Next week I’m due to have a baby so I’ll be a bit quiet on the Greenfoot front for the following few weeks or so.

I’ve been reading a book called Raising Baby Green, which has some interesting tips on how to have a green baby. It’s American so some of the information is not so relevant to Australia but some interesting tips never-the-less.

One thing I’m planning to do once my baby is born is to try out some of the newer cloth nappies on the market. These days cloth nappies have come a long way since the good old square white, towelling ones, which we used with my son. We also experimented with other more eco friendly disposable nappies, however, this ended up getting pretty expensive.

Carly over at Buddlebums kindly sent me a sample of her cloth nappies, which I will definitely be trying out.

I’m sure there are loads of great cloth and eco alternatives to the regular disposable nappies out there. Please if you know of any let me know in the comments below so I can check them out.

Cheers and see you soon.

I’ve just finished reading Choosing Eden, which coincides well with the rising oil and fuel prices that are dominating media headlines.

The author, Adrienne Langman, tells a compelling tale of how she and her husband learn about the peak oil crisis. As a result they leave their comfortable life in the Eastern suburbs of Sydney to create a more sustainable life in Northern NSW - Nana Glen near Coffs Harbour.

Their dream is to establish a permaculture farm, which they call Eden Forest Permaculture Sanctuary. This is so they won’t be reliant on the rising costs of living associated with increasing oil prices.

The story begins with Adrienne and her husband’s first discovery of the peak oil crisis, to selling their Sydney home, buying a farm, and learning about and setting up a permaculture farm on their land.

The story is incredibly inspirational because Adrienne and her husband are in their 50s and they leave a well established community of family and friends in Sydney to step into the unknown.

If you’re like me – you live in a city but are always dreaming of moving to the country to create a more sustainable lifestyle then this book will make you want to do it even more. Choosing Eden is a really great read and although it was only published last year, I’m already waiting for the follow up book, which I hope Adrienne is writing now.

I’ve just finished reading Making Your Home Sustainable by Derek Wrigley. It’s a really useful book for anyone wanting to retrofit their house to improve its energy and water efficiency.

When architect and solar consultant Derek Wrigley moved into a townhouse in Canberra in 1991, he began retrofitting it to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels. Throughout the book, Wrigley uses the house to show how homes in Australia’s southern states can be made more sustainable.

The book is ideal for home owners who can fit out and alter their house. However, there is a small and informative section that provides renters with ways to improve their home’s efficiency at minimum cost.

The book covers more than just basic green living tips – it provides detailed information (but easy-to-understand) about solar energy, energy efficiency, appliances, mass and thermal comfort, insulation, ventilation, minimising water and effective landscape use.

It’s a great resource for all us retrofitters out there. To buy the book, visit Scribe Publications.

It’s always good to see a new magazine on the racks dedicated to sustainability and green living. Although the Greenpages magazine has been out for a while, today is the first time I have managed to get my hands on a copy.

The magazine is quarterly and extends from the Greenpages Business and Lifestyle directories. The magazine features sections on design, food, travel, style, science and eco-culture. It’s a good read, grab a copy.

Check out the Greenfoot directory for more magazines dedicated to sustainable living.

Finally, there is a water tank that you can pack up and take with you when you move. If you don’t want to create your own do-it-yourself tank or fork out for the more expensive metal or plastic tanks, which remain as permanent fixtures to your home, then possibly the Handytank could be for you.

The Handytank is a 1,000 litre water tank which can be bought at Kmart, Mitre 10, Home Timber and Hardware, Thrifty-Link and Trade Link stores. It comes in a flat pack so can be transported home in most cars and is assembled and fitted in about 20 minutes. The manufacturers also claim it can be easily dissembled for easy moving.

I love the idea of a water tank that you can take with you when you move, such a great idea for people renting. Now if you could just do the same with solar panels…

Early last year my friend Matt began his journey into the mythical world of growing garlic. Towards the end of last year I was able to sample some of his delicious and potent little cloves of garlicky goodness.

According to Matt, late February to early April is the best time for planting garlic in Sydney.

Taking Matt’s advice, I’ve held onto my bulbs from him until now - although I did eat about half … yum. I finally planted them today. My son helped by stuffing a clove into each hole I made in the soil. He then used his little watering can to moisten the soil.

Being 29 weeks pregnant, my belly and bad back are beginning to hamper my gardening abilities. Therefore, I’m winding up most of my garden beds for winter by heavily mulching them over and letting them rest.

However, I figure garlic will be pretty easy to grow over these months and won’t need much care or labour. The garlic now lives in the sunniest sections (during winter) of my garden.

Matt has kindly provided another update on his garlic expeditions - no doubt he has just planted some more garlic in his own garden. Read on for Matt’s update. (more…)

This Saturday (March 29) at 8pm don’t forget to turn off all your lights and unused appliances at the switch to show your support for Earth Hour.

The event, organised by WWF, began last year in Sydney where over 2.2 million residents and over 2,100 businesses turned off lights and appliances for one hour to help reduce the city’s greenhouse gas pollution. WWF says that this lead to a 10.2% energy reduction across the city.

This year the event has gone global with another 23 world cities formally signing up.

With 24 global cities on board for Earth Hour, WWF anticipates that more than 30 million people will be involved this year.

If you haven’t already, sign up for the event on the Earth Hour website. You don’t have to be in one of the 24 cities to show your support.

Not sure what I’ll be doing yet. I think another candle lit dinner with my family.

What are you planning? Or what did you do for Earth Hour?

I love beer, especially now that I am pregnant and shouldn’t drink it

My husband brews a pretty good drop from our garage, which usually comes top of my list for taste.

But now there’s a new beer I’d like to try (when I can) and that’s Cascade Green, which Cascade claims is 100% carbon offset.

What does this mean? Well according to the Cascade brewery, all remaining greenhouse gas emissions from the beer are offset from the moment the company sources its hops to when the beer bottles are placed in recycling bins.

Cascade also says that it uses bio-degradable vegetable oil based inks in the beer’s packaging, and the carton is 100% recyclable.

Have you tried this beer? Let me know what you think.

Another good news solar story from Adelaide.

Work has finally begun on installing solar panels to Adelaide airport’s roof, producing the second-largest rooftop solar plant in Australia.

The panels will be attached to the airport’s Terminal roof 1, and will generate 160 megawatt hours of electricity a year, equivalent to the average electricity consumption of 30 houses. Read the full story on the Adelaide Now website.

Adelaide is one of my favourite Australian cities and recently I was lucky enough to travel there for a good friend’s wedding.

There are a lot of things I like about this city - good food and wine come top of mind plus a free city bus, but it also seems to be implementing some fantastic initiatives with solar energy.

One such initiative is the world’s first solar electric bus (also for free), which I saw driving around the city centre.

Yes, you heard it right -  world first!

Aptly named the Tindo (Kaurna Aboriginal name for sun), the bus is recharged using 100% solar energy. It also doesn’t have a combustion engine, which makes it a very quiet, zero emissions and carbon neutral vehicle.

It’s air-conditioned and can carry up to 42 passengers.

So if you are in Adelaide and you see a bright green bus called Tindo driving around, get on to check it out. Unfortunately, while I was in the city I kept missing it so I would love to hear what you think.