Sydney’s Tiny City Farm

Last year I created a goal, to grow most of our food we eat in our own back yard.  This is a rather big goal since we live in an inner city suburb and hence have an inner city sized backyard.  Actually I doubt you could officially call it a backyard.  With all ground paved tiles and sized to fit  just one car, a courtyard would be a better description (not a lot of space and no soil).

Fast forward to January 2012 and how is my goal progressing?  Last week I created a salad dinner that contained 90% of the food we grew in our courtyard from garden pots.  So what are we growing now?

Ready to Eat:

• 4 types of lettuces
• all our herbs
• cherry tomatoes
• carrots
• beans
• egg plant
• capsicum
• spinach
• silver beet
• strawberries
• edible flowers

Soon to be ready for eating:

• corn
• peas
• passion fruit
• spring onions
• pepino
• mandarins
• lemons
• cucumbers

What else will I be planting this year:

• mustard
• zucchini
• sorrel
• kale
• blue berries
• grapes

If you are interested in growing your own food, don’t allow a lack of space or even knowledge to stop you (as when I started I really didn’t have much of either).  Start with growing the herbs you like to eat and ‘grow’ from there.

It might be interesting to know that the majority of the garden pots we are using for growing our own food, have been collected 2nd hand.  Either gathered from the side of the road discarded on ‘chuck out days’ or purchased 2nd hand from the ‘Pre Loved Roots’ shop.

Feeling inspired and want some help??  Check out Sydney’s ‘Green Square Growers’.  Many of the people in this group are growing food on their inner city unit balcony!

I would love to know what food you are currently growing at your place?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Big Year For Being Green and Sustainable!

’2011 is the best year of my life to date’ is the sign that hangs on my office wall.  It is a constant reminder to expect big things and to give constantly through out the year.

Now looking back at 2011, I am really proud of what I have achieved not only in my business but also for the environment, animal welfare and my community.  Here is just a glimpse:

*  Now only eat sustainable seafood

*  Shop more responsibly by purchasing items that are;  2nd hand, animal cruelty free, organic, recycled, sustainable, environmentally friendly, Australian made / grown & owned and fair trade

*  Attended and met great people at the EcoXpo

*  Met Tim Silverwood who inspired me to refuse all single life plastics

Bag It Movie & Tim Silverwood
Tim Silverwood’s Voyage to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch

*  Supported the Wilderness Society by photographing their numerous actions

No to Reflex Paper – photograph men in lingerie
No to Reflex Paper – not happy clowns
My pledge against Reflex Paper and Officeworks
No to Reflex Paper & Officeworks – Send Off
No to Reflex Paper & Officeworks – Clean Up Your Act Officeworks
Saving the Pilliga State Forest

* Campaigned to Ban Live Export

Joe Ludwig
Julie Gillard

* Attended Sydney’s Climate Change rally and despite the negative, angry backlash towards bloggers, I choose to write about it anyway

* Attended numerous City of Sydney ‘Live Green’ workshops on living a more sustainable life.  Learnt  more about how to make my own environmentally friendly cleaning products, growing food in pots and making my own organic potting mix

* Learnt about and was inspired by Collective Consumption

*  Took part in the City of Sydney Sustainability Leadership Program

*  Helped to establish with other local residents, The Green Square Growers

*  Became the ‘local hero’ in December’s edition of ‘Sydney Green Villages’

*  Together with others from The Green Square Growers and Friends of Victoria Park, presented to the Lord Mayor of Sydney, Clover Moore

*  Stopped eating red meat (post still to come)

*  Reduced consuming dairy by 70% (post still to come)

*  Campaigned against Coal Seam Gas fracking on environmentally significant land and prime agriculture land (post still to come)

*  Working towards achieving my goal of growing lots of food  in our inner City home (post still to come)

*  Took time to ponder, laugh, enjoy my family & friends and have fun

Presentation to the Lord Mayor of Sydney, Clover Moore

In my last post, I mentioned that I would try to get some photos of the ‘Green Square Champions’ presentation night with Clover Moore (Lord Mayor of Sydney).

Hey Presto here you go:

Yours truly with the Lord Mayor of Sydney, Clover Moore.  Being awarded the ‘Green Square Champion’ certificate.  By the way, the flower was grown in my garden (in case you were wondering).

Clover Moore with all the ‘Green Square Champions’ who have formed two groups.  The ‘Green Square Growers’ (of which I am a member) and ‘Friends of Victoria Park’.  Photograph was taken after the two groups presented our vision for Green Square of Sydney.

Clover Moore with the ‘City of Sydney Green Champions’ and the ‘Green Square Green Champions’.  Passionate ‘green’ council workers working with passionate ‘green’ local residents.

City of Sydney, Sustainability Leadership Program

The last four months I have been involved in the City of Sydney, Green Square Champion program i.e. a sustainability leadership program for the inner City of Sydney.

The goal was to learn, grow and stretch ourselves with our sustainability knowledge and to also connect us with others in the community and the Sydney Council, that share our ‘green’ vision.

From this program, has come two distinct groups who are committed to building community projects.

The group that I am apart of and committed to support, is the ‘Green Square Growers‘.  Basically we are all about inspiring and supporting ourselves and our community in growing our own food.

Tomorrow night, our two groups will be presenting to Lord Mayor Clover Moore and to around 80 other people.  Yours truly will also be giving the opening talk (which will be straight after Clover speaks).

Not sure if I will be allowed but I’ll try to get a photo of the night to share with you.  Hey maybe one of me with Clover Moore?

Collective Consumption – Back to Retro Thinking

While photographing a number of Corporate events in Sydney, I have been fortunate to hear Dr James Moody from the CSIRO and the co-author of the ‘Sixth Wave‘, speak.

James Moody believes that since the industrial revolution there has been five distinct waves in industry, “each starting with disruptive new technologies and ending with a global depression”.  James says that each wave has “transformed our industries, societies and economies almost beyond recognition. We are now on the cusp of another massive transformation – the sixth wave.”

It is his sixth wave prediction that fascinates me.  A future where waste will be an opportunity and new markets will move away from being dependant on resources to becoming resource efficient.

Here an example that James Moody gives:

Let’s say today you purchased a brand new washing machine from a local store and the warranty on that washing machine is three years.  Who has an invested interest for that washing machine to last a very long time?  The answer is really only you – the company’s interest is to ensure the machine lasts for the period of the warranty.

Now let’s say in a new business model, that you rented a washing machine from the same company who manufactured the machine.  Who now has an invested interest for that washing machine to last a very long time?  Now the answer is both parties – you and the company.

This last week I have been hearing about the phrase ‘Collective Consumption’. To be honest I wasn’t sure the meaning but had a sneaking suspicion, it was the same thinking as Dr James Moody’s ‘Sixth Wave’.

Time Magazine has called Collective Consumption one of the ten ideas that will change the world.

What exactly is Collective Consumption?  It is retro thinking – the old world behaviours like sharing, swapping, renting and bartering, again becoming the way to do business (and as Dr James Moody suggests, to survive in a resource limited world).

This last Thursday I was invited to attend the opening of Open Shed who’s business model was based on Collective Consumption.  Open Shed is all about renting each other’s stuff.

I remember renovating our home five years ago.  To save money, my husband and I did much of the labour ourselves.  However as we are not tradies we needed to ‘purchase’ a number of power tools.  Now five years later those tools sit unused in our garden shed.

A better use of our money and the earth’s resources would have been to rent those same power tools.  We could have gone onto the Open Shed’s website to find tools that we needed, from people who lived nearby.

Not all is lost however as now our unused tools can be listed on the Open Shed website to rent to people who need them.  We make money, they save money and collectively we have reduced consumption on the earth’s limited resources – this is collective consumption!

Australian Businesses who are built on the Collective Consumption model:

Find A Uniform
The Garage Sale Trail
Mee Meep
Space Out
Go Get
Jayride
Divvy
Open Shed