Small Decks and Sustainability

This is a comment I made earlier this year, in response to an article about building up your decking area outdoors. There are lots of factors to bear in mind, with small gardens and decks, bio-diversity - do we leave room for more than one genus of animal, plant, insect (to mimick natural systems and keep pests under control), urban run-off (having porous surfaces that enable bio-filtration, replenishing of ground-water), trees for shading/wind-breaks/lowering heat-island effect, and space for growing produce/composting.

Watch out for Outdoor Room fads and consider how well these cope with extreme weather events. Timber has lowest carbon foot-print of all decking materials (and C02 sequestration makes it practically carbon neutral except for finishing and maintenance inputs) but the source of all materials must not come from active habitats. Buy locally if you can because decking timber is a top main cause for prize rain-forest destruction next to paper, and palm-oil in countries where chain of custody, forest stewardship may not exist. Natural turf is a fantastic carbon sink, and lawn is child-play friendly. Nicolle Kuna Sustainable Landscape Designer and Blogger

A selection of gardens and jobs

First concept. The portulacas are not long-living
plants, so these lasted only a couple of seasons.

Second concept, started to think
about planting vegetables amongst
the ornamentals drought-resistant
plants. 

Remember that garden designs can evolve.
Just as the worms continue to turn the soil, we continue to
turn over new ideas, for more long-lived planting.  At this
point, the only plants being regularly watered are the vegies
and herbs.

Green Roof Initial stages

Green Roof with water proof layer, filter layer,
and planting media (scoria, wood chips, and sand)

Attaching the drainage layer to the green roof. 

Hessian sack with planting media being encased inside
chicken wire. 

Hessian vertical planter ready for hanging
on a balcony or in small court-yard garden.
These are used in third-world countries where
poor sanitation means suitable sites
for produce planting are at a
premium. 

Algal bloom waterways campaign growing

Glad, as I said in a recent post, to hear that the connection between land use and our waterways is becoming better understood.

Over recent months I have been writing letters in to newspapers, and on other blogs hoping that this issue will get in to the spot-light.

Here is one of the submissions I wrote to the Age, and sometime later an article was done on this.  So hopefully  annoying the Editor or the environmental editor did make a difference.

Like land – like local landscapes.        

Most of us tend to think of private landscapes, public landscapes or rural landscapes, as though these are separate, distinct and different. “One is out in my backyard, one is shared, and the last one is lurking out there in the wild, somewhere.”  With land-management issues, like weeds, and land-clearing, we city-dwellers tend to think, 'Oh, that only happens on the land.’

In fact, we all live on the land, and all land zonings have a lot in common.  Our landscapes are teeming with natural and man-made biological processes which may be in need of some taming! 

Take the blue-green algae outbreak in Lake Burley Griffin (ACT) which is preventing locals from swimming (Canberra Times, 7 January, 2012).   Algal blooms (or cyanobacteria) are caused by too many nutrients and contaminants entering our waterways from both agricultural land and private land.   Elements contributing to these algae consist of phosphorus, nitrogen, animal and human effluent and other pathogens.   Nutrients sound generally nourishing and positive (!), but as with anything an over-dose of any nutrient can make humans, wild-life and our land extremely ill.  Algicides can’t be used to eradicate the algal blooms, because they are also harmful to other (beneficial) organisms and animals in the water-ways.

Right now these blue-green algal blooms are multiplying in the Gippsland Lakes (Vic), Goulburn Murray region, and are found at different times in much of Australian waterways.

Many of us don’t realise that building up our gardens (commonly referred to as ‘the outdoor room’) and urban landscapes do mean more stormwater run off to creeks.  Our activities in our backyards have huge consequences as nutrients, animal matter, sewerage over-flows, hydrocarbons enter our creeks and make their way to the sea. It may not be surprising that Melbourne beaches got a ‘fair’ rating recently, which isn’t wonderful news for local tourism or for marine life.  

Most people don’t take an interest in the contents of our drains.  But, most of us do like gardens, wildlife, and dangling our feet in the sea! These are some steps we can take to reduce the detriment to our wildlife and marine life, and they really aren’t that difficult. As a minimum, we should:

Allow for more porous surfaces in our gardens so that more stormwater is absorbed  and less water gets flushed away down drains. Outdoor rooms should be downsized, as these tend to involve hard, non-permeable areas with increased urban run-off to drains.

·       
          Avoid using chemical fertilisers on our gardens and lawns (look for organic, seaweed solutions). Pesticides may be avoided if we practice companion planting, and mix up the species a bit more, and increase bio-diversity.

·       
          Pick up pets’ droppings

If we are real devotees, we can :

·         

      Chose landscapers that practice or are certified as sustainable landscape designers (who practice erosion, contamination and sedimentary control). (Eg SGA's ECLIPS programme). 

·        

      Chose organic food or grow our own, as chemicals in farming are leaching out and affecting our eco-systems and ground-water.

·        

      Buy food from community markets selling locally produced food, where broad-acre farming is less likely to be practiced.  

·        

      If possible, incorporate a rain-garden (inground or above ground) and plant plants with bio-filtration functions (cleaning out hydrocarbons, nutrients, sediment).

Many farmers and land-managers are already setting up the necessary safeguards. These are just some of the things farmers can do to protect our waterways:

·       Ensure buffer zones are placed (10m wide) each side of farming land to reduce run-off to local waterways.

·        

      Ensure these buffer zones (natural vegetation) are preserved and managed to avoid erosion and loss of vegetation in times of drought.

·        

      Restrict farming stock from grazing near creeks and tributaries as grazing can cause erosion to river banks and mean contamination of waterway

      

      Control the use of agricultural chemicals and restrict their use well away from waterways and buffer zones. 

Well-considered approaches in relation to our urban backyard management and farm-land are needed. 


This means a multi-disciplinary team of government personnel, town-planners, WSUD experts, horticulturalists, land-managers coming together to address common problems like top-soil disturbance, contamination and bio-diversity threats which affect us what-ever type of land we inhabit.

Nicolle Kuna is a Melbourne blogger, web-site writer and project worker and someone who likes to drone on about drains and be loquacious about landscapes (since completing her qualification in Sustainable Landscape Design).  She has a blogspot: BloomingandBold.Blogspot.com.  In her previous life, she campaigned with the Australian Democrats (House of Reps) on environmental issues, was a lawyer, and author of Common-Sense Law, Hybrid Publishers. 

Macedon Ranges Inspiration

Some shots from Macedon Ranges

Recently, a couple of us were working up in the Macedon Ranges. We are going to be recommending indigenous plants for a rural property. 

The range of indigenous plants is simply huge, and very important to know these because soil and weather conditions vary so much from region to region.  

On a farming or rural property, just as with private urban landscaping, it's ideal if we can think about  bio-diversity. Key points for habitat creation and maintenance are:  switch to organic fertilizers,  more benign pesticides to protect the local critters.  Remember, without the critters, there can be no habitats! Birds and reptiles need somewhere to forage and nest, so single stemmed plantings aren’t so ideal. Go for some bushy shrubs, prickly trees (eg Hakeas), exposed rocks for reptiles, nesting boxes in tall trees.    Rather than a planting area which is immaculate, leave around leaf litter, mulches (worms, beetles),  hollowed trunks, and twigs for small creatures to shade themselves under.  Grasses and nectar plants also attract caterpillars and butterflies.      

Very distractible month

Very pleased to see more journalists addressing the algal bloom issue,

Great stuff.  See my tweet of yesterday and go to the link on there.

Otherwise, have been distracted this month, as my book, Green Spin - Promoting the Green Message is all approved by Create Space/Amazon, and just now am waiting on the proof to come in the mail.  It will be available for sale on $12.99 (13 isn't such an unlucky number I hope).  Then it will be released as a kindle book.

Then I am also doing a new edition of my first book, Common Sense Law which I also intend to self-publish.

The new age of self-publishing is a very free one, compared with what I've experienced before.

Garden Show fever

The Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show kicked off today with a real bang. Actually there was an air of triumphance about it.

Cactuses growing inside dessert dishes - Yay, Ross

Lots of examples of sustainability and gardening exultation. The possums had been dive bombing and having a good masticate by the looks of things on our Sustainable Gardening Australia silverbeet, beetroot and chard (bio-diversity themed) display. Fantastic garden walls vegetated doubling as rain-water tanks, and tonnes of vertical gardens sprouting with herbs and flowers.  The promenade with outdoor sculpture was really inspiring.

Actually I feel really bad as one of our study mates asked us for help with his entry as a finalist in the Student Category of the Show, (see top 4 photo images) but low and behold, despite most of us being too busy to help, he won the Gold Medal. Top stuff, Ross Uebergang. I always called Ross 'Mighty Multi-Media Man' as Ross' work always stood out with his incredible 3-dimensional designs, now realised here in real 3D.

Have been a bit busy these last few weeks to post anything on this blog, finalising my book - Green Spin - Promoting the Green Message, and the cover is finally coming along, thanks to a wonderful artist friend.

Ross' winning design

One of SGA's displays - gorgeous