Jerry Coleby-Williams

Any Suggestions For Reducing Our Larder’s Ecological Footprint?

I’m looking for simple suggestions as to how I could further reduce our larder’s ecological footprint, reducing food miles, greenhouse emissions and making Bellis more sustainable. The cost of food is intimately linked to the cost of oil so prices are rising and I have a tight budget. Last month I listed all the products…

Open Letter To The Climate Change Minister: How Effective Carbon Sequestration Offers A Healthy Economy

An organically farmed Australia could naturally sequester almost 70% of national Greenhouse Gas emissions. The amount of CO2 sequestered is based on achievements through current low-till, sustainable farming practices. “This is not a theoretical estimate as in some of the tree plantation models, or unproven like the millions of dollars being spent on clean coal or mechanical…

Using Every Drop More Than Once

The last thing we want is for any water to go down the drain. By mid-morning today, heavy showers filled our 21,000 litre rainwater tank. It’s starting to overflow into our network of drainage pipes, which soak the soil deeply from 70 cm down and below. When this network has done its job the subsoil…

Autumn Harvest And Wild Weather

We’ve just enjoyed a good picking of autumn crops from the garden On Friday I planted out the mangelwurzel seedlings in their final positions. We ate the tender, leafy thinnings which taste like silverbeet in a stir fry. Damo provided sugar syrup for the honeybees, which aren’t foraging in this wild weather. The native honeybee…

Hive Society! A Bee And Wasp Gallery

Gardens are full of surprises if you keep your eyes open – and have a camera handy. This autumn, flowering Pigeon peas proved irresistible to six different native bee species. What’s going on in your garden?

Is Duncan Street’s Nature Strip Now Safe?

Bayside residents have vowed to stop council plans to eliminate this nature strip. Subsequent media coverage by ABC Radio and Channel Ten TV on Tuesday 27th May 2008, it now appears that Brisbane City Council are willing to discuss ways to retain and improve this community asset! Here’s the original story

“Queensland Gardeners Too Dumb To Grow” – Minister

In a recent guide, ‘Waterwise Queensland: Gardening with greywater’*, published on 26th April 2008, Queensland minister for Natural Resources and Water, the Honourable Craig Wallace hopes to popularise grey water in home gardens. During the ongoing drought in SE Qld, home gardeners have grabbed their buckets and answered government calls to reduce their mains water…

Climate Change Flora For Brisbane

This stocktake was completed two days ago and it helps me answer some of your FAQ’s:

Native Bee Day

On Saturday I became the proud owner of a hive of native stingless bees, Trigona carbonaria. A little web-searching found that Dr Tim Heard, a CSIRO entomologist and native bee specialist, supplies colonies and his brother, Frank, makes specially designed hives for them. Stingless bees and honeybees happily co-exist. Happily Brisbane provides an ideal climate…

International Compost Awareness Week

International Compost Awareness Week started on Sunday and today I installed a new compost bin from Aerobin. It took an hour:

Honey Flora Report – May

We’re members of the Bayside Beekeepers Association, and every month they release a Honey Flora Report listing significant flowering local native plants useful for honey production. Our hives are busy harvesting pollen and nectar from the urban forest and garden plants as well, so we’ve decided to add them to the BBA report.

Queensland Minister ‘Greys’ Grey Water

Here’s an open letter I wrote to the Hon. Craig Wallace, Qld Minister for Water: Dear Minister, Re: Media Release: ‘Greywater guide gives green tips for Queensland Gardeners’, 26.4.08. A copy of your media release was forwarded to me from the ofﬁce of Queensland Conservation. I urge you to withdraw this publication before you mislead…