Can I use treated pine in a raised bed garden?

I asked this question of a soil expert, Phil Mulvey, Chief Executive Officer of Environmental Earth Sciences and Phil’s advice is: In regard to CCA treated timber, there has been a lot of research with CCA treated logs and vegetables.  Slow leaching of metals does occur and impacts the soil in contact with the logs (50 mm).  Little uptake does occur to the vegetables but the same issue occurs with roots crops in close proximity to the logs as it does for lead.  The root... Read More

Arbolito signs up

Michael, A sign for Arbolito, Beth, Beth's hat, Andres Close up of sign Arbolito, ‘The little tree”, has signed up and is fully ‘out there’. We put a sign up made of a used plastic drink bottle;  we laminated an A4 sign, used duct tape to affix it to the bottle, then placed the bottle over the stake for the tree and . . . voila, a sign. Andres who planted and named it left Oz on Friday for Taiwan on his way back to Ecuador. He has set up a facebook... Read More

Pine St raingarden planted

Pine St raingarden newly planted Remember the terrific work done by the chefs and Rachel, John, Helen and others to make the bed for the Pine St raingarden?  To find it click on ‘raingardens’ in the Tags, or it’s here:  http://archive.sustainablehouse.com.au/wp-admin/post.php?post=608&action=edit Helen and Don have planted it out and finished it just in time for the good rain we’ve had these last few days.  Notice the cracks between the bricks which... Read More

Pyrmont rain gardens

This is a view of the rain gardens in Pyrmont. The gardens have been constructed between 224 to 308 Harris Street by Sydney City Council to address issues on: stormwater runoff management eg to address both water quantity and quality issues from the roofs and footpaths keeping the runoff near where it falls, thereby roughly restoring the natural water cycle using gravity to store and hold water, mainly for irrigation of the trees and vegetation Good on you Council, the more... Read More

All drains lead to Chippendale

Another day another drain, more digging, more diesel and petrol and silt and dust into the air and the drains and Sydney Harbour. ‘What is it now?”, you ask? The circular through my door today, announces “Night works in Abercrombie Street from Irving to Broadway”. For the next six months + – yes, ’ 6 – 7’ – the diggers, trucks, sludge, shouts, groans and tra la la-ing will happen seven night a week there.  It’s about 100 metres of Abercrombie that’s... Read More