We have been having problems with our lawn for about 6 months. It all started when the dog started to dig us a new Olympic size swimming pool. While I appreciated her efforts (as I would love a pool) I discouraged her from continuing as I knew this would be another of those doggie projects that she will start and never finish (She doesn’t have a great attention span.) Ever since I filled in the pool and with it, included some of her pooh to discourage her from digging in the same spot (which worked very well – no holes since!) we have started getting patches of dead grass all over the place! Small patches, big patches, patches that climb on rocks! Being a newbie to gardening, I just kept piling on the dynamic lifter, blood and bone and lawn ‘repair kits’ from Bunnings. The only thing that changed was the arrival of some strange, stringy grass species in the pool area…

(The pictures above are two sections of my lawn, only about 50cm apart)

So, after speaking to a few people at Flower Power (our local gardening shop) we seem to have Lawn Grub. Of course all the shops we talk to about treating lawn grub sell only toxic chemicals to treat the grub! These chemicals recommend you wear gloves and a mask to administer them and that children and pets should not come into contact with the lawn during treatment!

Ergh, I thought I was just going to have to let Baci keep digging the pool as there is no way we were going to treat our lawn with chemicals, I’d prefer it was gone. But alas, there are solutions! Lots of solutions! Why do these shops only sell the chemicals? I’d hate to know how many people have purchased these chemicals and applied them to their lawn and not kept their children or pets off it. And, even if they did keep them off, they will never know when (and if) it is safe to go back on the lawn! Why are people so quick to use toxic products as a quick fix?

It really concerns me.

In the meantime, I think I have decided to use Organic Plus on the lawn. Here are some quotes about it from Hortons Turf;

I’ve never seen a lawn killed by lawn grubs. Your lawn will recover quickly but if they bother you then use "Organic Plus" fertiliser with Neem and this will control the grubs but won’t harm the predators.

We use and recommend "Organic Plus" because it is environmentally friendly, slow release, has everything in it for most lawns and contains Neem to suppress lawn grubs. 40 grams per square metre 2 o 3 times a year is plenty.

So, after a few weeks with Organic Plus, I will post a follow up.

Also, how could I be angry at this…

Oh, and heres a picture of the Pecker Sisters… Just for good measure.

Two weeks ago …

There is really nothing I like as much as spending a day in the garden with Bec, Abbey and the Dog. Even if we don’t end up getting much done, its still so nice to just muck about and lie in the sun. Two weeks ago we decided that we’d plant the seedlings that we had grown from seed (Tommy Tomato’s & Yellow Leaf Lettuce were all that we had from seed) along with some seedlings we had bought (Carrots, Broccoli, Cellery and other lettuce species).

The first step was to clear the garden bed of the viney thing that was growing in there. This thing grows like crazy and it gives me a little bit of confidence that we might be able to grow something in that icky sandy “soil.”

The compost in my first bin (we have two now along with our worms) was nice and ready to go at the bottom, so after taking the bin off, we saw SO many nice big fat worms, we put the top 50cm of compost back in the bin as it was still a little green and used everything underneath. It was beautiful, a lot of it was still a little unbroken down, but the majority of it was of perfect consistency and black as tar. We dug this through the “soil” (I use quotes because our “soil” is very sandy) where we intended to plant our seedlings along with some potting mix from Bunnings.

Once this area was up to standard, we put our seedlings in. A little too close together to start with as the surrounding “soil” was just not good enough to put them in there.

We also put Lucerne over the soil and between all the seedlings to keep the soil moist, keep pests out and keep nutrients in. The benefits of Lucerne are amazing and I highly recommend all gardeners use it. Lots of organic liquid fertiliser and water were applied to increase the goodness available to the plants.

In the “soil” surrounding the vegie patch, we applied the Diggers Cleaver Clover kit to grow through winter and be dug in before summer. However, after doing this we had 2 weeks of solid rain and only one species of Clover have sprouted and it would appear the rain has washed away the mustard seeds. I will scatter some more today or tomorrow.

Two weeks later…

Well, as I took my sweet time posting this, I can include my follow up in the same post (its called Structured Procrastination.) The bloody chooks have gotten out a few times and done their bull-esque foot shuffle all through the vegie garden. Everything is ok, but they keep scattering the Lucerne everywhere.

Unfortunately, my Tommy Tomato is not looking great, despite the raging success of the others.

I have been making sure it gets lots of water, but its not picking up.

The clover is growing like its 1999.

All in all a success. I am happy to have a vegie garden finally, even if it is a little pitiful and pathetic, I am still chuffed that somebody like myself who used to spend more time on my car than sleeping and working combined, can achieve something like this. So many people seem to be afraid of this, afraid of the potential failure. The thing is, if you want to start, just don’t go too big, research a few plants you want to grow and just focus on those, you wont get overwhelmed that way and the benefits and feeling of sheer satisfaction are second to none.

Back in December, I wrote a post about the pitiful effort of the Australian government to reduce emissions. Kevin Rudd had set a guaranteed 5% reduction by the year 2020 despite the uproar from the public and some scientists, this figure has remained in place.

Today I received an email from GetUp asking for me to write a message to the government with my opinion of their 5% reduction scheme.

This is my message:

To whom it may concern,
When I watched kevin rudd in the debates on TV prior to his becomming prime minister, I remember being so excited that we were about to elect a forward-thinking, environmentally conscious man to run this country. So far, I have been nothing but disappointed in his decisions surrounding climate change and the environment as a whole.

The Australia under john howard was a follower. We were seen as like america and were mocked as weak. Instead of following the rest of the world in the crusade against climate change, how about we lead the rest of the world and gain the respect that we would deserve for taking a stand. 5% is simply not good enough and Australians are intuitive and intelligent enough to acknowledge that not only can more be done, we can do it in innovative, industry-leading means which will eventually create more jobs as well as lessening the countries footprint.

We cannot escape climate change. Many scientists believe that the human race will not survive this century which is not the future I want for my daughter. Please, I beg that you reconsider this pitiful stance.

Regards,

Christian Biggins
PS. Certain words were left non-capitalised intentionally

Please join me in sending messages to the government by going to GetUp.

At last, after months of convincing, years of unit dwelling and a decade since my last chooks, I am please to introduce the Pecker Sisters, Pamela and Rosanna:

They are two Isa Brown chickens around 18 weeks old and are beautiful. They are so soft and already very friendly (apparently the breed is known for being more relaxed). Abbey loves them to death and is constantly asking to go and see the ‘Chitcha’. The dog also loves them but in a very different way, initially they were terrified of her but now they just ignore her and I think she doesn’t like it.

They are living in the coup I made (Casa de Chooks) and have also got a big ‘run’ down the back of the yard that I leave them to explore during the day.

As you can see, their run is completely fenced off, so they are happy and safe in there. They retire to their crib at dusk so I go and lock them in there and then let them out again in the morning (they’d probably be safe over night, but I am worried about cats or war-hungry possums getting to them).

Now, anybody that can tell me what popular 80’s big band had two hit songs that these chooks were named after, gets an egg. (We haven’t had one yet, but when we do – its all yours).

I haven’t had much success with getting my seeds to sprout yet, but I did find a good video about how to do it.

I have two seeds sitting here now waiting for my next attempt.. Wish me luck!

The original concept I had for this site was a social network of likeminded people to share and chat about Sustainability in general. Unfortunately I ran out of time to develop the site and ended up just making it a blog.

I have recently discovered the service that Ning.com provides is very similar to what I had in mind for this site initially and have created myself a group on there for us sustainable folk to chat, post, share images and videos and generally natter about whats important to us.

I’d love it if you could join my group and contribute to the photos, videos, blog posts and anything else.

View my page on Sustain Myself

Well, my amazingly cool chook coup is now complete (bar a small addon that needs to be planned a bit more.

(No, the dog is not part of it)

I know she doesn’t look like much, but this is the greatest thing I have ever built. I’m not great with wood work, so I am extremely happy with the outcome.

This end opens to allow the chooks to roam free (which they will do during the day). The coup is also bottomless and I still need to add wheels to it at one end so I can wheel it from place to place.

The roof is slopped to one side to allow for easy water run off, which will soon be collected in a gutter and used to keep the chookies’ water container filled. This is the part that still needs planning, I haven’t worked out how to do it yet.

The nesting ‘box’ is actually just a long bedding piece to allow for the 2 chooks to have a bit more room and will be filled with hay. Its also removable for cleaning.

The whole coup uses stainless and galvanised metal bits to prevent rusting and the coup is also painted in a few coats of weather shield (by far the most expensive part at around $40).

It didn’t come in much cheaper than buying one, but I did it myself and I am seriously happy with the results.

If anybody is interested, I could draw up the plans in Google Sketchup and provide a list of the tools I used.

Next step: Find some chooks! (I can source some Isla Browns from

RentAChook, but if anybody else knows of where to get some other varieties in Sydney, I’d love to know!)

What you are looking at in this picture is a sub-week old Australian Yellow Leaf Lettuce. Planted on the 9th of February and left in last weeks rain (that was an error on my behalf but it doesn’t seem to have upset it).

This is one of two lettuce seedlings to have sprouted. Its so exciting. I want to eat it now, but I don’t think that’s too wise. Its in a seeding tray with another 3 lettuces, a Chilli and an Asparagus. In my eagerness to start growing my own food, I did not notice that the asparagus wont produce squat for over 2 years… Oh well.

I also have a little ‘Green House’ that I bought from bunnings with the same plants in it. I was seeing which one they preferred but it seems they like open air more.

Please take no notice of my labels. My daughter thought it’d be a hoot to draw all over them after I had finished writing them (I’m not even sure if they are in the right slots – that was her next trick).

Btw, the seedlings are sitting on my beautiful DIY, Luxury-spec chook coop which sports a Polyurethane roof and gutter (which fills the chooks’ water). When its finished and ready for a population, I’ll take some snaps and show you how I made it (cause, there will no doubt be people wanting to copy it).

I was reading a nice new blog that I found today (Green Change) and came across an interesting post.

This post describes the current ignorance-filled, idiotic water restrictions currently implemented for Sydney. A small excerpt from the site will give you a little indication of the level of sheer moronic thought that must have been excreted from the orifice of some Neanderthal recently revived and given this task…

Hosing residential building structures including windows, walls and gutters is allowed using a hose with a trigger nozzle or high-pressure water cleaning equipment (to a maximum of 10L/minute)

Ok, so we can hose down our houses, thats kinda cool. But…

Hand-held hosing of lawns and gardens and drip irrigation is allowed only on Wednesdays and Sundays before 10 am and after 4 pm

We are not allowed to water our gardens outside the specified 36hrs within the week…

As Darren (from Green Change) says;

Kids can run under sprinklers any time of the day, you can hose windows and walls any time, and you can wash your car at any time. You can also leave your hose running unattended to top up pools or fill containers, and you can even fill pools under 10,000 litres without a permit.

But try to hose your tomatoes any day other than the dictated Sundays and Wednesdays, and then only before 10 or after 4, and you’ll be fined $220.

As my wife said, obviously its more important to have clean cars and houses than it is for you to be able to grow your own vegies (or even use your lawn as a carbon capture! Heaven forbid…).

This insanity makes me sleepy.

So here i am, writing this post on my phone because the electricity has been out for over an hour now. I boiled a pot of water on the bbq and am now sitting here in candle light chatting with my wife over a cuppa peppermint tea and i must say, its really nice. Besides the concern about my fishtank (they dont do well without pumps etc) i am enjoying this low tech (besides my phone), back to basics way of enjoying each others company. I wonder if we could make this a monthly or fortnightly occurence if we actually had electricity powered distractions. I might make this a challenge for 2009. You all need to forgive any formatting and spelling mistakes in this post, its hard to type on this to start with, let alone double check the post for errors.