sustainablehouse.com.au » urban farm

Sydney study into native bee health

Michael — Sun, 15 Sep 2013 07:07:48 +0000

Leafcutter bee

A research project is underway in Sydney, led by Tanya Latty, into the health of native bees.

In their new facebook page

Tanya Latty says:.

The goal of the Urban Bees project is to study the ecology of native bees in community gardens within greater Sydney metropolitan area.
Specifically, we will address four main questions:
1) Which species of native bee are present in community gardens and in what numbers?
2) Which plant species/flowers are attractive to bees?
3) Which garden characteristics influence bee diversity and abundance?
4) Are community gardens a ‘habitat island’ for native bees, and how does bee abundance and diversity compare to other urban green spaces such as parks?

www.facebook.com…

Go the bees and thanks to Tanya and your fellow researchers,

Bzzz

Seattle’s new park is an urban farm for all

Michael — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 23:59:01 +0000

Seattle city in the US is building a new park that will be filled with edible plants, and everything from pears to herbs will be free for the taking.

The story of this inspiring example of how to create an urban farm for all is here,

Michael

How to make a leaky drain

Michael — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 11:25:36 +0000

As the first video in our new local series, How to make an urban farm, this first one, How to make a leaky drain, kicks off with some funny moments from one of our wonderful urban farmers, Thais.

“You don’t want a leaky water bottle, you don’t want a leaky tap . . . but you do want this lovely leaky drain”, says Thais.

See Thais go for water gold here – how to make a leaky drain.

Enjoy

Making lemon grass and lemon tea tree cordial

Michael — Sun, 16 Dec 2012 08:35:13 +0000

Making lemon grass and lemon tea tree cordial from freshly harvested leaves

After being crushed in the mortar the leaves are steeped in hot water

There was lots of Shovels and Picks 101

More Shovels and Picks 101

At the urban farm working tour last Friday in an hour and 45 minutes we:

harvested lemon grass and lemon tea tree, washed and ground it and then poured boiling water over it and let it steep for 15 minutes to make a cordial;
learnt how to prune and to espalier;
make a leaky drain to harvest rainwater from a footpath for a verge garden
compared a worm farm with a heat driven compost bin (Aerobin)

Leaky drain to harvest water from footpath and laid in trench and being covered with soil

If you wish to receive news from me about urban farm tours and other sustainable projects please go to my website and on the right you’ll see a place to provide your email for the newsletter to be sent to you.

Let’s end this post on an ooey gooey note . . .

Lovely, and happy, ooey gooey compost worms

For our road gardens we need over 10 tonnes of composted soil a year; worm farms like the one in the photo can’t provide that volume and we compared it with the ones we’re using on our roads – 9 of them – each of which give us over a tonne of soil each year.

Hope to see you on an Urban Farm Working Tour soon,

Food conversation, Lane Cove Tuesday 11 December

Michael — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 01:19:59 +0000

Food conversation, Lane Cove, Sydney 11 December

In Lane Cove, Sydney, tomorrow night at 630 pm, we’ll be talking food, urban farming and how to sustain ourselves where we live. There’ll be folks from the local markets, road and community gardeners and others with a spring in their heart and step.

I’ll have some copies of Sustainable Food to sign and sell, too.

Looking forward to seeing you there,

Another urban farm working tour at Sydney’s Sustainable House

Michael — Sun, 02 Dec 2012 21:40:02 +0000

On Friday 14 December - come to Sydney’s Sustainable House for an urban farm working tour. Start 1130, finish 100.

In the garden I will work with you and together for an hour and a half we will:

build a leaky drain – you’ll learn how to dig, install leaky drain
learn how to prune a fruit tree – how to espalier to make it fit a smaller space
learn how to manage compost bins – how to keep cockroaches away, how to get compost out and then to spread it without harming fruit trees
learn how to make a garden self-nutrifying using a compost bin
learn how to identify and harvest your own food – from ‘weeds’ that aren’t weeds to unusual edible native plants and to commonly used herbs such as rosemary, lemon grass and more

Working tours are $15 each and entitle you to $10 off the price of either or both my books,Sustainable House, or Sustainable Food.

Maximum of 15 people on this tour – we’ll be working with tools and our hands; email bookings essential, please.

Group bookings 10 or more people to maximum of 15 people are $10 each.

The tour fee includes free samples of: good compost; compost nutrients; lemon tea tree and lemon grass cordial + recipe. Come dressed in working clothes and boots.

Take the first steps to making your own urban farm, cutting climate pollution and putting a song in your heart and being kind to our lovely Earth – see you there. It’s at 58 Myrtle Street, Chippendale.

See you there,

Michael

In conversation with Fremantle Mayor Brad Pettit

Michael — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 05:39:18 +0000

Poster for In Conversation Event with Mayor Pettit and Michael Mobbs

It would be great to share food, stories and conversation with Freo folk when Fremantle Mayor Brad Pettit and I discuss my new book, Sustainable Food; Monday 17 December 630 for 7 pm.

No reservations so just turn up with your appetite and curiosity – see you there,

Michael

Sydney’s new ecovillage going ahead

Michael — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 04:05:32 +0000

Narrara ecovillage land

Lyndall Parris, the driving force behind the Narrara ecovillage about an hour or so north of Sydney, NSW, wrote to me last week with news of the project and here is what she said:

“Since signing the contract to purchase the land on 26 September there has been much activity. We have formed a Board of Directors, a Steering team and 6 Working teams (Development, Legal & Finance, Sales & Marketing, IT & Websit, Site Management and Community Development) which are now in full swing. The teams meet regularly face-to-face and/or through skype and different members are more or less involved depending on their personal circumstances. Generally, we get the feedback that members are pretty excited about having the opportunity to be involved from the beginning and to have a say in what’s happening.”

More of the land

We are hosting an Open Day on the land each month to welcome and inform new people and so that Members can enjoy their property. We will settle with the NSW govt on 25 March 2013, when all Research Station activity will cease and we take over ownership. We also hold a monthly members meeting day, where we hear reports from each team, discuss and decide certain matters and have lunch together – it’s a great day of learning, going forward and fun. Our members come from around Sydney, the Central Coast, Qld, Tas and SA and all up, we have over 50 people right now.

John Talbott, our Project Director is putting the expertise in place to deliver this special residential development. His background developing an ecovillage in Findhorn, Scotland stands him in good stead here. We have appointed our Development Manager, Bill Nettleton of City Plan Services, an alliance of professionals in the built environment. Bill operates from their Gosford office and is experienced in all facets of planning and building consultancy, authority approval advice, building certification and fire safety engineering.

If you are in anyway excited by this information, we encourage you to join our Co-operative and become one of our First 40 lot owners so that you will have a hand in fashioning what we believe will be an extra ordinary place to live. From now on, the lots for the First 40 will be allocated on a first-come-first-served basis and the Board is considering a success based, financial incentive for these First 40 as well. Don’t miss the opportunity that is available right now until the First 40 is fully subscribed.

Some of the children going to the ecovillage

Membership of the NEV Co-op costs $20,000 to purchase 20,000 co-op shares and you must have an intention to purchase a block of land in the ecovillage. This membership gives you one vote in the decision making of the co-operative. Mattila Lawyers are finalising our updated Co-op Rules and Disclosure Statement right now to be approved by the board and members next week, so we can supply them to you then.

The Co-op expertise will complete the development and when titles are ready sell blocks to members. At this time a Community Association will be formed (think strata, which you are possible familiar with) and when you pay your lot balance (about $230,000) you will own your freehold block as well as a share in the common assets of the Co-op. The First 40 buying into Stage 1 of the NEV development will have the opportunity to build a single family home (with or without a granny flat) or a duplex. We of the current First 40 (23 of us) are now talking about the type of homes we would like to build. Some of us are considering a one-off, individually designed home and others banding together with a builder to achieve more affordability, ease and economies of scale.

There is much for you to consider, so please don’t do this alone.

I love the saying: ‘you can’t always work things out in you head.’ I am available anytime for a chat by phone or over coffee, and I can send you any amount of current information on the project. I can also put you in contact with any other members of our team. We have our final Open Day for 2012 at Narara next week (Saturday 24 November) from 1.30 till 5pm. We thought it might be fun after the Open Day finishes, say 5 -6 pm to shift into Happy Hour mode for you to meet some of our members for a glass of wine/biccy and cheese. You can meet members of the Board, Steering team and broader team NEVers – who will also be your neighbours as part of the First 40 lot owners. Please contact me anytime and come along on Saturday 24th – as a special and valued potential member, we have attached a voucher for you to come to our Open Day free of charge. Look forward to seeing you there if you are able to come along. L”

I’ve suggested to Lyndall the costs and services and ups and downs of the project be blogged so others may know how the project goes and learn from it.

For more information the project website is: www.scev.org…

Good luck to all who are having a go on this project,

New bee hive in Dulwich Hill, Sydney

Michael — Sun, 18 Nov 2012 05:05:31 +0000

Last week, after splitting the native stingless bee hive at my Chippendale place we took the new hive to Judy’s place at Dulwich Hill.

New Dulwich Hill hive – tied together ’til bees wax the three compartments together

The bees in both hives have had a couple of big meetings outside the hive, forming a swirling circle about a metre in diametre where they discuss the recent upset of their lives and the new hive; what they do and say I don’t know but it happens after each hive is split and located in its new or former position.

Bees on cloth used to plug up hive during transport

The hive is on a north-east facing balcony that’s shielded from the western sun after about 130 pm.

Plants to feed the bees
The grevilleas are Ember Glow and Deua Gold

Daisies to feed the bees

Lazy gardeners like perennials

Michael — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 23:11:19 +0000

As a practising lazy gardener I’m drawn to plants that self- seed, keep growing year after year and look after themselves without me.

Lis’s Thai-inspired spaghetti and vermicelli-like squash salad

So I enjoyed listening to Lis Bastian describe the perennials in her garden at Blackheath, NSW, recently and asked her to write out a list of them; here’s what Lis sent me:

“Yacon or yakon

www.greenharvest.com…

Spaghetti Squash - a perennial squash

Red Mustard and Red Kale …. they feel like a perennials because they self seed so profusely that they keep coming up all the time

Angelica ... the angel herb …. this also self seeds and is an umbelliferous herb which attracts beneficial insects to the garden that deter or eat more hamful insects (like lady beetles)

the other things I think I mentioned were that, because we have such a problem with birds, it is root crops that go well here … I have luck with parsnips, yacon, beetroot, potatoes,

This afternoon I’m stewing rhubarb and apples with angelica … love warm rhubarb on cold days

rhubarb‘s a great perennial too

Lis Bastian

www.lisbastian.com….au“

I particularly warmed to a dish Lis cooked from spaghetti squash – the squash becomes like vermicelli.

Lis posted the recipe for the spaghetti squash salad on her blog: www.stoplaughing.com…

Thanks, Lis,