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.

I hope all you mothers out there had a great Mother’s Day. I started my morning with pancakes and coffee – thanks to my husband and son.

The rest of the morning was spent with my feet up watching my Mother’s Day present – the Gardening Australia DVD on waterwise gardening.

It’s a collection of segments from the show that feature saving water in the garden. If you’re a Gardening Australia fan like me, and into saving water, then you’ll love this DVD.

It shows how you can still have a great garden but without the need for loads of water. The DVD features some great waterwise gardens in Australia, useful tips on drought proofing plus which plants look great in the garden but need little water.

A great 92 minutes worth of entertainment, and an excellent way to start Mother’s Day.

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…

Aquaponics is one thing I haven’t thought about venturing into. I always thought setting up an aquaponics system looked too labour intensive, and it needed a lot of water. Plus I love the smell and touch of soil, and all the little critters that good, healthy dirt brings.

However, through Greenfoot I have been in contact with a few people who run their own backyard aquaponics systems and, once set up, they assure me aquaponics is less labour intensive and uses very little extra water.

It’s also the symbiotic nature of such a system that I find quite fascinating. (more…)

The Australian Rainwater Industry Development group (ARID) has released its 2008 Rainwater guide. It provides information and tips about rainwater products, government rebates and regulations for new homes.

You can buy the guide in selected news agencies around Australia or download it from ARID’s website. It will also be available in the March issue of Better Homes and Gardens magazine.

Welcome back to 2008. I hope you all had a good break over the Christmas/New Year period. So far this year (and the last few months of 2007) has been great for our garden. Sydney has had so much rain.

My garden is thriving. Our space saver pumpkins have taken off as well as my cherry tomatoes, rhubarb, rocket, herbs, jalapeno peppers, sunflowers, carrots and leeks. My fruit trees are also looking pretty good - mandarin, lime, lemon, bush lime, fig, mango, olive, avocado, mulberry and guava. Although my chocolate sapote got an attack of black soot and never quite recovered.

The rain has also been extra kind to our lawn. I know lawns get a bad rap these days but we put a small patch in during spring. It replaced a very weedy section of our garden and some broken pavers. Originally we wanted to grow a native grass but couldn’t find one that resembled a tough lawn that could deal with a lot of wear and tear.

We chose Sir Walter, which claims to be a hardy, shade and sun tolerant variety of grass, as well as being very water wise. The excessive amounts of rain means that the grass is now well established and thriving, without us having to use the hose. Although, sometimes I put the grey water run off from our washing machine on to the lawn.

Although I would have loved to turn the lawned area into vegetable patches, we decided to lawn it for our son. He really needed somewhere to play outside and the lawn has really done the trick. No more scraped knees on the pavement as he slides down his slippery slide ;-0.

The other thing I love about the lawn is the constant supply of mulch I have. I thin layer of grass clippings over the garden beds really helps suppress weeds plus reduce water evaporation from the soil. I don’t have to buy sugar cane mulch anymore. The clippings also heat up quickly in my compost bins, which helps everything to quickly break down.

Did anyone get to Sustainable House Day? If so let me know how it went. Last year I was in Canberra and managed to check out two great homes that used solar energy really wisely.

Unfortunately, I missed it this year because I have gone back to university so had to spend the day inside studying.

Oh well, ¦there is always next year.

One of the recent projects I’ve been involved with at work is helping the climate campaigners create their own blog. So it seems fitting to point out their latest post about the Labor party intending to phase out electric hot water systems over the next five years.

Labor says that if it wins power it will phase out energy-intensive electric hot water systems, which use almost one-third of households’ energy consumption. These systems will be replaced by solar, gas or heat-pump systems.

Labor also says it plans to keep the $1000 Federal Government rebate to help household costs when switching from electric to solar and heat-pump hot water systems.

To celebrate 100 issues of ReNew magazine, the Alternative Technology Association is holding free sustainable house open days. The houses will be open this weekend across Australia.

Last year I checked out a few houses in Canberra during Sustainable House Day which gave me loads of ideas and inspiration for my own home. You have to pay to enter the houses during Sustainable House Day so this free event is a great opportunity to get inspired by people who are living the “sustainable dream”.

The weird thing is I will be in Canberra again this weekend so if I get time I will try and check out the house in Mawson. If you are in Sydney, you can visit Michael Mobbs’ house in Chippendale, which was one of the first sustainable houses in the city. Bummer I will miss that one.

Thanks to Jerry over at the Sustainable House in Brisbane, I’ve learnt that the Total Environment Centre has released its Safer Solutions website, which aims to help people keep their homes healthy and green.

The site has loads of information about topics such as reducing hazardous chemicals in your home, organic gardening, and greener ways to renovate your home and loads more. Check it out for more information.