Vegetation management

Here in Queensland there are numerous layers of legislation that affect what you can and can't do with vegetation on your property. This is particularly relevant for people with native vegetation (that hasn't been planted) or a large amount of land.

The Federal or Commonwealth government regulates vegetation through the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. On the Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities website there is a search tool called the "protected matters search tool". This allows you to determine what protected ecosystems or vegetation communities do or might occur on your property. If you are going to have a significant impact on the vegetation community on your property, through its removal or by a particular activity, you need to "refer" your activity to this department for their consideration and potential conditioning or control of your activity.

The State government, in this instance Queensland, has several pieces of legislation protecting vegetation that occurs naturally on your block of land. This includes:

• Vegetation Management Act 1999
• Coastal Protection and Management Act 1995
• Fisheries Act 1994
• Water Act 2000
• Nature Conservation Act 1992
• Land Protection (Pest and Stock Route Management) Act 2002 
• Wild Rivers Act 2005
• Wet Tropics World Heritage Protection and Management Act 1993

Each of these pieces of State legislation are either managed by the Department of Environment and Resource Management (DERM) or the Department of Employment, Economic Development and Innovation. Their websites have useful information about permits, approvals and exemptions which are relevant to all of these pieces of legislation. And in the case of DERM you can seek mapping from their website for regulated vegetation (remnant and regulated regrowth) on your property.


Your relevant local Council may also have information within their planning schemes outlining areas of vegetation protection, as well as local laws either protecting significant individual trees or all native vegetation. Information on these matters are best sought directly from your Council, as these vary widely across the State. Pin It

Greywater...what is it & where can you use it?

Greywater is an overarching term that describes water directed from your bathroom basins, laundry (both washing machine and basins), showers and baths. It is not from toilets and kitchen sinks.

Greywater has traditionally in Australia directed straight into the water treatment process (sewage system) and not utilised within the home.  However, now that Australia has been and in some parts still going through a drought, there is obviously a consciousness about water and how we could be re-using it for a variety of purposes.

Greywater diversion is the easiest and most convenient way to re-capture some of the water in our households. The best re-use of greywater is to divert the water from the sewerage system and utilise it for watering plants or lawn around your garden. Some people even use it for washing their car, other vehicles or even their house. This in turn, reduces your requirement to use potable (or drinking) water on your garden, leading to more efficient use of potable water. And it will also result in a cost saving for you, as you won't need the water from the water mains that you use to use on your garden and you therefore won't be charged for this water.

It is important to note, that diverting greywater for immediate re-use is considered non-treated greywater. There are systems which you can install into your house for greywater treatment, which allow you to store treated greywater water and utilise for a broad range of applications. As an example, treated greywater can be used for toilet flushing and washing your clothes (ie in the laundry). It important to note, if you don't have a treatment system for your greywater, you should not store it, as it will quickly turn septic.

Simple measures to divert your greywater for uses around your house, such as on your garden, include:

• collecting it with a bucket, for example, when you're showering; or
• connecting a flexible hose to your washing machine outlet pipe.

One important thing is to ensure that whatever you put into any of these input areas (eg laundry, bathroom) is appropriate to go onto your garden. Attempt to utilise products that have low nitrogen and phosphorous and salt levels. Inputs with either high levels of these or accumulation due to "over-use", can lead to issues in your garden, particularly if you have native plants.

So, let's all give it a go.

My initial problem, is that I will need to invest in a very long hose to be able to utilise my washing machine's water in my garden. But it will save me using my precious captured rainwater (see previous post) for garden purposes.

If you would like some more basic information on dos and don'ts of greywater and how to use it in your home, have a look at the Department of Environment and Resource Management's information page.




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Tomato....aaarrgghhh!

In my transition between houses, I have been growing six tomato plants in a styrofoam box. I decided to grow them in this type of "bed" so that I could transporting them between houses, because I knew they wouldn't be ready to harvest before we left the last place. 

It was really just an experiment to see whether I could grow normal sized tomatoes, as I have never had any success. Always insect-bitten by the time the tomatoes were ripe. :( In this experiment I decided to attempt some heirloom varieties, which I just bought as seedlings at Bunnings. All has gone fairly well with the plants coping well in the positions that I have had them in and they have even managed to stay upright, with the assistance of some stakes and eventually flowered and fruited! Woo hoo. 

I have been watching the fruit for what has seemed like an eternity. They have been growing and growing and then stabilising in size but not changing colour. Green, green and more green. No orange glow, not a hint until last week. Yipppeee! 

I then had to go away at the beginning of the week with my partner charged with watering. (Not that I think this happened). As I drove out of the drive-way, my thoughts immediately jumped to my nearly ripe largest tomato and dread crossed my mind with the thought that it would be rotten on the vine by the time I returned home. 

Long story short. Tomato gone!  That's right, gone! 

Quizzed my partner. Didn't realise it wasn't there. All that was left was a small amount of flesh and the attachment point to the plant. Aaarrrrhhhh! I just hope whatever creature ended up consuming my tomato was well-satisfied with my excellent heirloom tomato. 

Oh well, better luck next year! Hopefully by then I will be able to plant so many tomato plants that there will be enough produce for both me and the creatures of my garden. 

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1200 Building Initiative

The 1200 Buildings program is a building retrofit program in the City of Melbourne. It was generated out of a council idea to support commercial building owners to retrofit their buildings with measures that will increase a building's water and energy efficiency and reduce waste. It is also supports the Council's goal  for the entire Council area to become "carbon neutral by 2020". What an idea, particularly since the City of Melbourne doesn't own and cannot dictate these changes to these privately owned buildings. In reality, this goal will only be achieved through support, education and changes made by building owners.

How to achieve this? My goodness I can't even imagine. However, Melbourne city has come up with some very exciting ideas to achieve this, which include some new financial lending models. One of the imaginative models means that finance institutions can forward funding to commercial building owners for activities to achieve the goals set by the Melbourne City Council and then these funds are re-couped to the bank by having a charge in your Council rates to fund these "loans".

I don't know the precise details of how this finance model works, but it certainly seems like an innovative one and one that will break some of the dis-incentives for owners of properties, to undertake sustainability measures, when these buildings are rented out, and it is the tenant that in fact receives the cost-breaks through energy and water cost savings!

If you want to know more about the program have a look at the 1200 Buildings website.

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Reclaim your rights!

In a previous post, "Don't sit back", I discuss the requirement about the requirement for people to participate in public comment periods and become involved in shaping their communities. I just attended a conference which not only confirmed this thought pattern but took it one step further and discussed the requirement that people within the community need to start to participate as citizens.

What does this mean? Surely, by just occupying space within a community you are considered a citizen. I'm afraid not. We need people to start to participate in the political process to re-engage the politicians with their constituents and actually act on their (our) behalf rather than the large corporations that are currently hijacking the political process and our rights.

Stand up and be counted!

What can you do?

• Contact your local political representative, at all levels of government (local, state and federal), and discuss your interests and express that as your elected representative (no matter what their party lines are) they should be representing you and your community! Bring your ideals, values and beliefs to the front and allow them to be counted and considered.  
• Another thing to do is join up with some of the internet groups that represent your values (perhaps groups like GetUp, Australian Youth Climate Coalition, Avaaz, etc) and sign their petitions. Politicians are beginning to take notice of these group actions and make decisions based on these groups'/peoples' interests. 
• Engage with people in your community and make them aware of your concerns/beliefs. Your beliefs may seem a little different to many that you share them with, but eventually you will link up with like-minded people and all these individual voices together will add up and be heard. 
• Stand up for your convictions. Don't be scared to rebut other people's opinions and create useful debate. With such dialogue, learnings can be made and challenges can be explored.  

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Story of Stuff

I just went to a lecture by Annie Leonard, author of the "Story of Stuff". What an amazing and awesome public speaker with a strong message as well. The Story of Stuff is a short animation that examines how things are produced and our patterns of consumption.

Have a look at their website: http://www.storyofstuff.com/ and if you have 20 mins have a look at the actual animation explaining where things come from.

Very inspiring and brings some reality to our western consumptive and obsessive behaviour! Pin It

Wisteria...a nightmare!

At our new home we have a wisteria vine that has been planted to block out the view of the rainwater tanks. I have never really come across this vine and at the time we bought and moved into the house it was in winter "hibernation". 

Since then, entering into the spring time, the wisteria has gone crazy. It has not only recovered its leaves on the "main bush", but sent out new trailing arms. These are attempting to latch on to nearby trees and vegetation. It has also got little "plants" coming up from the area surrounding the main plant and unlike normal new growth of many plants this new growth has established woody stems. This makes it almost impossible to pull them out by hand and a real likelihood of re-occurrence if you just chop off the top.

Having looked on the net to see what I can do to control this nuisance plant, it seems they are quite hardy and treatment (for removal) really means use of a chemical treatment (which I am trying to avoid). Trimming and significant pruning is apparently essential to maintain your plant within the confines of the location you plant it and complete removal can be tricky.

Looks like this plant will bring a significant burden to the garden, in terms of maintenance and the likelihood of me ever being free of this plant without chemical input seems unlikely. First step, hit the plant with a massive prune! Now, just have to wait for the rain to stop!

(Source: http://www.gardenadvice.co.uk/advisor/plants/wisteria/)

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