With summer starting to kick in, I decided to pull out an interesting fact I found on the US department of Energy’s site.  

Shading the external element of an air-conditioning unit “can increase its efficiency by as much as 10%”.

It works on the same principle as this article Increase your fridges efficiency by up to 25% with one simple DIY trick.  In both cases, the cooling unit is saved from sucking in unnecessarily warm air, and therefore doesn’t have to work as hard to decrease the airs temperature.

Now, combine this with the evaporative cooling power of trees…

On a hot sunny day, an average-size deciduous tree can evaporate up to 350 litres of water. This provides the equivalent cooling of 660,000 Btu. As a reference, a three-ton central air conditioner provides 36,000 Btu/hour.
Plant some trees instead of turning on an air conditioner

and you have some pretty serious energy and money savings right there. In fact, a properly designed garden can greatly reduce the need cooling units, even to the point where they are unnecessary except on the most humid of summer evenings. 

This is a guest post written by Daniel Harrison who's encouraging people to be greener with his Daily Eco Tips as well as getting people excited about eco-friendly gadgets.

When helping your child understand the importance of being environmentally friendly, it is a great idea to start as early as possible and incorporate green activities into their everyday lives and habits. In this way you will not only be helping the environment now, but looking out for its future by raising part of a new generation to be aware of their surroundings.

One way to help your kids understand about the environment is to get them involved in recycling. This doesn't have to be boring but can be the source of many fun and exciting activities. A great way to start is by taking your child to a recycling centre to show them how recycling takes place, or show them some cool products that have been recycled from other ones. There are often programs on in places like local libraries to help children of all ages learn about recycling, and these can be really fun for the child if presented in an engaging and easy-to-understand way.

Another way to help your kids recycle is to let them use old products (pots, card, metal etc.) to create their own art projects. This will be a fun activity for them, and it can be combined with teaching them about why it is important to recycle, and what kind of products are recycled. They will begin to learn the process of one product being made to create something entirely different, and will have fun in the process. Get ideas for their recycling projects from many children's craft programs on TV or online, or borrow a book from the local library that will help them do this.

Eco-friendly activities do not just stop at recycling old containers and cardboard but include composting and gardening, which can be equally as fun for your children to get involved in. Not only can you teach your children what to save for the compost heap, but you can take them outside and get them involved in using the compost in the garden. They will soon understand the process that turns waste into compost, and compost into healthy plants, and they will be proud to have helped something grow in the garden.

Apart from helping your children recycle, you can also teach them about the importance of switching off lights and appliances they are not using. In this way habits will be instilled in children's minds from an early age helping them to stay more environmentally aware in the future.

Ethical shopping just got harder – we now don’t only have to consider our “carbon footprint” when purchasing goods, conscientious consumers must now also calculate their “water footprint”. It looks like saving water around the house and garden was only the start.

The concept of a “water footprint” tells consumers the amount of precious H2O that has been used in the manufacture and transport of products they buy.  It can help consumers calculate their impact on the environment, and in some cases, do more to preserve scarce resources than the notion of “food miles”.

Each of us use megalitres of water in our own homes for drinking, cooking, washing and gardening.  However, we are also directly responsible for the water that is used for producing the products we consume, like food, paper, electricity, and especially cotton, wool and beef.  

The water footprint of consumer goods covers both the manufacture and transport of the goods.

The water footprint of an individual, business, or nation is defined as the total volume of freshwater that is used to produce the goods and services consumed by the individual, business or nation. (source; www.waterfootprint.org)
 
Here are a few examples;

Product	Water Footprint
Slice of White Bread	40 litres
Apple	70 litres
Beef	155,00 litres of water per kg of beef!!!!!!!
Coffee	140 litres for 1 cup of coffee.
Wine	120 litres of water for one glass of wine.
Cheese	5000 litres of water for 1 kg of cheese
Cotton	2700 litres for 1 cotton shirt
Wool	170,000 litres of water for 1 kg of clean wool
Electricity	95 L of water to produce 1 kilowatt-hour of electricity. Or A single 60-watt light bulb lit for 12 hours uses as much as 60 litres of water.

Excessive water users, like cotton or wool production, can manipulate the environment negatively in arid regions, because it draws water away from the surrounding natural ecosystems. Particularly intensive irrigation schemes have proven to cause disastrous effects, as shown in Uzbekistan and the desiccation of the Aral Sea. Closer to home, excessive irrigation and the drought are currently threatening "complete ecological collapse" in the Murray-Darling Basin (Part of Australia’s longest river).

Link for more info.

Hit MORE to keep reading.

Ok, first thing I have to do is apologise for a lack of posts over the last few weeks. I have several articles here that need to be put online, including an interesting one from Sam regarding water footprints, but I have simply been too busy to webify them (yep, believe it or not, I am the technical one).

That’s why I came up with this cheeky little scheme of linking to a thread of mine on another Forum. You see, It’s not only lazy, it’s also a little tricky, as it will also introduce you to a whole area of food production you may never have heard of .

Silly thing is, the link I will give you is not even to a forum about grey water (what a read that would be). It’s an Aquaponics site. This is like hydroponics, but instead of adding chemicals and fertilisers to produce plant growth, fish are used.

“Aquaponics uses no chemicals, requires one tenth of the water needed for field plant production and only a fraction of the water that is used for fish culture. (Aquaculture)”

It’s an efficient, scalable, and water-wise technique of growing meat, fruit and vegetables in your back yard.

But before I start sending you off to other sites, here’s a little info on grey water.

• Gray water is wastewater collected from clothes washers, bathtubs, showers, and laundry sinks. If properly collected, it can be safely re-used in the garden, thereby reducing mains water consumption.
• Gray water shouldn’t be confused with "black water", which is wastewater from toilets, kitchen sinks and dishwashers. Black water should never be reused in the home because of possible contamination by bacteria, viruses, and other pathogens.
• Grey water, piped directly from your shower or laundry, onto your garden is a great way to maintain water hungry plants or entire gardens through dry times and reduces your households footprint by reducing strain on sewerage systems and demand on dams.  There are a variety of techniques for setting these types of systems up. Some are even very simple, cheap, DIY, and readily available from a hardware store. Do some research in you local area. Even simpler, is the bucket in the shower technique. Even if the bucket is only filled while the water is heating up, enough can be collected to maintain a lot of plants.
• Make sure any cleaning products that make it into the garden are marked as Grey water friendly otherwise they may kill your plants.
• The addition of Reed bed filtration systems help to remove excess nutrients and impurities from the grey water. (follow the link below to have a look at mine)
• Never drink Grey water. Even if it has passed through a reed bed system.
• Be careful using Grey water on food producing plants. Fruit trees and plants with woody stems should be fine, but don’t use grey water on plants like leafy greens and herbs, etc.
• Grey water systems may not be legal in your council. But if your area is drought ravaged like mine, people tend to turn a blind eye and many, not quite legal products make it to the market and are sold in mainstream stores.

   

OK. This LINK is to my page on the Aquaponics forum. It links to about half way through a thread, but read through to the next page and you will get the gist. If it turns out that people want more info, I can post it to either site.

Also, HERE is some general info about Aquaponics. See bottom of the first page for a description. It is a commercial site, selling kits and the like, but the technique as a whole can be very DIY. Check out the forums section for a look at a variety of home built systems.

Or, How to inform someone that their big, inefficient car is bad.



Have you ever had an argument with someone because they drive a big SUV, or 4WD? Or, are you sick of people complaining about the price of petrol, even though they still drive to work, alone, during peak hour, in an inefficient car?!?!

Well I am. So I decided to compile a list of facts that can be used to shut them up (and if they do happen to be educated along the way, then that’s a bonus).

This sounds a bit cynical of me, but over the years, I have learnt that “preaching” simply doesn’t work. That’s why I am happy to simply shut certain people up with cold hard facts. Lets face it, some people just don’t care about environmental change, and wont do a thing until it wacks them in the face. But just wait, and watch them bitch and moan when the shit actually does hit the fan. Kinda like they are now with the effects of Peak oil just starting to bite. What a surprise.

Anyway, It strikes me as a good time to really nail some points home.  Hit them while they are down, so to speak. How about "giving" them free bumper stickers??


Why so malicious all of a sudden? 

Well, it came to me the other day, that the people who drive big, inefficient cars, are not only costing themselves a fortune (in fuel prices, and reduced resale values), but they are directly increasing MY cost of living (and yours for that matter).  You see, the price of oil is principally controlled by the rules of supply and demand. Not by the government. In addition to this, our entire economy is based on oil. Put simply, unnecessary oil usage increases demand, and therefore its price. In turn, higher oil prices increase the price of food and consumables (i.e. cost of living).

People driving big cars are costing ME money (and polluting my air, and facilitating climate change, and endangering my life on the roads, and so on, and so on..)

Hence, my attempts to arm readers with some useful information that may help “convince” land yacht owners to pull their heads in.

I will start with some basic facts before we move onto some more emotionally charged territory.

Hit MORE below to continue reading.

With oil prices continuing to skyrocket, we decided to publish an article with techniques for “dealing” with people who drive big, inefficient cars. But I realised we should probably get some background info in first. I know we have talked about peak oil here before, but figured I should link you to some of the biggest Peak Oil sites on the web for some more insite into the issue.

There is a lot of reading here, but by all accounts, Peak Oil is a forgone, if not ignored, conclusion. Unless we do something NOW, it has the ability to change civilization as we know it. And not in a good way.

Thats why, if you haven’t already, you REALLY should read at least the fist 3 links.

And I apologise in advance for any nightmares this may give you..

• For a terrifying, but well referenced read. try:
  Life after the oil crash

• Don't forget Good old Wikipedia
  Wikipedia: Peak Oil

• Chapter 2 from Plan B 2.0 Book Review: Plan B 2.0. Read the whole book if you can.
  Plan B 2.0

• Watch the crisis unfolding. A blog documenting Peak Oil as it happens.
  Beyond OIL

• You have read the books, now see the movie.
  End of Suburbia

• Finally, if you haven’t already read them, some articles from your favourite Green Blogger:
  Did Peak oil scare me into becoming a hippie? (Not the soap dodging kind)
  Has peak oil scared me into being a hippie? PART 2

I will post something a bit more uplifting soon. I promise. I have been collating a list of solutions for a while now, but haven't compiled them into something meaningful. I will add it to my list..my very, very long list...

As promised, http://www.whatcanonepersondo.com/blog/index.php here are some DIY Install hints for a rainwater downpipe diverter.

First of all, What is a rainwater diverter?

A rain water diverter is a simple device that fits onto your downpipes and redirects rainwater from the stormwater drain onto other, more beneficial areas via a hose. Some diverters have switches or levers that turn the redirection on or off, while others have an overflow system that allows for any excess water not used by the diverter to flow safely down the drain.

A range of diverter designs are available, but most are installed by simply cutting the existing downpipe and removing a span of pipe equivalent in length to the diverter. Most models will then simply slide into this gap, and slot into the remaining downpipe. In some cases, glue or sealants are not even required.

I am sure I will get some angry letters from plumbers after suggesting that this is a DIY job, but I have installed a heap of these things for friends and family, and in my opinion, it’s really not that complicated. Having said that, I don’t want to get sued, so I have to say, install these without a qualified plumber at you own risk. Eww, now I feel dirty.

If you are concerned, ask the people at the hardware what they think.

What is a rainwater diverter good for?

• Filling your pool. In a few areas of Australia, town water use is not permitted for topping up pools or spas due to drought. And depending on where you are based, rainwater will generally only refill about half of the water lost to evaporation. Diverter models with the larger diameter out pipes (about the same width as your downpipe) are ideal for directing the large volumes of water collected during a storm into your pool.

• Maintaining your garden. How many times has it rained for twenty minutes or so and only just wet the surface? It hasn’t been enough to soak in and do any good. With a diverter and hose, the water collected over the whole of your roof can be focused onto a specific area of garden or lawn, thus allowing a deep and thorough watering of plants that require it. This water would otherwise be lost down the drain.

• Collection in a storage device. A diverter is an easy way of redirecting rain water into a collection device, (i.e. wheelie bin, pond, barrel, ect) for later use.

• Reducing mains water usage and unnatural diversion of water to storm water drains. Diverting stormwater into your soil and plants allows for the more natural flow of rain water into your local environment. By employing the correct techniques, excess water can still flow off your property, but will be filtered by the soil and plants, thus minimising your homes impact on the environment.

A few things to note when choosing a diverter.

Hit MORE below to continue reading.

Storing water- In Tanks, Plants, and Soil.

Runnoff rainwater, grey water and tanks.
One of the main Permaculture principles relating to water usage states that water should be used as many times as possible before it passes out of the system (the system being your yard). Another is making sure that any water that does leave your property is as clean as it can be, thus reducing your impact on the environment.

Following these principles, allowing excess rain water, or even used household water, to flow off your premises, unused, is considered a waste. Especially so, in dry climates. In most cases, this water can be stored on-site using a variety of techniques, and in typical Permaculture fashion, unconventional natural solutions are also implemented. For example, storing water in the soil and in biomass (plant growth), is considered as viable an alternative as storing it in a water tank. The excess biomass produced by the increase in soil moisture is considered a resource and a source of mulch, food, or even firewood.

Lets start with conserving rain water.

Tanks & Rainwater Harvesting
Household water tanks are an obvious solution for harvesting rainwater that hits your roof. It only takes an hour or so of light rain to collect several thousand litres of water that would otherwise leave your yard via a storm water drain. This water can be used at a later date, when required, without drawing from the dams.

As a side note, storing and using rain water has more value than just keeping your plants green. It should also be considered as another technique to help decrease your footprint on this earth. Dams are not the greenest of structures and if a population reduces its demands on existing water supplies, then less new dams will be required.

You may not think that residential water tanks and individuals conserving water can make much of a difference. But you would be wrong. As I explained in PART 1 of this topic. I live in a severely drought affected capital city. Water restrictions have been set to 120 litres a day per person (about 32 gallons). Most people have accepted this, and are making every effort to decrease their water consumption as much as possible. Some are even achieving water usage well below posted restrictions. I think the thought of what would happen if a major city where to run out of water is pretty sobering to most.

Its good to see that people have realised that small actions do add up. For example, I know several people who have installed diverters (themselves) on their downpipes so they can top up their pools. Others even bucket tank water into washing machines by hand (I use a hose personally, but I didn’t have the heart to suggest that. They where just so excited to tell me of their water conservation efforts). .

Now, if you still don’t believe that Individual actions like these add up, then consider the following.

• Brisbane alone has more than halved its water consumption in the last few years and is down to about 123 litres a day per person
• since the introduction of water restrictions, households in Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane have saved 1.1 trillion litres of water -- as much as Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane combined used in 2006-07.

Rainwater run-off
What about all that rainwater that hits the rest of the yard and escapes as runoff. This can happen down driveways or even over sloping lawns. There are a few techniques you can employ to remedy this and keep that water in your area.

The most basic Permaculture technique, uses swales (mounds along contours of a slope) to trap water in your soil, and to replenish groundwater.

The bump on the low side of the hill acts like a dam and water pools in the dug out area. This stops excess water from flowing away across the surface by giving it time to seep into the soil. Plants can be planted in the swale to further store water.

Swales increase soils ability to retain water by up to 75% and reduce runoff by up to 85% when compared to bare land. (“Earth Users Guide to Permaculture” by Rosemary Morrow).

Also, any runoff that does leave the property will also be cleaned and filtered of sediment after being filtered through the swales.

Hit MORE below to continue reading.

I have been living with water restrictions for years, as have most Australians. It comes from living in a country where 70% of the land is too arid to farm, and most of the remainder is as dry as a dead dingos donger (sorry about that, I just found out that 70% of my readers are international and I feel obliged to propagate silly Australian stereotypes).

Anyway, due to an ongoing drought, the dams that supply my city of around 2 million people are so low, there are actual phone numbers you can call to report people who are watering their gardens. And people are using them. One guy in Sydney, has even been murdered for watering his lawn. Not being allowed to fill the swimming pool or wash your car doesn’t seem so bad after that.

Well, how do you keep a garden thriving through dry times?

Easy. And Permaculture showed me how. I know this sounds a lot like a sales pitch, the picture below was taken in my front yard, and not an ounce of fresh tap water has ever touched it (or tank water for that matter).As with most aspects of Permaculture, there is no one ideal solution for dry spell gardening, rather a combination of practical and natural techniques are used. And, as if to make things more interesting, every one of these Permaculture techniques has side effects beneficial to other aspects of your gardening.

Aint Permaculture great!

I will be spreading this information over 2 posts so lets look at a list of the issues we will be going into:

Part 1

• Soil improvement
• Trapping water in the soil

Part 2

• Water management
• Water recycling
• Choosing species that are appropriate. This is not always possible if you want to plant Vegetables and food crops.

Soil Improvement

Feed the soil, not the plants, and I don’t mean fertilizer.

Adding compost and organic matter into the soil structure is a great place to start in any garden. Not only does this add nutrients to the soil that are beneficial to plants and replace the need for petrochemical fertilizers, but this also improves the soils water retention quality. As a general rule, this is best done in winter and spring, but any time when planting or digging is taking place in an area is fine. For example, mix compost into the surrounding soil when adding a new plant or garden bed.

Hit MORE below to continue reading.

I was going to call this article “Lush green lawns. WTF! We are not in England anymore” but found out that 25% of my readers are actually from the UK. Oops.

Anyway, as I have said before, unless you live in rainy old England, keeping a traditional lawn lush and green (or even alive) can be a ridiculous waste of resources. This is especially true for people like me who live in arid regions i.e. Australia. Lawns as we know them, where never meant to exist here naturally. We end up having to create resource hungry, artificial environments just for the grass to survive.

Water usage isn’t the only problem either. Arid climate or not, mowing is an enormous polluter, and the amount of herbicides, pesticides, and petrochemical based fertilisers used is enormous. To top it all off, it’s also a big time and money waster. Consider the cost and time spent, mowing, spiking, edging, repairing, weeding, rolling and engine maintenance.

All in the name of aesthetics (figured out that I don’t like lawns yet?).

If you are not convinced yet, cop a load of these statistics before we go into alternatives and green lawn keeping ideas.

In America alone:

• Lawns use 10 times as many chemicals per acre as industrial farmland. $700 million is spent for the pesticides used on U.S. lawns.

• 20 million acres are planted in residential lawns.

• $25 billion is spent for the lawn care industry.

• 30 to 60 per cent of all urban fresh water is used for watering lawns. More than half this amount is wasted, because of inappropriate timing or dosage. Nearly all the water used could be save by appropriate use of native landscaping that does not require any watering beyond natural rainfall.

• $5.25 billion is spent on fossil-fuel-derived fertilizer for U.S. lawns. The majority of this fertilizer is wasted because of improper timing or dosage and becomes a source of pollution to surface or ground water. Most of this expense and pollution could be eliminate by proper timing, proper dosage, or intelligent use of compost and other organic fertilizers.

• Australian lawns occupy more space than any single food crop, and consume vastly more fertiliser, toxic herbicide, fungicide and pesticide per hectare than farmland. They account for 25 percent upwards of household water use.

Gardening columnist Michael Pollan describes manicured lawns as "nature under totalitarian rule".

Now I am a designer, so I understand why people want their homes to look attractive. Bit it is important to know that a lawn isn’t the last word in front yard design. Not by any stretch. The image below shows how feature gardens can replace a traditional lawn and create beautiful, low maintenance spaces.

Nice, but I have to admit, not for everyone. Most households require access to all parts of the yard and most areas need to be able to support traffic.

If that’s the case, another alternative to traditional lawns is to create meadow like areas with a mixture of grasses, lilies, wildflowers and ground covers. Meadows can support the occasional person walking on it, and require less maintenance, less water, and increases biodiversity in your garden. It also barely ever needs to be mowed. THIS site that provides a list of lawn alternative species suitable to Australia. Do a google search for “lawn alternatives” and your area.

Ground covers are another lawn alternative. And a lot can be walked on and are also suitable in low to medium traffic areas (Gardening Australia to the rescue again)

Anyway, back to the topic at hand. For some people, a lawn may be the best solution, i.e. if kids need a safe place to play. Following are some techniques explaining how to keep a healthy lawn while reducing its impact on the environment and your wallet.

Hit MORE below to read;
How to green your lawn maintenance.

• More than 100 million trees' worth of bulk mail arrives in American mail boxes alone each year - that's the equivalent of deforesting the entire Rocky Mountain National Park every four months. (New American Dream calculation from Conservatree and U.S. Forest Service statistics).


• Australians receive on average 7 billion unaddressed flyers, leaflets and catalogues in their letterboxes every year.


• In 2003, 5.4 million tons of catalogs and other direct mailings ended up in the U.S. municipal solid waste stream - enough to fill over 420,000 garbage trucks. Only 32% of this ad mail was recycled. (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency).


• The production and disposal of junk mail consumes more energy than 2.8 million cars. (New American Dream calculation from U.S. Department of Energy and the Paper Task Force statistics).

This is just shit. Excuse my language, but these statistics are bloody ridiculous. Especially for something that is completely disposable and non directed. Notwithstanding teenage boys and lingerie catalogs, what percentage of people actually read all the junk mail they receive?? And its not just the paper usage that makes up this huge environmental footprint. It’s the whole process, from the resources that go into the logging, through to printing, delivery, and eventual removal to landfill. All this in the name of unnecessary consumerism.

Thankfully this waste is incredibly simple and cheap to stop (On an individual basis at least). A “No Junk Mail” or “No Advertising Material” sticker on your letterbox can remove you from this wasteful cycle.

You can even get them for free, just do a google search.

Click MORE below to continue reading.

Permawhat?? Is this more soap dodging hippie stuff??

Permaculture is not a term that a lot of people have even heard of, yet alone understood. And those who have heard of it, probably think it is only relevant to farmers and landowners. Or worse, think it’s a hippie lifestyle choice, involving dreadlocks and a fear of bath water.

This is not the case. I have applied the principles of Permaculture in my small inner-city yard for years AND I have short hair. I even bathe on a regular basis (admittedly though, my used bath water ends up in the garden). What I am trying to say is, some of the basic principles of Permaculture are relevant and beneficial to anyone who wants to improve the health of their garden, save a few bucks, and possibly even produce a bit if food.

Oh, forgot to mention the important bit. Permaculture can help homeowners to reduce their environmental footprint and create sustainable gardens.

What is Permaculture anyway??

Permaculture is kind of hard to define. Basically it is about creating sustainable and productive environments in, and around, the areas we live in. This is achieved by working with nature rather than against it. Ecology, the study of natural systems and their interconnections, is the knowledge base that Permaculture draws upon to achieve this. Issues such as water, climate, soil, topology, available space, plants, animals, and even buildings are all taken into account when deciding how to care for any site.

Permacultures’ strong ethical nature is probably why it if often perceived as an alternate, “hippie” lifestyle. With basic tenants such as, caring for the environment, caring for people and reducing consumerism, its approach is often seen as somewhat radical. Especially when compared to the ethics of most big business, and some traditional farmers. Unfortunately, such altruistic endeavours are often “tarred with the hippie brush” by mainstream thinking and media.

On a more practical level however, Permaculture is about the efficient use of resources and space, the reduction of waste, and ensuring long term sustainability.

Now I know this still sounds nebulous and airy-fairy (I said it was hard to define), so let’s simplify things and use an example to explain some of the basic principles of Permaculture. In this case, showing two ways of maintaining a planter box or small garden bed. The first employs a more traditional method. The second implements some basic Permaculture techniques.

Traditional

1. Plants are chosen for purely aesthetic reasons.
2. Plants are fed with fertilisers (good chance of this being petrochemical based, therefore unsustainable). Fertilisers do not improve the soil quality, just feed the plants.
3. If infected by bugs or disease, chemicals are used. These are generally unsustainable & toxic and can kill beneficial bacteria and bugs. If herbs or fruiting plants are in the planter, then the end user will be directly exposed to these chemicals.
4. Water is provided from the tap. This is not always sustainable. Poor soil quality, due to fertilizers being the primary source of plant nutrition, also means water isn’t retained as well as a healthy, humus rich soil. More water is required than for well maintained soil.
5. Prunings and fallen leaves are thrown in the bin. This means that the nutrients required initially to produce the removed growth is leaving the site and needs to be artificially replaced (See step 2).

Permaculture

1. Plants are chosen for aesthetic, practical and productive reasons. Companion planting is used (e.g. dwarf fruit trees with an understorey of legumes (to add nitrogen to the soil) along with insect repelling plants).
2. Soil is maintained and fed with compost made from kitchen scraps and cuttings from the plants themselves (FEED THE SOIL, NOT THE PLANTS). This also cuts down on landfill and unnecessary greenhouse gasses (link). Compost not only feeds the plants, it also improves the soil quality by adding beneficial humus to the mix. Humus can hold the equivalent of 80-90% of its weight in moisture so less watering is required.
3. Healthy plants in good soil are less likely to become sick. Companion Planting can be used to discourage pests. Some companion plants even have shapes that confuse an insect’s recognition ability. Other natural solutions are tried before chemicals are considered. Like this technique for bugs.
4. Water is harvested from the site (tank water). This water isn’t taken away from valuable drinking reserves and stays onsite instead of being channelled away to stormwater drains. Mulch in used to retain the moisture in the soil so even less water is needed. Mulch also adds nutrients and humus to the soil, aiding the soils health.
5. Prunings and fallen leaves are reintroduced back into the soil as compost. (See step 2)

Now you may have noticed that some of the Permaculture techniques are commonly used by any good gardener. That is the point. Permaculture is not magic; it is common sense, applied with a knowledge of natural processes. It has nothing to do with crystals and love beads.

You will also note that a lot of the individual elements of each Permaculture step interrelate with other steps and have multiple benefits. For example, mulching not only reduces water loss, it also feeds the plants, improves the soil (reducing the need for petrochemical fertilizers), reduces weeds (and therefore chemicals), AND uses garden surplus (reducing landfill).

This is an important fact to note as gardens designed using Permaculture focus on the efficient use of space and resources. Anything that has multiple benefits obviously fits into this way of thinking.

Let’s look a few other common and proven concepts that everyone is aware of, but probably didn’t realise are regularly employed and expanded upon in Permaculture design. Click on MORE to continue.

That’s right. In greenhouse gas reduction terms, installing a solar hot water system into a home is the equivalent of taking a small car off the road every year. Wow! That’s in excess of 3.5 tonnes of greenhouse emissions a year

We normally try to stay away from suggesting big “investment” solutions, but hey, these greenhouse gas reductions figures are pretty impressive. Imagine if all of the 500,000 or so old hot water systems that are replaced each year where switched to solar.

The initial outlay for a Solar hot water systems is a bit of a downer (about $1500-$4000), but when you consider that producing hot water can easily account for one third to a half of an electricity bill, you soon realize that a solar system will quickly pay for itself. In some areas, government rebates, make these prices even cheaper.

On average, the cost of a solar hot water system can be recovered within five to 10 years, depending on the system and your hot water usage. The pay off times will be comparatively shorter if you spend a little extra on a solar system over a traditional one when building a new house, or if you have to replace an existing old hot water system. This works because you take the cost of a standard system off the cost of the solar one.

The average Solar hot water systems will easily install onto most existing houses, and from everything I have seen and heard, are very reliable. This is due to the technology they use being so simple. I have heard many stories from people who have had solar hot water systems running for 30 years or more and they are still going strong. Over that amount of time they would have saved thousands and thousands of dollars and saved literally tonnes of greenhouse gasses from entering the atmosphere.

If you can’t afford the initial outlay for your own system, you could send a letter to your local member or state representative asking why bigger rebates are not provided for people who want to make the change. Tell them that industry figures show that if even half of Australia's households converted to solar hot water it would cut greenhouse pollution by 14 million tonnes - the equivalent of taking 4 million small cars off the road every year.

Go Sun!

Following is a bit more info about solar hot water systems that may be of use:

Companies may have green products, but may not necessarily have green practices.....

A few companies make token efforts towards being more environmentally friendly. Some blatantly lie through clever marketing in order to secure your green dollar. Others even have relatively Green product lines, (eg Toyota and its Prius), but at the same time, sell whole product ranges at the complete opposite end of the green scale (i.e. 4WD’s and SUV’s). It’s a mixed bag.

Regardless, manufacturing companies are driven by market pressures. That’s where an individual can make a difference, as we can all apply pressure at the checkout.

If the option is available, pick the green product from the green company. Reward the companies with the right ethos.

Now here is a subject after my own heart. Beer! Well unfortunately, like many of the things I love (i.e. Steak, Shopping, Seafood, Travel), Beer, is also bad for the environment (i.e. excessive packaging, food miles, energy that goes into making the bottles/cans, ect ect). At least now a greener alternative has become available.

“Cascade Green promises to offset all the greenhouse gas emissions associated with the production of the beer throughout the product's life cycle, from picking the hops to delivering to hotels to the brand's advertising”

“CASCADE GREEN has achieved Australian Government Greenhouse Friendly™ certification. As part of this rigorous accreditation process, Cascade Green has undergone an extensive Lifecycle Analysis, which has been independently verified by DNV and SMEC** and also has an Emissions Monitoring Plan in place to meet the ongoing commitments required of GFP members. Cascade Green has initially purchased certified carbon offsets for the Hobart Landfill Flare Facility, approved under the GFP and developed by AGL Energy Services, and will continue to purchase offsets on an ongoing basis.”

Cascade, I don’t normally accept product samples, but in this case I would make an exception (HINT HINT!). Only problem is that it is made in the other end of the country to me and shipping 20KG of glass and beery goodness all that way for a few hours enjoyment is of some concern. Ahh well, back to the vanilla essence.