“We are very interested in installing an aerated system to treat our greywater for in-house use and would appreciate any advice on which supplier to use. So far Ozzi Kleen have been the most responsive to our enquiries.”

I consider at least two products for on site sewage projects:

Aqua Nova (aquanova.com…, and

Innoflow (www.innoflowtechnologies.com…)

The first is about half the cost of the second.  Both will do the job.

For reuse for clothes washing, toilet flushing and gardening I add a sand filter (sand in a tank) and an ultra violet lamp to the Aqua Nova.

I use a simple template for assessing the waste and some simple conditions to assist obtain a quick and affordable approval.

It won’t be long until someone applies the simple approvals option and so brings down the approvals cost and time and increases the rate of take up of the systems.  At the moment, however, if you’re a newcomer the folks selling these systems don’t generally have the expertise to obtain affordable approvals and it’s easy for the red tape to drive up approval and operating costs for newcomers seeking approvals.

The key thing to use here is a good knowledge of the law and how to use standards; a standard is just that – a rule of thumb which may be varied to suit the circumstances.  And sustainable water use produces much lower water use and waste than the standards typically allow for.

I could write much more on this but a blog is not the place for it.  There’s some more info in the second edition of my book and I’ll be putting up some fact sheets to go with the book when it’s out in October.

M

Socks get a great view from Barrenjoey

On Sunday I went to Barrenjoey for the night.  It’s an hour’s drive from Chippendale to Palm Beach.

On Monday I climbed Barrenjoey to the lighthouse and found a rock with a view to the south over Palm Beach and Pittwater.

My socks, as seen in the photo above, obtained a fine view.

All this within an hour of the city.  What a great city Sydney is.

M

Now is our time.  Spring has sprung, warmth is in the air, green shoots are on the wing . . . hyperbole is all about.

See you at 58 Myrtle this Friday at 9 am or at the bins in Peace Park, and we’ll be in the road gardens in Myrtle, Shepherd and Rose streets ’til 12. We will:

-  Fight them on the beaches, we will never surrender;  I’m talking cockroaches in our compost bins in the park and the streets.  We’ll mount some defences, including:

PREVENTION

To repel cockroaches, wipe surfaces with a mixture of 100ml water to 10 drops of eucalyptus oil. Wipe straight eucalyptus oil around drain holes and external door frames.
Place cucumber peelings and/or bay leaves in areas where cockroaches are a problem. Replace when dried out.

So we’ll pick some green bay leaves from the half dozen bay trees in our road gardens and put them in the bins.

-           Get ‘em drunk – cockroaches that is:

Soak a rag in beer and place in a shallow dish overnight in an infested area. In the morning you can dispose of the drunken cockroaches and silverfish.

-           Shock n awe: Mix 2/3 cup of mashed potato (boil potato in water and mash in its own juice) with 1/3 cup of baking powder, roll into marble sized balls and place in cupboards.  Cockroaches will eat the balls and gas will build up in their guts from the baking powder / potato mix.  Because cockroaches cant burp, their stomachs explode and they die.  The message here is: be grateful we burp.

With careful management we may manage to find some left over beer in the bottle with which to assist ourselves appreciate our works.

There’s a beaut young lemon tree and a variegated cumquat to plant, too, and we’ll prepare the verge beds for them.

M

Wood sorrel, Myrtle road garden

Luke, the chef who lives in Cleveland Street, joined us briefly for gardening on Friday and showed Karlie and I  some wood sorrel growing in the road garden on the corner of Myrtle and Pine.

Luke says when he’s looking at what plants he might eat from the road gardens (and anywhere)  he relies on what his tongue tells him. If something tastes like grass then he’s doesn’t pick it. He uses wood sorrel to flavour such things as watermelon. I’m going to try it on the lovely grapefruit we’re getting at the moment in our food boxes from Sydney Food Connect.

I took the photo above today about 11 am and the wood sorrel shown in the centre of the photo with the small leaves was in full shade so it’s a handy plant that will grow on the shady side of the street.

This is what the Web says about it:

Because it has three leaves on each stem, it is sometimes confused with clover. But clover has oval-shaped leaves. Sorrel leaves are heart-shaped. Each leaf has a center crease. At night and in the rain, the leaves and flowers fold in. The leaves are usually green, but sometimes you see plants with reddish leaves. The flowers are yellow with five petals.

www.squidoo.com…

And there’s this:

Wood sorrel is an edible wild plant that has been consumed by humans around the world for millennia.^[2] In Dr. James Duke’s “Handbook of Edible Weeds,” he notes that the Kiowa Indian tribe chewed wood sorrel to alleviate thirst on long trips, that the Potawatomi Indians cooked it with sugar to make a dessert, the Algonquin Indians considered it an aphrodisiac, the Cherokee ate wood sorrel to alleviate mouth sores and a sore throat, and the Iroquois ate wood sorrel to help with cramps, fever and nausea.^[3] en.wikipedia.org…

Amazing stuff; had we not been gardening in the road and had these chance conversations we’d not have seen what’s in front of us.   The accidental conversations in the street produce so much more when there’s the common ground of a garden there.  When I was picking some this morning a stranger asked what I was doing and now she – turns out the woman lives around the corner – will try some, too.

M

A step at a time, here.

Anyway, it would be beaut to hear from you with your questions, suggestions, doubts, differing views, other projects and so make this a richer place to find information.

Your comments of all kinds are welcome.  Go to, please.

M

John and Helen ready to make a leaky drain

Today we dug up and made a leaky drain outside Helen’s house in Pine Street.

Now, all or most of the rain from the two roofs draining to the street will stay where it falls and the road garden will be self-irrigating.

About 1200 litres a year falls in each square metre of this part of Sydney.  As each roof is about 30 square metres, this leaky drain will keep about 60,000 litres of rainwater to feed the new life that will be created in the soil.

Presently the soil is lifeless.  When we dug up and exposed the drain there were no worms, no bugs – nothing was there except rock hard, compacted rocks and dirt.

When we put the raised bed garden in, probably next week, it will be irrigated from below.

We’ll plant strawberries, midgen berries, lemon grass, passion fruit and some hakeas to feed the little birds.

It cost us nothing except our labour.  Our real capital here is ourselves, our imagination, our will and ever-growing community.

M

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

New garden, Shepherd St

This is the new raised bed garden Sean, Karlie, John and I built last week after Sean bought or salvaged the mulch, plants, timber borders, and leaky ag pipe and we mixed our compost in with some potting mix and soil.

With the left over leaky ag pipe Paul and I were able to lay about 15 metres to catch rainwater from the sidewalk along the units at the top of Myrtle Street and direct it below ground to feed the plants.

Chickweed, Myrtle Street

While gardening on Friday I met a stranger who showed me some Chickweed he had picked from the road garden.

Until Luke, a chef, told me I was unaware of it or that it was there but now he’s pointed it out it’s as plain as day.  Chickweed is in several places in Myrtle Street.  So I just picked a handfull of it, washed it and put it in a salad.  Chickweed’s fresh little leaves in the mix were noticeable; a little tart and crunchy.  Thanks, Luke.

This source on the web says:

Sean from Shepherd Street asked us to work with him to build a raised bed garden in his street and he salvaged or bought the mulch, plants leaky agricultural pipe, timber borders.  On Friday I worked with Sean, Karlie and John and it’s almost finished.

M

The compost trial results in Peace Park will be compiled by early 2012.

So far the gardening and composting has broken some myths and created valuable new data.