Suburban Sustainability

At a time when half the world became expert at making sourdough, I turned, like many, to my garden. A long time love of growing plants of all kinds, but particularly edible ones, kicked in and there I was planting, digging and relocating. The process of creating a garden is interesting. In another life when I was married and lived in the bush I loved the garden we created. Planting out became an experiment in patience and as I thumbed through books about growing food in rural areas I started to realise that there would always be compromise. The challenges of growing in rural areas is the competition with possums, wallabies, rats, rogue chickens and sometimes even snakes. At first I'm sure I puffed out my chest in colonialist ignorance and shouted into the paddocks...'I will beat you. I will build fences and make traps and ....' You get the picture. However, as I observed the environment, the behaviour of the animals and our needs as a family, I started going down a different path.

Instead of building bigger fences and shaking my fist at the wallabies that ate the tasty fresh shoots, I looked to the plants that they weren't eating. While leafy greens may have been a favourite they didn't touch rosemary, josterberries, rhubarb or artichokes. The closer food was to the house, the less it got eaten due to barky dogs. A hothouse with surrounding garden beds that was within a couple of metres from the house were abundant and untouched. The josterberries that were planted around the only very well fenced garden (about 8x4metres) which was next to the chook shed provided fruit for crumbles and jams every year and garden beds that included a mix of 70% native plants with a spattering of spinach, herbs etc around the house to provide shade, habitat and flavours. We gave up on the paddock of vines that we had taken weeks to plant because between the grazing and the water requirements it would have taken all our days to grow a few grapes. We gave up on the orchard which had occasionally given us some delicious apricots, because on a sunbaked day with a sweltering Tasmanian summers day, it was more important to have the shade than it was to stubbornly try to grow a few cherries. I cannot express the relief and joy I felt when changing my attitude and behaviour. I had always felt an underlying principle of 'leave the place better than when you arrived' and we did. 

Many years on the marriage has gone, the kids have grown up and I live in the suburbs surrounded by fences, lawns and concrete driveways, and I really love it. That might sound crazy, but when I bought my little house I brought with me the same ideas around growing food, creating habitats and improving the environment that I had in the bush. There is however another richer, deeper and exciting layering to the idea of converting and improving the sustainability of an existing structure and garden. 

My goal is to convert the 1950's sparse rose-filled and lawn proud gardens to lush, abundant spaces to relax in, share with friends and family, including two rambunctious pooches, and provide food.  Sustainability has always interested me and with extra time at home thanks to Covid19 I started plotting and planning. Coincidentally I also signed up to do the first unit of the Sustainable Design for Houses at UTAS-it's free. All online of course. I will admit that it took me a while to get used to studying again and it did become a juggling act between work, family and managing my response to a global pandemic. Throughout the chaos there was an instinctive sense that it was right. Below before and after shots of the back yard.

Writing about it also seems right. I have started a paper journal as well to document the plants, changes and challenges as the place evolves. I will include some pics, I might get a bit ranting and rambling about things at times, but all in all I want this to document my learning and discoveries about converting a suburban block to something else. I don't know what the end result will be and I know I will make mistakes, but it doesn't really matter because the guiding principle remains...'leave it in better shape than when you started.' 

Now I am off to investigate where to relocate my lemon trees which are currently in the wrong position. No doubt I will discover something else I want to do as every day brings with it a myriad of exciting ideas. x

Great stuff to listen to...

Check these out and explore what else is out there. I would like to hear more from women who are doing awesome things in this area. I know you are out there

Living to the Sustainable Living Podcast  I have just started listening and it's great. Urban Farm U with Greg Peterson is really good, especially about making mistakes. I make them all the time but I also learn heaps from them. 

Jon Richardson and the Futurenauts - How to survive an apocalypse This is a fantastic podcast with Jon Richardson chatting with futurists Ed Gillespie and Mark Stevenson exploring the big issues for humanity; education, healthcare, nature, travel, fashion and much more. It's a fascinating glimpse into the state of things, but with some light at the end of the tunnel and a lot of humour. The website is https://jonandthefuturenauts.podbean.com/

This is intentionally unedited material and I am sorry for any grammatical errors but I am so keen to gather my thoughts and get them out into the universe. Thanks for understanding x