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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Thursday 23 May 2013

Bee Sustainable

As my opening lines on this blog are .... without the buzzards and bees where would we all bee .... seems fitting to mention this great shop in 500 Lygon St Brunswick East. called Bee Sustainable, owned by Robert Redpath.

Stocks all manner of bee keeping equipment, products of the hive including a wide array of honeys,  and equipment for domestic food production, plus a plethora of home sustainability books, and gifts. With all the aromatherapy oils in home made soap, and the scent of the beeswax candles you feel like you've left the Garden of Eden, as you exit. They also run workshops concerned with domestic sustainability such as the art of bee keeping, and sourdough bread making.

At that top end of Lygon St precinct there are other seemingly top establishments concerned with sustainability including a couple of organic grocers, a yoga lab, and a vegan meals destination - Vege To Go, Melbourne Food Ingredient depot, plus a vintage bazaar. This strip of shops would rival other shopping strips for having the most shopping options concerned with sustainability, by a long shot!

Best in Show Chelsea Garden Show - Well Done Australian representatives!

Been a while since I posted anything on here.

Congrats are in order for Wes Fleming, and Phillip Johnson who I had the pleasure of meeting at one of our site visits (as part of my Sustainable Landscaping course) on their immense win at the Chelsea Garden show - Best in Show recently.

I remember hearing Wes Fleming on the radio being interviewed and they seemed to be putting weeks of work in to the installations of a garden that is effectively a billabong.

The footage I saw on the above link and at Google Images for the Best In Show garden look interesting - but don't seem to do full justice to the details of the garden itself - they probably need to show more photographs so that the public can fully appreciate the native garden aspects (I believe Western Australian natives were used) and wild-flowers which create wonderful pollination plants. I'm hankering for a close up of the wildflowers.

I take it the boulders are in true Phillip Johnson style going to be reused so that fresh froggy habitats may be created in new locations - but we all need to be mindful of the carbon footprint in transporting these huge boulders.