How can I make my landscape more sustainable?

Sustainability in the landscape is a must. We live in a world of finite resources.

 Reflect Do you really need this? How often am I going to have 80 people on my deck? Could I go without or could I use a substitute.

 Refuse If it is a bad idea say no. you may not need it or there may be a suitable substitute.

 Reuse - Is this material really at the end of its useable life? Can I find another use for it? Can I find someone else who has a use for it?

 Reduce - Can I reduce the size of my deck? Can I set my area up to use less energy?

 Recycle Can this material be precessed to have a new life? This is the next alternative to reusing. Can I use a recycled product instead?

Top 5 Sustainability Tips for the Garden

Sustainability in the landscape is a must. We live in a world of finite resources.

 Mulch and Compost your garden - Go to a local landscape supplies centre and use their courtesy trailer or get it deliverd. The mulch will mean less watering, better soil structure and helathier plants while limiting the amount of weeds that pop up in your garden and spread throughout your neighbourhood. Depending on the style of mulch you choose you could spend as little as $30 per 10m2 if ou use your local council mulch or around $60 for decorative mulches. Compost will create healthy soil that needs much less additives.

 Choose sustainable materials - If you must put in hard surfaces like decking, paving, pergolas etc. Choose materials that have low embodied energies(This is the energy needed to extract, manufacture, transport and install your product). Not only should materials you use in the landscape be low embodied they should have a reasonable longevity. Fantastic choices for low to medium use paths are local toppings.

 Limit the use of hardscapes - How often will you actually have 80people in your backyard to fill a massive deck. Is this something that I could do with plants instead.

 Line your fences with Fruit Trees - Fruit trees keeping on giving with low maintenance. If you don't have the time to be putting in vegetables every 12 weeks and mainaing a vegetable garden maybe fruit trees are for you. They require limited maintenance and you do not have to replant every season. Each year more dwarf varieties come out that take up less space which is fantastic for the small garden. Generally in the Melbourne garden fruit trees require sun for most of the day to provide fruit that is plentiful and tastes good. A fence line is a great spot to find this sun.

 Can I fix it? - Your deck might be looking a little ragged at the momement but perhaps all it needs is a smarter choice of decking boards. Perhaps it just needs a fresh coat of oil. Maybe a coat of paint on the back fence will revitalise the plantings that you have in front of them.

Top 5 Water Saving Tips for the Garden

Water is a commodity, it costs money and environments and most noteably for the average person it takes time to apply.

 Choose water efficient plants - If the plants do not need any extra watering then you do not need to come up with provisions

 Mulch and compost your plants - This will limit the evaporation of water due to sun and wind as well as reduce water run off. The compost will improve the structure and water holding capability of your soil.

 Install a Raingarden - Divert the water that falls on your site in to a garden bed instead of the stormwater.

 Install drip irrigation - If you must irrigate your garden beds use drip irrigation. It can be installed underneath mulch and deliver water directly to the root zone eliminating evaporation.

 Water in the morning Water first thing in the morning before the sun is out and while it is still. This will make will get your plants turgid and ready for the day while reducing evaporation.

What do you do here?

Ok guys, I thought it would be a good idea to accumulate our links to interesting sites and snippets that we have found. Suppliers of materials, art pieces, your favourite plants and the rest. If you have anything to add I can give you a password so you can update it yourself any time you want, send me an email or add a comment just below and I will put it up when I get a chance.

Enjoy
Ross
RossU Designs in Landscaping
www.rossu.com.au

Business Diploma

Hi guys

I know a training company that is delivery some business courses with government funding.  It works out to be around $375 per course as long as you haven't completed a course at a higher level already.  There are business , administration and management cert IV's, diplomas and advanced diplomas.  The structure is usually somewhere around 8 full day classes then you complete the rest of course by posting in assignments.
It might be a good add on to your qualification.
If you have any questions let me know, some of the courses are starting in March.
This is a link to the training provider, http://www.fordtraining.com.au/  though they don't have the government funded courses advertised, I think.

I'm wanting to do the advanced diploma in business.  Could be a good pathway to get direct entry in to the final year of a degree if that is something you are looking at doing.
I've already completed a cert IV in business administration with Ford Training and I finished it in about 6 weeks.

Ross

Document Sharing - Materials Portfolio

Here is a link to my materials portfolio from 2010, it might be useful.  If anyone else has a portfolio they are willing to share I'm sure it would be helpful to everyone.

Download

Ross

Top 10 Weeds

The ten most serious invasive plants being sold currently by Australian nurseries are:
Asparagus fern, Broom, Fountain grass, Gazania, Glory lily, Hybrid mother of millions, Japanese
honeysuckle, Pepper tree, Periwinkle and Sweet pittosporum.

For Victoria, the top 10 are
African lovegrass, Asparagus fern, Gazania, Horsetails, Mexican feather grass, Oxalis, Pepper tree, Periwinkle, Prickly pear, and Spanish heath.

It’s embarrassing to say I have this huge desert ash on the border of my property but it gives so much shade and such a great carbon sink. Should I chop it down?  Sob!

Nicky

Gabrielle recommends a Book - The New Native Garden

Bought a really good book recently:  The New Native Garden - "Designing with Australian Plants" by Paul Urquahart

The book lists different garden styles and has sample designs of each, all using native plants in place of exotics (if that’s your thing….) Goes into a lot of detail about themes, features, colour, styles etc and is a good starting point when considering suitable garden styles for clients.

Gabrielle

Ross' favourite plants - Isopogon ceratophyllus

Family:  Proteaceae

Genus:  Isopogon
Species:  ceratophyllus
Common Name: Horny Cone Bush

Habit:  Small shrub to 60cm

Flowers:  Yellow round cones

Leaves:  Rigid and crowdy

Distribution: Tasmania, Victoria and South Australia

Very interesting form.

Ross

Jonathan Drori: Every pollen grain has a story | Video on TED.com

Jonathan Drori: Every pollen grain has a story Video on TED.com

Take a look at this guys, wow.  Spectacular pictures of pollen through the eyes of a scanning electron microscope.

Ross

Gabrielle recommends - CAD software

Cost $25

www.smallblueprinter.com/garden - I wondered if other people may be interested in this garden design software. It is a much simpler version than Vectorworks, and heaps cheaper so it may suit others who, like me, are starting out and don’t have a big budget but want to produce computer-driven designs without being an IT whizz.

It does enough to create a perfectly acceptable design and is updated regularly with new features. It is created by a guy who has a small software business in Adelaide, so I like the idea of supporting a small Aussie business.

 Gabrielle

Ross Uebergang: Living Chessboard

Handmade timber Jarrah and Tasmanian Oak  chessboard  Covered in preloved glasses, filled with various succulents.

This board need very little watering and maintenance, just light and and some cover from the wind.  Rossu design

Ross' favourite plants - Banksia blechnifolia

Family:  Proteaceae

Genus:  Banksia

Species:  blechnifolia

Common Name: ?

Habit:  Small shrub to 40cm, Prostrate, will quickly spread

Flowers:  Late spring

Leaves:  Rigid and crowdy

Distribution: Western Australia

Tolerances:  Needs good drainage.  More resistant to die back than a lot of Banksias.


Ross

Gabrielle recommends - Seed Bank

http://www.seedbank.com.au/ - I have ordered some indigenous seeds from this business and found it a really useful resource.
It lists the genus and species, and the provenance of the seeds, so for someone like me, who is specialising in indig garden design.
I have control over where the seeds have come from and can be assured that they will thrive in the local conditions. It’s a really sustainable way of growing plants – I email my order through and then receive an envelope in the mail with my seeds. Love it!


Gabrielle

Ross' favourite plants - Acacia aphylla

Family:  Mimosaceae
Genus:  Acacia
Species:  aphylla
Common Name:  Leafless Rock Wattle
Habit:  Large shrub to 2.5m
Flowers:  Yellow inflorescence from August to October
Leaves:  Spiney, with a glaucaus coating

Another Western Australian that likes sandy loam,  but apparently can cope with some clay.

Ross

Nicky's favourite Plants - Leptospermum petersonii

Genus:  Leptospermum
Species:  petersonii
Leaves:  Lemon-scented leaves
Flowers:  Attractive white flowers through spring and summer are a notable feature of this attractive tea tree. The leaves give off a strong lemon fragrance and contain citral and citronellal. They can be made into tea that gives off a wonderful aroma or can be mixed with other tea varieties. It’s a fast growing plant to 3 or 4 metres high with a rounded shape and suitable for screening or as a windbreak. Petersonii occurs naturally in wet forests and rain forest areas of northern NSW and Queensland but adapts well to most areas when given well-drained soil and adequate water. We observe that it’s frost tolerant to around zero degrees C.

Nicky

Nicky's Favourite Plants - Adenanthos sericeus

Genus: Adenanthos
Species: sericeus
Common Name: Albany Woolly Bush or Silver Streak
Flower Colour: Red
Foliage Colour: Grey-Green
Growth Habit: Shrub 3m+
Flowering: Spring, Summer, Autumn
The Albany Woolly Bush is an absolutely fantastic Australian Native Plant. It is extremely hardy, surviving on very little water once established, and has the most beautiful grey-green leaves. It is also extremely soft leaved and will grow to a very large size if allowed.
Probably what the Albany Woolly Bush is best known for is it’s suitability to be used as an Australian Native Christmas Tree. Many people either grow themselves or buy an Albany Woolly Bush around Christmas time because it really suits this purpose well. The grey-green leaves give it a colour that almost ‘hints’ at being snow covered (which Australians still seem to like the idea of, even though many of us have never seen snow) and because of the size the Woolly Bush grows too, you really can get a decent sized Christmas tree.


I have 3 growing and they are dead easy to look after!

Nicky

Ross' favourite plants - Acacia anuera

Family:  Mimosaceae
Genus:  Acacia
Species:  anuera
Common Name:  Mulga
Habit:  Small tree to 7m but more often a large shrub
Flowers:  Yellow spikes appear after heavy rain
Distribution:  Throughout the centre of Australia
Leaves:  Spiney flattened Phyllodes which are actually adapted petioles not leaves.  The leaf has evolved out to reduce water loss through transpiration and evaporation.
Bird attracting and is said to live up to 400 years.

Ross

Mitchell Joachim: Don't build your home, grow it! | Video on TED.com

Mitchell Joachim: Don't build your home, grow it! Video on TED.com

Ross

Jonathan Drori on what we think we know | Video on TED.com

Jonathan Drori on what we think we know Video on TED.com

Ross