Of black sapote, bandicoots and the North Head Nursery

John, Black Sapote (donated by Antoinette), Antoinette, Paul This Friday we planted two Black Sapote – Bernicker  -  given as a gift to our road gardens by Antoinette and purchased by her from Daley’s Fruit Nursery; their web page says of this fruit tree: Black Sapote – Bernicker This Chocolate Pudding fruit variety has proved very popular in Australia. The near spherical fruit is medium to large with only 1 or 2 seeds. Superb... Read More

Getting paid for solar credit

Today I phoned my electricity supplier, Origin, and asked them to pay me the credit due for the clean energy I’ve been selling them.   “Sure thing,” the Origin rep said on the phone, “Would you like that by cheque?”   “Yes”, I said.   “You should receive that in ten days.  Will there be anything else?”, she said.   So.  How about that?   When I put the system in in October... Read More

Rubbish taxi

A client has emailed me about a beaut ‘waste’ business: A friend of mine Paul Younan runs a company called Rubbish Taxi, they come and clean up and remove any rubbish you want removed.  They are stong believers in recycling what other people throw away.  They recycle as much as they can before heading to land fill and at the end of most months sell what can be re-used back to people who believe they can re-use what was thrown out. rubbishtaxi.com… Sounds... Read More

Wool miles to be cut

I’ve just received this email from a passionate knitter, Kristine, seeking support for a campaign to reduce wool miles (what next?): Hi Michael, This is something I was hoping you might share with your various email connections. A friend of mine in Victoria has spearheaded the TON OF WOOL project: wool.pozible.com… Kylie is passionate about minimising the “air miles” of the wool we knit with. This project is her way of actually... Read More

Book talk, Hurstville Library, Thursday 22 September

At 7 pm, Thursday 22 September, I’ll be talking about what worked and didn’t at my sustainable house over the last 15 years. How has the house kept over 1.5 m litres of sewage on site? How have the solar panels worked over these years? How can four people live in an ordinary house for energy and water bills for less than $300 a year? Bring your questions, doubts, curiousity and project ideas to the evening and come and discuss my book,... Read More