To build or not to build. That is the question. In my meanderings I came upon some 'outdoor space' videos, where the broadcaster talks up building walls with hedges. These can be quite good for biodiversity, especially if it's a hedge which attracts pollinators. I was very happy to see this.
Bio-diversity is becoming the buzz word! This means what we have outdoors should aim to restore the natural balance, and retain symbiotic relationships that all living things have with each other.
Build if you must, but what is de rigeur is:
(1) For those who don't have much space, go for a crazy paving or a mixed paving and planting area, which can look smart (or rustic) depending on the types of pavers used. Then have some planters around and trellises for vertical gardening (beans, snow peas, tomatoes), or espaliered fruit trees along fences or plant vines over a pergola for shade.
(2) Allowing for water absorption on-site, and trees
Water can stay on site due to vegetative bio-mass or it can run-off to stormwater pipes (due to hard surfaces, water being deviated from roofs to drains). Run-off causes contamination which also causes algal blooms in our waterways (fertilisers contain nutrients that end up contaminating our rivers, lakes, and ground-water.) (Think Gippsland Lakes - crustacean industry is in the doldrums because of cyanobacteria in the blooms. Broad acre farming has responsibility in this too, but this is the food most of us eat.) Use organic fertilisers and benign soaps for cleaning surfaces outdoors. Lawn can capture a lot of run-off too.
(3) Allow for a mix of trees, bushes, herbaceous plants, grasses and ground-covers for carbon sequestration and shade and greater bio-diversity to attract different types of bees, butterflies, birds which are insect-eaters, nectar-eaters and seed-eaters.
(4) Leave sticks, hollow boughs lying around if you can, to encourage the bigger critters, who will help keep the pests down eg slugs, snails.
(5) Purchasing timber only when you know where it's coming from. If you are unsure where the timber is from, contact your local wildlife group or Green Peace - Good Wood Guide, Friends of the Earth web-site or such like who can give you sustainable sources to buy from. For eg it's better to use a treated pine for your decking and retreat it using an ACQ (less toxic) treatment than to cull Indonesian and Malaysian rain-forests of their rapidly disappearing hardwoods.
If taking down the timber means taking down endangered animals that is irreversible theft from nature! The trees can grow again, but the animals won't, if the parents are dying out.)
(6) Practice companion-planting in your produce garden. Look up key-words like 'lure plants', crop-rotation, green manure.
Blooming and Bold
Without the buzzards and bees
Where would we bee?
A blog by Nicolle Kuna
A blog about sustainable landscaping and some eco-humour and eco-creativity.
Inside this blog we look at everything that is encroaching in to our natural urban landscapes – outdoor rooms (errchkem), weeds, urban noise, excess nutrientsThere’s a bit of art to add extra colour and inspiration. We believe in making sustainability fun - more gaming, less shaming.
Also see website on social marketing for greenies
To contact us – go to the contact us page http://www.converseconserve.com as the contact facility on this blog has been giving us mischief.
Attribution for above garden design goes to
Andrew Jones, talented artist and designer.
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