In search of old logs for Hugel Kultur

Off to the Darebin Resource Recovery with the aim of collecting some old logs for a Hugel Kultur that I'm building.

For any one who doesn't know it's a Tree Recycler, Soil Generator and Improver, Productive and Pollination Plant Mound,  Compost and Carbon Sink all in one.  After one year they become self-irrigating - assuming all goes well. It's important the logs are chosen correctly so as not to be repellent to other plants - so walnut, casuarina (she-oak), eucalyptus and other allalopathic species are not wood sources to use.

These seem to be more popular overseas than in Australia though I aim to change that!

Picture courtesy of www.permaculture.co.uk - I trust they are happy for me to use the picture as it is in the interests of a common cause - and Hugel Kulturs don't seem to be de rigeur at all in Australia. This pic gives you a good insight in to how they are constructed.

Ideally a swale will be built in too to redirect any water run-off and act as a biofiltration media for the garden.

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Creating a Carbon Sink and Hugel Kultur in Your Own Garden (for Melbourne, Australia)

Well, it's a year to the day since we last wrote with a lot of family matters to attend to. Due to a death in the family and another ALMOST death in the family, this blog has been put on hold.
Lately we've been researching two ideas.  We have been looking in to Carbon Gardening -  creating a carbon sink in your own garden via Hugel Kultur,s Sequestering Carbon, No Till Gardening, and Composting in your local environment. There are many ways us residents can SINK a better CARBON SINK in to our back yards. 

I also had another business idea around sourcing Organic Flowers in Melb  ie. posies and flower arrangements sourced from organically produced flowers.  There is a supply issue. Organic flowers are a boutique industry in Australia so it is not easy to source the organic flowers, grown fair distances from Melbourne. This is a grave shame as pesticides, herbicides and fertilisers are used en masse in the agricultural industry. Run-off from these pesky soil and plant chemicals from crop production causes contamination to ground-water and riparian systems so that's where organic flower production may belong moreso in a Utopian world.

With broad acre farming, agricultural soils are being rapidly depleted of biota/ nutrients. With loss of topsoil, and erosion, salinity and desertification are all major worries for farmers and environmentalists across the world. We need to be encouraging crop rotation, green manuring, companion planting, to allow the soil to replenish itself.  Broad acre farming just isn't sustainable in the long-term.  See relevant labels from previous posts.

I've also been spending a lot of time on our Education Pages of our other Website - Converse Conserve.com and our Facebook page.  There are Slide shares as well to pique an interest in sustainability - and in the Powerpoints are activities and games for teachers to try in their lesson plans.

Speaking of education and inculcating a love of nature and interest in sustainability  - here is a blog - Live In Art - Ten Natural Garden Ideas for Children. There is a growing movement internationally to get children back out in the garden - and off their computers and I Pads.

http://www.liveinart.org/2012/06/ten-natural-garden-ideas-for-children.html?m=1

Vertical Garden at International Flower and Garden Show