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Sixty percent of all litter found on UK beaches is plastic, which takes centuries to break down.  This plastic destroys habitats and kills wildlife. Jules Hudson reports on the rise of this unwanted addition to our shoreline.  He meets Hugo Tagholm from Surfers Against Sewage to find out about their campaign to clean up our beaches. He also catches up with a team of divers in Gower who are going to great depths to fight ocean pollution.  It’s estimated that by 2050, there will be more plastic in the sea than fish.  Jules discovers how an everyday household product is flooding trillions of plastic beads into our oceans creating pollution that won’t disintegrate for hundreds of years.

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 Donovan heads to Sussex to find out how fruit farmers are managing to stay one step ahead of the weather by introducing hail netting that will help fruit crops this summer.

Deep in the idyllic countryside surrounding Belvoir Castle, Leicestershire, lies a family business that has grown into a multi-million pound operation.  Pev Manners has been using a treasured family recipe to make elderflower cordial since the 1980’s, gathering flowers from the surrounding fields and hedgerows to make the refreshing tipple that captures a taste of summer. Margherita Taylor joins Pev during the elderflower harvest, a season that only last for 6 weeks during the height of summer.  

Butterflies are a quintessential part of our British summertime, but how much do we really know about the lives of these elusive creatures? Sadly, our native butterflies are seriously under threat, with seventy percent of species in decline. James Wong heads to an unexpected location, next to the junction of two of the UK’s busiest motorways, to find out what can be done to protect our butterflies and how you can create a butterfly haven in your garden this summer.

Every year, eighty percent of the UK’s sheep flock are affected by fly strike, a summer infection caused by blow-fly.  It costs the industry around £2.2 million a year. Paul Martin gets some advice from local sheep farmer, Adrian Andrews, on how to protect his fledgling flock of Wiltshire Horns this summer. In his allotment, Paul explores the best ways to protect your veggie patch from being attacked by slugs.

Anita Rani meets artist, designer and ‘farmer’ Gavin Munro who is growing a rather unusual crop on his two and half acre holding in central Derbyshire – chairs! Using flexible tree types such as ash and sycamore, Anita learns how Gavin shapes young saplings around plastic moulds to ultimately make whole tables, chairs and lamps from a single piece of wood. As Gavin takes Anita through the various stages of this painstaking process, she finds out that patience really is the name of the game when it comes to creating green and sustainable furniture. Just one of Gavin’s pieces takes between five to eight years to grow!