By far the best Christmas present we got this year was our planter from Mark’s parents. It is called a four layer stacking garden and is perfect for growing plants in small spaces. In our case we have filled it with herbs and tomatoes. As soon as we returned from holidays we went to Northey Street City Farm to pick up some organic seedlings. We bought two types of cherry tomatoes, italian parsley, mint, bush and sweet basil, thyme, aloe vera, citronella (to help control the mossies), lemon grass, chili and rosemary. When we were visiting my aunt we also picked up a few cuttings and seedlings from her abundant garden including tumeric and another variety of citronella. Continue reading…

Since our last update we have been enjoying making our new home more green and trying out some of the great environmental initiatives here in Brisbane. Although we don’t have a backyard we just couldn’t bear throwing our scraps in the rubbish bin any longer so we have gone ahead and bought a Bokashi bin. A Bokashi bin is like a compost bin except that instead of decomposing your waste it ferments it using anaerobic bacteria. This is great for flats because it doesn’t smell. The QLD government is currently offering a 50% rebate for these bins along with a $200 rebate on water efficient appliances, so we have applied for both of these (we bought a water-efficient washer last month). So now with our recycling and our compost bins we will produce very little landfill waste. Through its fermentation process, the Bokashi bin also creates a great liquid plant food which we will use to get our herb garden up and running. We are hoping to give the solid waste it creates to a local farmer who we have been put in touch with through Food Connect. Continue reading…