Conversations in the street

I was walking back to my place to pick up the wheelbarrow and some tools and I saw this bloke picking weeds. “What are those?”, I asked. “Chickweed”, he said, and asked, “Are you Michael?” “Sure”, I said. “I’d like to come gardening with you”. “Well, email me and I’ll put you on our gardening list and you can come any time.  We garden each Friday”. Later that night, it must have been after service,... Read More

Manly Vale Community Garden opened today

Central pavilion, Manly Vale community garden, 4 Innes Rd, Manly Vale Raised bed gardens, Manly Vale community garden I went to the opening of the Manly Vale community garden today, about 45 minutes drive from Chippendale over the Harbour Bridge. When I spoke there I described some of the stories from our road gardening here in Chippendale.  From the feedback I received it’s clear folks find a lot of useful information and take heart from our road gardens here. I reckon... Read More

Calculate the sun for your house

There’s a beaut device on the web which allows you to see how the sun affects your site, your solar hot water panels or your solar photovoltaic panels – or how your neighbours roof may affect your panels  . . . Visit it here: www.suncalc.net… It’s on Google Maps.  To use it, type in an address and a date, and it shows you the track of the sun, from sunrise to sunset. That’s the path the sun takes on that date.  So you may see where the sun rises... Read More

Splitting my bee hive

On Monday 20 September at 10 am Peter Clarke will show me how to split my native stingless bee hive, set up the new (second) bee hive, and harvest honey. It will only take about ten minutes. A photographer (the wonderful Saima Ali who has done the terrific photos for the second edition of Sustainable House) will join us to get some  shots to show how it’s done. Does anyone know someone who would like to video it for a little Youtube or to go on this blog?  If so, contact... Read More

Beautiful garden diary

The 2011 permaculture diary produced by Michele Margolis features Myrtle St, Peace Park compost bins and other local verge initiatives. It is inspiring and informative for anyone vaguely interested in food growing, community gardening or sustainability  with real life stories, resources, planting calendar and  recipes. It’s ethically printed with recycled Australian paper and veg inks. I reckon Local Councils should be flogging it – good opportunity for PR and awareness... Read More

Orange trees in plaza, Seville, Spain

Orange trees in plaza, Seville, Spain A discussion with someone who visited the house here to inspect the design and systems, Jim from Kangaroo Valley, produced some beaut photos Jim had taken in Seville of orange trees in the streets. The one above shows orange trees shading a beautiful space and doing so with simple beauty. Thanks Jim, M  Read More

Laying local is city news

The latest issue of one of Sydney’s  inner city newspapers, City News, has a beaut photo of one of the chooks here, Bob, on the front cover.  That chook; there’s no holding her back. It’s part of a story about the Walk Against Warming on Sunday 15 August, this weekend, and the story is called, Laying local. You can find it here: www.altmedia.net… Or if you wish to download the paper  - be warned, it’s 9.2 MB – it’s here: www.altmedia.net… Good... Read More

Ten things you can do today in your road garden, and do no harm

I’ve written about some easy-to-do things in our streets to grow food in a column called, Bathurst Burr, in the online magazine, The Fifth Estate, here:   www.thefifthestate.com… Maybe one or two of those ideas might work for you? Just a thought, M  Read More

Peace Park Compost Bin Temperatures

Seven of the 14 public compost bins in Chippo are in Peace Park, one for each day of the week. The 7 Park bins are named for each day of the week, Monday, Tuesday, etc. By inviting people to put the waste in the bin which matches the day of the week  it’s intended the waste will be more evenly distributed across the seven bins.  After 7 months of the trial this appears to be working. It was the bright idea of Sydney City Council’s Waste Coordination officer, Michael... Read More

Road gardening is like talk back radio, but better

Gardening in the street is like talk back radio except the station you choose to listen to is the place where you live. When you garden in the road you have surprising and interesting conversations with complete strangers, or people you’ve seen but never spoken to. It can be more surprising than talk back.  And it builds a community where you live, not in the airwaves. You connect with where you are and make connections and discoveries you can’t predict.  Radio can... Read More