Wow, even domain.com.au is getting in on the green home act. Check out the site’s interactive house floor plan, which shows what you can do to help reduce your energy emissions and energy bills in every room.

another test

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Don’t forget it’s Earth Hour this Saturday (March 31) so if you’re in Sydney turn off your lights between 7.30 and 8.30pm as a sign of your commitment to reduce climate change.

It’s a pretty simple ask and one that environment group WWF is using to kick off its campaign to reduce Sydney’s greenhouse emissions by 5 per cent in 2007. Through Earth Hour, WWF plans to demonstrate how simple actions can make the world of difference if everyone takes part.

Although Earth Hour is just in Sydney, WWF is encouraging people across Australia to also show their support by turning off their lights at 7.30pm local time.

What will you be doing this Earth Hour? I am planning a nice candle light dinner with the family.

I am back from a great holiday. Womadelaide was excellent! All the performers were brilliant but my favorites were definitely the Gotan Project and the Mohatilla Queens. A rest by the sea side was also much needed.

While away I was worried that my garden might die due to lack of water but it rained a lot in Sydney, compared with Adelaide which is an incredibly dry place. So when I returned home my garden was lush, green and thriving - except for the plants that had been decimated by possums, which live in a neighboring property.

These pesky possums (mother and child) ate into my pumpkins, capsicums and strawberry plants as well as stripped the top half of my watermelon, passion fruit and loofah vines bare. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr! This isn’t the first time they have savaged my garden. They often visit during the night to chomp on anything they can get their little mouths on. My husband and I have tried putting spikes on the top of our trellising to deter the possums but they seem to get around it without any problems. The possums even get through netting.

Does anyone have any good ideas for deterring possums in a suburban area? I will be forever grateful.

I’m off for a couple of weeks holiday in South Australia. First stop Womadelaide, then a South Australian beach somewhere to relax with my family. I am really looking forward to Womadelaide. Its been one of those things I’ve been wanting to do for a long time and this year looks like it has a great line up.

So what is Womadelaide?

Besides being a massive world music festival, Womadelaide’s organisers describe the event as: “A slice of heaven on earth - a brief alternative vision of the kind of world in which we would like to live; a world of tolerance and cultural curiosity - where tradition is acknowledged and innovation welcomed, age respected and youth celebrated, where learning is pleasure, where our rich indigenous heritage is regarded as central to our culture and where care for the environment is a shared responsibility.”

Sounds pretty good hey?

Another great thing about the festival is it will be carbon neutral to help remove its global warming impact. This will be achieved through tree plantings by environmental organisation Greening Australia.

So if you don’t hear from me for a couple of weeks it’s because I am enjoying global grooves in Adelaide and swimming in the ocean, oh yeah and trying some of those fabulous South Australian wines ;-).

What is it with tomato plants? They self seed in compost all over my garden, grow into thriving vines with lush foliage and begin to form abundant amounts of fruit.

But when it’s time for the tomatoes to begin ripening everything goes wrong. Is it just me, of are tomatoes difficult to grow?

I love tomatoes and every year fantasise about harvesting deliciously sweet, vine ripened fruit. My crop always starts off well but as the fruit develops disease and pests set in. (more…)

Did you know that a regular light bulb can use up to 80 per cent more energy than a compact fluorescent bulb?

This not only increases your electricity bill but also contributes to greenhouse gas emissions if your electricity supply comes from fossil fuels, rather than green power.

Over a year, replacing a single incandescent bulb with an energy saving equivalent will save as much greenhouse gas as burning 55kg of coal. Also, regular light bulbs have a much shorter life span than compact fluorescents - for every compact fluorescent you’ll need 10 regular light bulbs. So it makes sense to start banning the bulb by switching your regular light globes for more efficient compact fluorescent ones.

Neco and Channel TEN are helping NSW town Tamworth to ban the bulb by replacing every standard incandescent bulb in Tamworth over the coming month. This is part of the Channel TEN Television show Cool Aid  The National Carbon Test.

Fancy banning the bulb in your city? You don’t have to be on television, just contact Neco, the program is free for councils and householders. For more information please email: mail@neco.com.au or call them on 1300 88 26 40 or visit the website.