Earthcare News
May 1999
I do what I can, where I am printpost 343396/00013
Roof Gardens
Have you ever thought of growing geraniums on your roof or vegies on the shed? Has your balcony got potential as a miniature permaculture garden or have you got your eye on the nearest flat factory roof as a source of fresh produce?
Come and listen to Jim Holdsworth at "The House" corner of Blessington and Herbert Streets St Kilda Botanic Gardens 7.30pm Thursday May 27th.
WATER QUALITY TESTING at COWDEROY CREEK
Have you ever sat down at West Beach by the little inlet and thought how beautiful the revegetation project was, only to be rather disgusted at the state of the water coming out of the Cowderoy creek? We are now in the process of really finding out about the water quality of the Cowderoy creek.
We have had our second session and so far the results are fantastic.
Fantastically Dismal.
It appears that there is simply no oxygen in the water, a result that Ben Scullin who was teaching us to use the equipment had never seen before. Our first reading of phosphate was off the scale. It was therefore not that surprising that there was lots of rotting matter and no other life found at the bottom of the stream and very little at on the surface. What was amazing was that we saw an eel and two fish in the creek.
We are meeting again on Sunday the 6th, June at 2pm West Beach to discuss our aims and objectives and do more testing, please join us.
WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY
2.00pm Saturday June 5
Planting on St Kilda Breakwater. The penguins really appreciated the
revegetation last year, they were particularly enthusiastic about the grasses and used them for their nests. We have 1000 plants to put in among the rocks so please join us. On the following Monday and Tuesday some primary schools are planting their noon flower cuttings, all help during the day would be greatly appreciated even if it only an hour or so.
954346981 or 0413843594
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There’s nothing like putting plants in the ground!
Meet other members of Earthcare on an informal basis
Join us for afternoon tea
Enjoy some simple exercise and fresh air
BE THERE
Sunday May 16th 2.00pm
Corner of William St and Grosvenor Street Balaclava
"THE HOUSE" corner Blessington/Herbert Sts, St Kilda
"THE HOUSE": could we make it a model sustainable house?
Have you ever dreamt of a time when we lived in a world where we could be proud of the way we lived in relation to our environment? Where we had taken note of what our planet was telling us and re-thought the way we lived? Have you ever imaged a city where people lived in nourishing, sustainable buildings?
As part of working towards this vision a few of us are interested in exploring the idea of working with the council to turn "The House" into a model sustainable building. We would hope it could serve as an educational and inspirational tool for people who were interested in making already existing buildings into sustainable ones. It could also be the focus for general environmental awareness raising. For example there could be educational posters on the effect of sewerage on local ecosystems in the loo.
We are at the beginning of the "ideas" stage. Here are some basic principles that we have come up with:
a.. We would want the building to become a beautiful and nourishing environment for people to be in.
b.. We would want it to supply all its own energy and possibly be a source of power for the grid.
c.. We would want it to collect its own water and deal with its own waste.
d.. We would use non-toxic, local, and where ever possible, recycled materials.
We are meeting again at the House at 7.30pm, Thursday 20th of May. We need more people with ideas and energy so please come along.
Contact: Josephine Samuel-King, 9534 5751 or mjsk@vicnet.net
Chemical Warfare – a war against weeds
At a recent meeting there was misinformed and unjustified criticism directed a those who use chemicals, particularly the City of Port Phillip’s Parks staff. It was suggested that herbicides are used by lazy people doing a second rate job.
As a member of the City of Port Phillip’s revegetation team (and there are 3 of us) I would like to clear up some of the misconceptions surrounding the use of herbicides, particularly Roundup.
Anyone who has had any experience gardening, particularly revegetation, will understand the need to use herbicide in some situations. Those of you that have a reasonable sized yard or even a small garden will understand the challenge that weeds pose to us.
How often do you hand weed your plot, and do you keep on top of it so that weeds are not allowed to set seed? One year’s seed equals seven years weed.
Think about this and relate it to council staff who are looking after more than 20 acres of revegetation sites. There are simply not enough hands or hours in the day to do it by hand. Even if by some miracle there was, keeping the weeds under control still could not be done as effectively as with Roundup. Weeds don’t wait for you to finish in one park and then grow in the others.
There is not one revegetator or bushland manager in existence that does not use herbicides, it is unfortunately the nature of the work. Revegetation always starts with weedy sites that are sprayed for up to 18 months before planting can begin. Diligent weed control is then required for several years to tip the balance back into nature’s favour so that indigenous plants not weeds are winning the war.
The professional staff who use herbicides are licensed educated people aware of the implications involved in using chemicals. The chemicals that are being used have come a long way since the days of DDT and other residual compounds.
Roundup is a nonresidual chemical. It breaks down in the soil in about four days and does not built up in food chains resulting in detrimental affects. Most revegetators use Roundup Biactive, which has less of the surfactant (detergent) in it and was developed for environmentally sensitive areas such as waterways. Roundup is in fact less toxic than seawater, you only have to drink 7 litres of seawater to have a 50% chance of dying while you would have to drink 50 – 100 litres of R/U to do the same thing.
So next time you see someone with a strange looking thing on their back spraying red stuff (vegetable dye so we can tell where we have been) all over the place remember that this is necessary if we want to have beautiful parks and gardens for birds and possums to live in. One day these areas will be self sustaining and we won’t have to spray. Kylie Stewart