Sustainable House Day, Toowoomba 1, Queensland

Please note this house is displaying their garden only as part of Sustainable House Day 2009.

One large dark green forest canopy…

Unique Sustainable Elements featured in this home
The owners of the property have primarily focused on sustainable garden features.  Realizing several decades ago that water availability would prove to be a critical issue, water storage features were erected.    

Less unique features
A second hand Solar Hot water system was installed in the mid 70s, supplemented by a heating element in a wood burning heater/stove.  Supplementary water heating with electricity is used as a last resort.

Where there is excess food production which cannot be given away, it is dehydrated and vacuumed sealed.  Some of the herbs are used for making gels for cosmetic and first-aide purposes.

Waste leaving the property is limited to personal and kitchen waste which cannot be fed to the fowls or processed in the worm farms or compost bins.  Dead leaf litter is mulched and used to top the bush tracks which transect the forested areas, making them pleasant to walk on.  Larger dead vegetative material is chipped and used as mulch throughout the forested areas.  Green waste is chipped and processed in one of three large compost bins.  Most of the compost is used to top dress the vegetable garden areas of assist with tree planting.  The only real weed on the property is climbing asparagus.  This is dried in black plastic bags before being disposed of.

Ceiling insulation has been incorporate into the house as part of initiative about 30 years ago.

Garden Features
By inner suburban standards, this is a reasonably large garden and over the years has developed a number of areas including a food forest incorporating many permaculture principles and a wildlife friendly bush garden.  The latter features mainly plants from subtropical and dry rainforests of the local area.  Selected exotic plants in the garden are being replaced progressively with indigenous plants.  Remaining exotics either have no serious impact environmentally or have a food value.  Lawn areas have decreased to a point where mowing takes about 30 minutes.

A small nursery focuses on indigenous plants suitable for bushland regeneration along the escarpments of the Toowoomba Range and a number of selected garden herbs.

Some permaculture principals have been incorporated into the vegetable and herb garden which forms part of a cell grazing complex using chooks in a comprehensive way.  A number of fenced garden plots have been built around a chook run.  Each garden plot provides human access and chook access when appropriate.  Drip line irrigation has been incorporated into this area of the garden.

Pest management is fairly minimal due to the location of the nearby bushed areas.  On the few times they are used, sprays are organic and mostly concocted using home made recipes.  The primary pest controls are the much maligned noisy miner, striped marsh frogs and blue tongue lizards.  A number of frog ponds have been constructed and the bushed area provides many shelters for the frogs and lizards.

The large pond was initially stocked with native fish, yabbies and shrimp and planted with native water plants and lilies.  Attempts to grow water based food plants in the pond have not been successful.  The fish introduced into the pond include purple spotted gudgeons, fire tailed gudgeons, bony brim, eel tailed cat fish and silver perch.  Some feeding of the fish does occur.  This has the potential to pollute the pond with nutrients from excess food and fish waste.  In the warmer months, the native water weed thrives on the nutrients.  The weed is periodically harvested from the pond and becomes an important source of composting material.  
Concrete waste has been converted in some areas to garden features.  A retaining wall has been constructed from rubble and some of the rocks made artificially.  While using the less environmentally friendly cement powder, it shows how natural looking rocks can be made without removing real ones from bush.

A large diameter clumping bamboo has been grown both as a frost barrier and a construction material.  Using it as a food source has still to be investigated.

Garden Water Harvesting Systems
A number of large tanks have been installed for rain water storage.  Existing galvanized tanks that were no longer serviceable, and which were still intact, were converted into a garden shed and hen shed rather than being taken to the local tip.  
As the need for water became more critical, a large pond was built to take the excess water from the roof after the tanks were filled.  The pond does not capture ground surface water.  Surface water is diverted into a rock filled trench lined with geofabric to allow that water to soak into the ground before it exits the property.  Only in heavy rain is there any significant flow of water from the property.

Currently under construction is a surface water capture tank designed to filter this ground water and store it in tanks primary installed for the purpose.

There are very few impervious surfaces.  Gravelled driveways and parking areas provide very limited soakage for water, and are used to define the area along which heavy traffic can move, limiting soil compaction to specific areas.

Display
For the open day, a self guided walk will be provided with interpretive signage on the various features of the garden, an information sheet and map.  A display of various products from garden and processes to make them will be held in the courtyard.  Hopefully visitors will gain an insight into our underlying philosophy for the development of the garden and the way it has been done through the many posters and signage.