Sustainable Gardening in our Continually Surprising Climate
THE THIRD ANNIVERSARY FLOATILLA Today we drove to Traveston Crossing to take part in the dryer parts of the third anniversary floatilla. Nicholas de Boos, a photographer friend from Sydney, came along too. Here are some impressions of the day.
360 years ago on April Fools Day, Gerrard Winstanley, became a very influential guerrilla gardener when he planted vegetables on an English hillside. The repercussions live on.
As an Executive Member of Queensland Conservation, I wholeheartedly support the Save the Mary campaign. I am deeply concerned that any government could consider building the Traveston Crossing dam for several reasons.
Plantains are big bananas. While they may be unfamiliar in Australian home gardens and restaurants, plantains and dessert bananas are important foods in tropical and subtropical regions. Their starch has a low glycaemic index (low GI) and also gluten free, so they are a source of sustained energy for physically active gardeners as well as…
Is gardening fashion fanning ill health? Cairns City Council has increased on-the-spot fines for homeowners found to have mosquitoes breeding on their property to $400. John Pilspanen, of Queensland Health, says the disease will keep spreading until everyone takes the necessary precautions. Queensland Health is concerned about the increasing infection rate of the current dengue…
Question We live on 1 acre of land at Boonah, Qld approx same temperature as Ipswich, Qld, in black soil country. We run our own poultry and a pig and are working towards a reasonable self-sufficiency with substantial vegetable garden, orchard, plus a food forest. What I am wishing to do is try to cut…
‘Outdoor Classrooms, a handbook for school gardens’, by Carolyn Nuttall & Janet Millington. Publisher: PI Productions Photography. ISBN: 978-0-9752177-3-3 (pbk.), 2008. The sharply rising interest in school food gardens is being driven by children, who are generally more keenly aware of 21st century global environmental issues than many adults realise. So if you’re a parent…
Rising sea levels have major implications for coastal gardens. Yesterday’s king tide gave us the perfect opportunity to see what will be commonplace by 2050. One corner of the world that is experiencing greater than average sea level rises is north eastern Australia. Even if all greenhouse gas emissions ceased immediately, oceans respond more slowly….
“Dear Residents of Bellis, I just discovered your web site and blogs yesterday. I’ve enjoyed making myself homesick reading them. I thought you might get a kick out of getting fan mail from the unlikely South Pole. I grew up on a dairy farm in the Fassifern Valley outside of Brisbane. I dream of moving…
Today Tamworth is cut into two by floodwaters from falls of over 150mm rain. Storms are predicted for southeast Queensland and the Northern Rivers of NSW, and southeast Queensland continues to mop up and count the cost of flood damage caused by two nights of rain. NSW State Emergency service’s Namoi division controller Kathleen Caine…
The official Book Launch of ‘Love, Mary’ will be held in West End, Brisbane at ‘The Avid Reader’ bookshop on the 4th of December. I’ll be introducing the LNP’s David Gibson, MP for Gympie, and Greens MP Ronan Lee as they launch the book. The Mary River now has its own book to share its…
A Dutch environmental consultancy has revealed that the coal industry is costing the international community $170 billion damage each year due to natural disasters caused by Global Warming. Warming is one disaster. Ocean acidification is another gift of fossil fuels. Rising carbon dioxide levels are increasing acidity in the oceans more than ten times faster…
Jerry Coleby-Williams 