What kind of sewage system?

Comes this question from yesterday’s tour: HI Michael Thanks for the tour yesterday, was great to see your systems in action! I have a quick question about the sewerage which I forgot to ask: What do you think about composting toilets v. your system for an innner city context such as yours? Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks Cheers Sarah   My answer: Great question; thank you. A composting toilet was not an option on my small inner city terrace site because: it... Read More

Simple compost solution, and a paw paw tree goes North

Chippo paw paw replanted north side of Harbour Bridge Two things from today’s road gardening; a paw paw tree goes north; and a new simple way to compost was swapped. For this Friday’s gardening, Janet and friends came across the Harbour Bridge to join us.  Lots of ‘We do this . . “, and “How do you find this goes . . “, as we swapped stories of what works and doesn’t. Together we planted:  chives, vietnamese mint, lemon grass, rhubarb,... Read More

The Sustainable Communities Plan is on the web

Sydney City Council asked me to make a plan to make the whole suburb of Chippendale sustainable. It’s not just a plan for this suburb; it can be used to make any suburb sustainable – it’s free and you’re welcome to put it to work where you are. Now the Plan can be read on mobiles, kindles and is very easy to search, use and tweet.  Get it here: theplan.sustainablehouse.com… Enjoy. You can see some of the folks who support the Plan. Please sign the... Read More

Another day, another composter

Got home tonight to find this lovely email:   Hi Michael, I’ve seen you today giving a presentation to Canon employees. It was a very good one and it certainly made people think about the energy and water being wasted in our everyday lives. Many thanks! I would like to let you know my thoughts on coffee grounds composting. Many small, local cafes do not produce enough coffee grounds to make farmers interested in reusing them (as in your example) so they need to pay... Read More

Green Building Council office compost onto our road gardens

Geoff, Green Building Council compost and road verge Today Geoff and I picked up three bags of compost from the Elizabeth Street offices of the Green Building Council.  For info about the Council:   www.gbca.org….au   Two fellows, Toufik Refki and Jeff Oatman were waiting on the footpath with the compost in hessian sacks ready for loading into Geoff’s van.   Loaded up, Geoff and I went straight to the area most in need, the road verge outside the units... Read More

Port Phillip Composting

Just in: email update from the Port Phillip composting trial: Dawkins Reserve Pilot Status Month 3 ish Dane and I headed down to the compost bins on Sunday to see how they were doing. Bin 3 was in a bad way, so with gloves, buckets and shovels we undertook a bit of a compost intervention: localcomposting.wordpress.com… This includes some tips on better working compost. We’ve also been really pleased to see the numbers of users of the bins growing (we estimate between... Read More

Someone burnt two compost bins last night

Two burnt, melted bins and compost Area cleaned and mulched after bins removed Two burnt, melted compost bins awaiting Council collection     The two bins in Myrtle, near the corner of Rose, were burnt last night.   The fire was so hot the plastic was melted to bits.   James and I cleaned it up and we put the compost around the plants with some new mulch over the top so that compost has gone to a good home.   I just rang Russ and Helen from the... Read More

Vertical garden in an hour at $nil cost

Vertical garden with soil exposed Timber pallet vertical garden with soil in sacks Tafe Outreach students built this couple of vertical gardens in my back yard. It took a couple of hours to do the first one but it had to lie down flat for four weeks while the plants took in the soil. The other one was built and lifted up and the top planting done in about an hour; by containing all the soil in the sacks and cutting a notch in the sacks to insert the plants we greatly speeded up... Read More

Cockroach solution

After some six weeks of applying the dust called Roach Pruf to the Aerobins they are almost cockroach free. The product is sold on line and information on the web page says: ROACH PRUFE® Simply The Best Choice You Can Make For Cockroach and Silverfish Control! Active constituent Ortho Boric Acid Very low toxicity to humans Provides long term residual control in indoor, domestic, industrial and institutional situations More effective than many chemical treatments, makes expensive,... Read More

Cockroach crusade and other journeys

These last six weeks, with help and guidance from Russ Grayson and Helen Bradley of Sydney City Council, we’ve been fertilizing, getting rid of cockroaches, and mulching the gardens here. Russ managed the purchase by Council of the lucerne mulch and the organic fertilizer.  I haven’t seen the fertilizer before and here are the details: Paton Fertilizers Gold Citrus Food, 126 Andrews Road, Penrith NSW 2750  tel 1800 644 753   www.paton.com….au Helen managed... Read More