

where somebody's been trawling, or just been swept in.

A monofilament net in particular

is very, very difficult to see underwater.

Obviously, as a diver, we don't want to get caught into a net

and then not be able to get back to the surface.

We feel very passionate about it.

We're seeing things that 99% of the population aren't seeing.

When you go on a country walk, people always describe litter.

It's exactly the same under the oceans.

If everybody did the same thing -

if you went out for a country walk, mountaineering or whatever,

if you took one or two pieces of litter back with you,

maybe we'd start eating away at the problem.

Presumably, that's some of our first divers coming back to the surface?

It is. Hopefully they'll have brought some rubbish up with them.

After an hour of busy underwater litter picking,

it's time to head back to the shore to determine the source of the haul.

And, alongside the rubbish collected today, Colin is keen to show me

a surprisingly deadly item of marine litter -

a ghost pot.

It's where a lobster pot's been lost at sea for whatever reason.

It may have been washed off in a storm

or caught in a crevice or around a wreck.

So, the lobster moves in to go for the bait.

Something else will come in to eat that lobster, then something else

coming in to eat that. And it could, in effect,

stay there for years, just carrying on fishing.

So, it's a vicious and appalling and macabre circle in a way, isn't it?

Yeah, very much so.

Photos from previous dives,

when Colin and his team first began their operation,

illustrate the scale of the problem.

But the greatest concern to conservationists and ecologists

isn't this super-sized rubbish.

It's something deadly, but tiny

that lurks in all of our bathroom cupboards

and it's transforming the world around us.

Well, on a beautiful sunny day like this,

with the surf glistening along the shoreline,

it's attempting to think that much of the sparkle here

is provided by the sand.

But, in more recent years,

it's been found to contain an extra ingredient -

millions upon millions of tiny particles.

And, yes, you've guessed it,

it's plastic, man-made and deadly to wildlife.

Plastic microbeads found in everyday cosmetics,

such as shower gel, toothpastes and exfoliants,

are polluting our seas at an estimated rate

of 4,000 tonnes a year in Europe alone.

Laura Eyles from the Marine Conservation Society

is concerned that these tiny plastic particles eaten by fish

are even turning up on our plates.

What actually are we looking at here?

This is microbeads.

So, this is the stuff that gives you that abrasive feeling on your face

if you scrub it with one of those exfoliants?

Yes. It's not natural products that are being used

to get that kind of effect. It's plastic.

They're so small and, unfortunately, they're going down

our sewage systems and entering the sea,

so all the animals are eating it.

And then, of course, us, as seafood consumers,

are eating the fish and we are, in turn, ingesting plastics

that we have, unfortunately, put there in the first place.

A single tube of face wash

contains more a quarter of a million microbeads

and thousands are washed down the sink in each application.

People don't realise that that's what is in these things

and unfortunately, we're using them every day,

they're going down the drains and then obviously out into the sea.

The UK Government is working towards banning microbeads,

but, in the meantime, we can make a difference

by seeking out face washes, toothpastes and shower gels

that clearly state they don't contain these deadly micro plastics.

You know, it is a sobering thought to think that,

of all the plastic ever made,

most of it is still in existence somewhere in the world.

Plastic pollution, it's clear, is now a global problem.

And if we don't do something about it,

well, experts now believe that, by 2050,

there could be more plastic in our oceans than fish.

Paul and his family took the plunge and left the city

for a new life in the country.

This spring, we saw Paul take his first steps as a smallholder.

CLUCKING

WHIRRING With his new-found knowledge,

here are his top tips on how you can avoid summer pests.

As far back as I can remember,

I've always wanted to keep my own livestock.

And in the spring I got the chance.

We took on four Wiltshire Horn yearlings to tackle the weeds

that the horses don't touch

and I have to say they did a terrific job.

I'm ever so pleased.

I'm tempted to get four more, but first there's work to do.

Between June and September,

the sheep are at risk from a deadly infection, known as fly strike.

Adrian, it's good to see you.

How are you, Paul? I'm very well, thank you.

'To help me deal with this summer blight,

'the farmer who bred the sheep, Adrian Andrews,

'has returned to help me spray my fledgling flock

'against this deadly illness.

'And he's brought with him a friend to help round them up.'

Good girl, Pip.

Go on, what's the away command to the right? I've forgotten that.

Away. Away! As simple as that! She knows what that is!

LAUGHTER She already wants to go!

What's to the left? Come by. Come by.

Away.

Look, Ronaldo's leading the charge now.

Come on, Barbie.

'80% of the UK's sheep flocks are affected every year by fly strike

'and it's thought that it costs the sheep industry

'some ?2.2 million per year.

'It's caused by a metallic green blowfly,

'which lays its eggs in the sheep's wool

'and, as the eggs hatch,

'the maggots begin to eat the sheep's skin and flesh,

'so I'm keen to stop it happening to my little flock.'

Is there anything to look out for if one of them does get fly strike?

With Wiltshire Horns, around their horns

you will see like a black streak running down their face

or down their legs. OK.

That's probably the first indication of flies.

OK.

The gun administers the dose for a sheep.

Gosh, you've got to be quite strong, haven't you?

SHEEP BLEAT

I'm going to pour this from its horns all the way back to its rump.

And then just rub it in. And just work it in.

As you can see, it's pink,

so that's when you know you've done it. You know you've done that one.

Hey!

Nice and gently. That's it. All the way back.

That's it. Well done.

This one's Barbie.

This is Barbie, is it? 227. LAUGHTER

Right, Ronaldo... Ronaldo's the last one to go.

You are...

quite tough!

LAUGHTER

Right. Well done. That's the four of them now.

Well, that'll sort you out, won't it, guys? Eh?

These should be all right now.

You should have no problem with these at all.

Go on, guys. Good. Good job done.

'Most farmers would be shearing their sheep

'at this time of the year,

'but our Wiltshire Horns moult naturally.'

Now, most of the wool just blows away in the wind, but some of it,

as you can see, gets stuck in the fencing

and I have a clever use for this stuff.

The humble family veg patch is coming along well,

but the cabbages are being ravaged.

Heavy rain at the start of this summer

has turned it all into a slug feast.

And they all hate wool.

Salty oils, like lanolin, deter the creatures

and also the fibres make it very difficult for them to crawl over.

Now, the idea is to ringfence around...

the base of the vegetables.

Knit the wool together, so it locks in and it won't blow away.

It's tight around the stem there.

That creates a barrier between the slug and my lovely broccoli.

So, the next time you're walking in the countryside,

go and pick some off some fencing or the odd bit of hedgerow.

Collect it up in a bag, bring it home

and do what I'm doing.

Slugs cause around ?8 million worth of damage each year

to vegetable crops and, on average, a UK garden is home

to more than 20,000 slugs, while an acre of farmland

can support more than a quarter of a million.

So, I'm going to make the most of the rest of my produce

whilst it remains reasonably intact.

Of course, you're never going to get them all.

Only 5% of the slug population live above the ground.

The other 95% are dormant underground

until it starts to rain.

As one individual field slug can produce 90,000 grandchildren,

I've got some tricks up my sleeve

to rid my summer garden of slugs for good.

Unwanted plastic bottles are a brilliant resource for any gardener,

because they make ideal slug traps.

Just watch this. You cut them not quite in half,

so about one third down from the top,

like so.

You take the cap off.

You then fill them up with...

cider! Good old sweet cider.

And they can smell that a mile off.

So, there you go. That's got the cider in it.

You turn this section upside down,

wedge it in there, like that,

and they will find their way up there,

drop down through the funnel and they won't get back out.

Hey presto!

The best slug trap in the world.

And they will drown in their own tipple.

What a way to go.

HE SIGHS What does it smell like?

Disgusting. It's disgusting, yeah! LAUGHTER

'And watered down vinegar is a great organic way to kill slugs on site,

'without harming the plants or the soil.'

Naughty, naughty. It's eating your strawberries!

'Our strawberries are doing really well this year

'and I'm going to make sure that continues

'by raising them off the ground to avoid my slimy friends.'

We're going to thin some out and we're going to plant them up here,

raise them off the ground... Yeah.

And then the slugs won't get at them.

Look at those beauties, Meredith!

They'll soon be red.

Wow! Wow, look, that's another strawberry plant there,

so we'll put that one there and peg that one down.

Can we use some of your hair clips, Meredith? No!

Oh! Shall we use Mummy's?

Use one of mine.

Oh, thank you. Do you want to put that one down on there?

That's it. And it'll stop it from blowing around in the wind.

Well done, Meredith.

Right, I'll water these in now.

Ah!

Do you... LAUGHTER

Ready?

LAUGHTER

You stick it down and follow Daddy around, OK?

'My final secret weapon against the slugs is copper tape.'

For the slugs, it's like hitting an electric fence.

It's got a little bit twisted here, guys. I know.

Something went wrong. It was you. It was Daddy!

HE LAUGHS Was it Daddy?

Do you know, it's always my fault, isn't it?

How does that look? Stand back.

A slug-free zone! Yay!

HE LAUGHS

And we'll be back with Paul tomorrow,

when he'll be firing up a summer barbecue

with home-made charcoal.

Now, one in four of us grows some of our own food,

but what about growing your own furniture?

Anita is in Derbyshire to find out more.

Every tree tells a story.

Every fork, every twist, every knot

is a life history written in wood.

A tale of seasons, scars and sunlight.

But it's a slow tale.

You might not notice it grow,

but, over time, months and years,

a tree is shaped by its surroundings.

But what if you could tame this process?

Bend it to your will -

train the tree into a very specific shape?

Well, one man here in Derbyshire is doing just that.

Gavin Munro is an artist and furniture designer.

After years in California, making pieces from driftwood,

he returned to his home county of Derbyshire

to become a farmer...of furniture.

Hi, Gavin. Hi, there. Lovely to meet you.

Right, so you're growing furniture.

That's right, yeah. You're going to have to explain this to me.

What is going on? What do you mean by that?

Well, what it means is,

we're sort of neatly organising woodland

and shaping trees, as they grow,

into the shapes of chairs and tables

and all sorts. Like these? Yeah.

'Gavin remembers when his inspiration struck.'

It was one of those sort of eureka moments, where I realised that,

instead of...chopping trees down and making them into small bits

just to stick back together again,

we could grow these into the shapes that we want.

It made so much sense. How long does it take?

Well, it takes between four and eight years for a chair.

That's a long time for a chair.

It is a long time for a chair, but we're making stuff from wood.

Wood is basically kind of solid air and sunshine.

This is a kind of...it's kind of like 3-D printing. Yeah.

Except we use photosynthesis as our...you know, printer.

'Although this idea is new,

'our love of working with wood has roots that go deep into the past.

'Today, Gavin is experimenting with everything,

'from fast-growing willow,

'to oak, sycamore and hazel.

'The chairs start life upside down.'

Well, it looks impressive.

LAUGHTER Cheers.

And, I think I can see how this is starting to take shape.

This is the chair back. These will form the seat here.

Oh, fantastic! Yeah.

And these will come along here

and then the four legs will come out the back.

It's brilliant.

And how do you get a tree to do what you want it to do?

You can't force a tree to do something it doesn't want to do,

because the branch will die and it will start again somewhere else.

So, actually, we've got to make it a pretty nice life for the tree.

For every 100 pieces that we have,

we want to keep control over 1,000 branches that we want

and there's 10,000 branches that we don't want.

And we've just got to make sure we're doing the rounds,

making sure we spot the right moment to bend the right branch.

Growing chairs is hard graft.

Gavin's team is here in all weathers,

making sure the trees are flourishing.

It won't be long before the first batch of chairs is ready to harvest.

I can see it. Yeah, a finished chair. It's all becoming so clear.

Is it absolutely finished, this? Well, the shape is finished.

Now, we're just waiting for this one to thicken up.

We'll harvest this when these thin branches at the top -

the bottoms of the chair legs -

when they're as thick as this, here.

Then, we'll let it season for six months to a year

and then we'll plane off some of the outer edges.

So, it'll look a bit like this

that you can see here. Ah! Gorgeous.

This is a projection of one of the ones further down the row.

'The time it takes to grow a chair

'means each will sell for around ?2,500.

What's the benefit of having one of these over a shop-bought wood chair?

Well, there's the environmental benefit to start with, of course.

But one of the main aspects is the kind of aesthetic quality.

Each one of these is a kind of, sort of art piece.

And because everything...

There's no joints, like regularly made staff,

everything's grafted into one solid piece,

these could last for hundreds of years.

'From seed to seat,

'a family heirloom grown from the ground.'

SHE SIGHS I'll tell you something,

all this patiently growing chairs has exhausted me,

and while Gavin's are still being made,

I'll have to make do with a plastic one.

BUZZING

Well, that's all we've got time for today.

But please do join us again tomorrow.

As a Dickensian disease makes a comeback in the UK,

we'll be reporting on how sunshine

might be better for your health than you think.

And I'll be finding out whether

eating ice cream at this time of year

could actually be good for you.

Mm!

So, until the same time tomorrow, goodbye.

A garden takes time to perfect.