Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 3 i Homegrown

Composting and worm farming prevent the wasteful transport of food scraps to landfill. Randwick, Woollahra and Waverley Councils run the Compost Revolution. This program promotes home composting, growing food locally and connecting with your neighbours. Residents can receive a gift, or a free compost bin or worm farm (this varies from council to council), if they complete a workshop or online tutorial and quiz. The program also offers support in terms of advice and assistance for schools, businesses and community groups. To join the Compost Revolution, book in for a workshop or do the online tutorial visit www.compostrevolution.com.au How it all began… With funding from the NSW Environmental Trust the Compost Revolution began in 2009 as a year long community research project with 580 households as a joint initiative of…

Clean drinking water is a precious resource – this is a fact that many of us may not even consider, because most of the time it was readily available to us. However we are fast realising, especially with recent periods of prolonged drought and changes in general to our climatic conditions, that we can no longer use our clean water indiscriminately. We must consider ways to be wise with water. The cost of water is escalating too, and with water shortages or water restrictions a common occurrence, many home gardeners are looking at ways to conserve and re-use water so that they can still have a productive and lovely garden. Recycling of household grey water is a great way of cutting costs and reducing water wastage. What is grey water?…

There are myriads of ways to recycle, and this article looks at recycled furniture for your home, with the aim of helping the environment, saving money, creating individual furniture that you love, and having some fun. Depending on whom you talk to, recycled furniture means different things to different people, although if it’s been made with sustainable materials, is refurbished or repurposed (adapted for use for a different purpose), it’s generally known as recycled. Young people starting out on their own often see recycled furniture as a necessity, gratefully relinquishing family and friends of pre-used furniture, from beds to chairs, to deck out their first away-from-home abode. Many of us buy second-hand furniture or refurbish our old furniture to save money and have unique items in our homes, while a…

One of the best things about the summer months is the wealth of juicy stone fruit available. It is the time when you can relish biting into a fresh juicy peach, nectarine or apricot and grab a handful of fresh cherries, and it is even better if you have grown them yourself. Stone fruits grow well in many gardens throughout the world and they are also relatively easy to grow in most Australian home gardens. Provide them with the right climatic conditions and care, and the yearly bounty is almost assured. What they need Stone fruits need a sunny position and a rich fertile soil. If you choose the right varieties and cross-pollinators for your garden and climate, keep the plants well watered, well fed and regularly trimmed, and clean…

AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY Garden water assessment and rebate GardenSmart offers a free home garden assessment and horticultural advice for ACT households, schools and community groups to help them use less water. Householders can also apply for a $50 rebate for approved water-saving products. Toilet replacement service TheToiletSmart program assists ACT homeowners to replace their single flush toilet or older dual flush toilet with a 4-star water-efficient dual-flush toilet suite. Participants are also eligible for the ToiletSmart Plus options, which include a free home water audit and additional lowcost water saving fixtures and repairs. NEW SOUTH WALES Rainwater tank calculator - Sydney Water The SydneyWater rainwater tank calculator makes it easier for residents to decide what tank size will best meet their household’s water needs, and how much household water usage…

In some areas summer may mean more rain and steamy conditions while in others places it can mean dry periods and extreme summer heat. Most vegetables produce best at top day temperatures of 23°C to 27°C; but some, like tomatoes and chillies, can do well with day temperatures over 30°C. Popular summer vegetables Some of the summer vegetables that we grow in our summer gardens are shown here; planting all these vegetables early in the season gives good results in most places. Sometimes mid or late summer planting may leave you with lots of leaf and little crop if the temperatures in your area start to cool early for autumn. Beans – thrive in warmer weather, in fact climbing beans are best planted early summer in cool climates. Beans perform…

Hi, my name is Simon. I live at Monaltrie, which is near Lismore in the ‘green triangle’ of northern NSW, not far from Byron Bay. I started farming not long after I left school, primarily as I had been influenced by a text I strayed across in the local library, The Living Soil (1943) by Lady Eve Balfour, which explored the health benefits of eating the whole food – rather than our modern practice of refining food and eating only a portion of it. It also described the Haughley experiment which was the first scientific, side-by-side farm trial to compare organic and chemical-based farming. As well, it expounded on the benefits of including livestock in farming; if you don’t have animals in a farming system the soil loses vitality.…

Firstly, make sure that you inspect all taps, connections, and pipe work for leaks. Have them repaired or repair them yourself. Often leaking taps can be repaired by replacing the rubber washer inside them. You can test for leaks by controlling the water meter for an hour or two, when there is no water used at home. If the meter gives a different reading to your start reading, you have a leak. In the bathroom: • While brushing your teeth or shaving, close the tap.• Fill the basin to wash your face, instead of keeping the water running.• Have shorter showers.• Use a bucket to capture the water when you first turn on the shower and are waiting for the hot water to arrive. Use this water to clean, flush…

Alternatives – chemicals found in some herbs which gradually alter a condition. They are often combined with other herbs in a remedy. Examples: bittersweet twigs, bull nettle root, burdock root, red clover flowers, sarsaparilla root, sassafras root, yellow dock root. Anthelmintics – also called vermifuges, these are medicines which will get rid of worms from the body. Examples: Melia azaderach bark, skin from a pomegranate fruit, pumpkin seed. Astringents – medicines which cause the skin to tighten, or increase the firmness of the skin’s mucous membrane. They may be diluted with water used as washes, lotions, or mouthwashes. Strong astringents include: bearberry leaves, black willow bark, maiden hair fern leaves, water lily roots. Mild astringents include: blackberry roots, black birch leaves, St. John’s wort leaf and stems. Bitter tonics – used…

Chutneys and sauces – the life of a plate – delicious creations that turn an ordinary dish into an extraordinary dish. Think turkey with cranberry sauce, samosas with a fruit chutney, potato wedges in a spicy plum dipping sauce, scrambled eggs topped with a chilli capsicum sauce. Iloveopeningthecupboardto find an array of chutneys and sauces peeping out at me – so many flavours to choose from that bring excitement to a meal. Housewives of yesteryear were proficient preservers – turning excess produce into a range of delicious jams, jellies, chutneys, sauces, pickles, and bottled fruit to last them through the winter months when there wasn’t much fresh produce available. These days there is a less pressing urge to preserve produce – we have access to fruit and vegetables all year…

Sydney: NSW Transport currently has more than 1,200 bike lockers for hire at more than 140 locations across the NSW public transport network (train stations, ferry wharfs and bus interchanges). Costs start from $50 for three months, which is around 50 cents per day (a $50 refundable key deposit applies). Once you register online, you are sent a locker key by post. Brisbane: Queensland Rail offers a similar service, with bike lockers and bike compounds at many of its railway stations. These are rented to people 18+ years of age, and can be booked for up to three months at a time. The Bike Locker Internet Booking System lets you self-manage your bike parking at more than 2,500 spaces at more than 110 stations across the city network. After you…

It’s really not as hard as you might believe. Coffee trees, or shrubs to be accurate, are really quite efficient survivors and will generally tolerate a reasonable amount of abuse or neglect. They require much less work to grow than do their cousins the Gardinias. Firstly, we only use (and sell) seed from the last harvest. Check out www.australiangardener.com.au for fresh seed. The seed that we keep for germination is kept with the skin of the cherry still on. The seeds are shade dried and allowed to experience the changes in humidity, moisture and temperature that make up the seasons. Secondly, we only plant seed from October until March. (Late spring to late summer.) While it is possible to germinate coffee seed at almost any time of year, using heated…

• Each bird may produce 3-5 eggs per week whilst laying.• They tend to start laying later than other chickens breeds, so don’t expect eggsuntiltheyare8-10 months old.• They don’t cause the same degree of garden damage like many of the larger breeds.• They tend to be less noisy than some breeds – great for the suburban yard.• They are gentle with children and their fluffy feathers makes them even more appealing to young children.• They can’t fly over fences which makes them easy to contain and that way they don’t become a nuisance to neighbours either.• They enjoy eating bugs and grubs around the yard, even nasty ticks are not off the menu! Treats from the kitchen include fruity yoghurt, bananas, mashed pumpkin or corn cobs.• They are not flighty…

Before you start, please make sure all your items are clean. Milk contaminates easily and this will spoil your cheese. I recommend you set up your work space first as everything is very hot. STEP ONE Pour 2 litres of milk into a saucepan and heat the milk to 75 °C. Stir the milk occasionally and gently. When it has reached the desired temperature hold at this heat for one minute. This pasteurises the milk. Remove from heat and let stand for one minute. STEP TWO Add one teaspoon of ascorbic acid (vitamin C powder) to the hot milk and gently stir it through the milk. Note: If making cheese from fresh milk more ascorbic acid may be required. I have found that goats milk requires half a teaspoon more…

Materials List • Timber – 2 x 520 x 55 x 18mm – 2 x 310 x 55 x 18mm – 1 x 500 x 290 x 11mm for the base (could be plywood if you like) • Titebond 11 Glue or other wood glue• Clamps• Small handplane• Jigsaw or coping saw• Handsaw and mitre box• Rasp or 100 grit sandpaper• Finishing oil• Sandpaper - 180 grit, 240grit, 320grit and 400 grit Note: I used old ebony piano keys for the inlays in the mitres, but these inlays aren’t essential to the outcome of the tray, it looks just as nice to keep it simple. These items are available at most hardware stores. Carba-Tec® is a specialist woodworking store that has everything you need for any woodworking project. There is…

The warm weather arrived early this spring. Although most of us are looking forward to spending more time in the outdoors and enjoying the weather – spring and summer also brings challenges! Don’t we all dread getting hot and bothered, when the house gets stifling hot – after a day or two above 30°C? Why is it that most houses get so unbearably warm? Well a lot of the heat build-up is due to the very high temperatures that are reached in roof spaces throughout Australia. The sun hits your roof and starts heating the air inside. As the heat builds up in the roof space, the air expands and the heat starts penetrating your ceilings, the heat then radiates down from the ceiling giving you an undesired heat contribution…

Why not preserve some of your stone fruit harvest for use during the winter months? They are useful as desserts, in cakes and puddings and straight from the jar for breakfast. If you have a bottling kit then you are at an advantage but this is not entirely necessary – a large pot and a thermometer will also suffice. You can buy preserving jars from the supermarket or hardware shop these days, so they are readily available or even second-hand; in fact full preserving kits can be purchased second-hand very cheaply. Here is a simple bottling method you could use • Use only undamaged bottles with no cracks or chips; also check that the lids and sealing rings are undamaged as damaged lids will let in air and spoil the…