Browse Forums Landscape & Garden Design 1 Jan 27, 2014 12:49 pm Hi Id just like to start this topic and hope that some experienced people may add to this. I am about to begin building my families future home. We won't have a big back yard but would like to get the most out of it. I have two young sons 2 and 3 and also two older kids 16 and 17. Now without getting to political and so on. I would really like to teach the kids and myself how to be more sustainable. I have just finished watching a series/documentary on the history of indigenous Australia's and think we have failed alot in learning there ways of this land. Ok rant aside. I like some ideas how to help our land and make my family maybe a little healthier by planting vegetables and so forth. On the furniture I'd like to put a rain water tank in to water my crops. Maybe add solar power to the house. Maybe have some chickens for there eggs and for there ability to help fertilize and prep soils for crops Re: Sustainable living/ backyards 2Jan 27, 2014 3:33 pm Hi there I hear where you coming from. I started off my house by getting some infrastructure place. I live on a suburban block and so far I have added 2 X time 10 000 litre what tanks – To get the most out of this I made sure I had one tap in the front and another out the back running off a pump. For you to use this it needs to be convenient. I also have 4 down pipes connected to a total of about 200 square meters of roof. I also had 1 kwatt solar panels installed. I was one of the earlier adaptors though If I knew what I knew now I would have went bigger. Information at the time was contradictory. But in saying that at least I get 70 cents per kwatt I export. I managed to install a total of 7 fruit tree. I found fruit trees a bit easier to look after at this stage. I also planted three vegi patches using redgum sleeps at 2.4 by 1.2 wide. Over the years I have been learning more about the garden and have made numerous changes to improve things. One thing I learn is how important is. The more water you can store the better. Living in a new estate I found people without tank water have trouble keeping their gardens green in the summer especially. Mine is generally always good. So before doing your garden be sure you have plenty of water ready to go, as you will be surprised how quickly it can be used up. Re: Sustainable living/ backyards 3Feb 08, 2014 8:37 pm Permaculture is what you should look into. It encompasses everything you mentioned and more. There's a multitude of videos, forums and literature on the web regarding it. I am slowly developing my suburban back yard using permaculture principles after being inspired by a friend's farm and inner city block of land. If I can't eat or it isn't improving my soil I don't want to grow it. Bill Mollison and Geoff Lawton (both Australians) are pioneers of this sustainable practice. Seeing as you're just starting, look at the water harvesting aspect and perhaps tie it in with your building Eg swales as part of your landscape and more efficient use of gravity for tanks etc. http://www.ecofilms.com.au/water-tanks- ... an-garden/ I'll be starting my chook shed as soon as this heat goes away. This is a great short intro into the potential of this system in an arid country https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzTHjlueqFI Hope this helps. Re: Sustainable living/ backyards 4Feb 21, 2014 9:49 am We're thinking along the same lines for our new build too. We've got 4 boys aged between 2 and 6 so I really have to be sensible withh ow I plan it so I leave plenty of room for them to run around outside. My pet peeve is ornamental pears - if you're going to spend time and money and water on a pear tree, why not get some pears! As part of the sustainable living festival I snared a free half hour appointment with a landscape designer who specialises in edible landscaping. She pretty much confirmed that we were on the right track and also helped find some space for things like a chook pen (something we weren't sure was going to fit nicely) She also indicated that with 4 kids we would get a better return focusing on veg instead of fruit. Our block has an east facing frontage, so we're putting some self wicking planter boxes along the north wall of the house for veg that really needs full sun. I'm also going to espalier a potted lemon and lime tree along that wall too. We're planting part shade (morning sun) crops in the retaining wall beds on the west fenceline and the retaining wall bed that won't see much sun on the south fenceline behind the corner of the house is going to house the chickens (only 2 or 3) We're also putting a vertical herb garden beneath the kitchen window, just near the entertaining area. And a slim line water tank will find its home on our west wall which will also help prevent the bedroom there getting so hot (the window is on the south side, but that wall would still get a lot of hot summer afternoon sun.) Our front yard is going to be home to a couple more fruit trees (pomegranate and mandarin so far), and we're looking at planting herbs as ground cover/filler between some pebbles/rocks. We've also got a bay tree waiting for us at the in laws, and will be putting a small rosemary hedge in along the side of the driveway. We also fit a compacted gravel or paved area for the kids to play basket ball in, a couple of lawned areas and an entertaining area, all into our 512m2 block. I drew up a large scale plan of our site (on some of the roll of kids art paper!) and got to work measuring it all out. It took me a couple hours to it all properly to scale (by hand) but its nice to see it all there. I feel like thats one thing under control, I just have to wait out the rest of the build now until I can really get stuck into it, except for things like getting some cuttings started to snare free plants! Re: Sustainable living/ backyards 5Feb 23, 2014 3:52 pm You're on the right track. If you know anyone with an established vege garden it is very easy to let a couple run to seed and use those for next years crop. Basil, lettuce , parsley, tomatoes, cucumbers etc are all easy to harvest for seeds. Stewie I would be wary. Is you site demilished but nothing else done? Sounds like liquidity problems to me. Our builder did the same. Got hundreds of thousands of dollars of… 2 15392 3 5588 Can anyone suggest a house layout where the kitchen-dining - living runs the length across the rear of the house left to right where our best view will be we… 0 4348 |