Earth Hour

I'm not sure if you've heard any of the hype around Earth Hour, but its an amazing initiative by the World Wide Fund, encouraging every individual, business and community to take a stand against Climate Change. To show your support, you need to sign up and commit to switching off your lights for one hour on Saturday, March 28th at 8:30pm.

It started in Sydney, in 2007, and had around 2 million people coming together to switch off their lights for one hour for this vital cause.

In 2008, that number grew to about 50 million. Global landmarks like Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, Rome’s Colosseum and the Coca Cola billboard in Times Square, all switched off in support of Earth Hour.

This year, 2009, Earth Hour will see the lights go out on some of the most recognised attractions on the planet, including Cape Town’s Table Mountain, Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro, Merlion in Singapore, Sydney Opera House, the iconic 6-star hotel, the Burj al Arab, in Dubai, Millennium Stadium in Cardiff and the world’s tallest constructed building, the Taipei 101.

Earth Hour 2009 has one major aim: to unite the citizens of the world in the fight against climate change in order to convince governments and world leaders that our planet cannot wait any longer. There simply isn’t enough time, and therefore 2009 is a colossally important, if not the most critical year, to take action on climate change.

Click here to join.

Topical Tropical

I've heard it said that you can tell a lot about a person by the business they run. A visit to Tropical Nursery in Sherwood (a suburb of Durban), is quite an informative experience, and reveals a lot about the amiable owner - Frank Edwards.

Tropical is always well stocked with the usual plants, pots and nursery-ware. But it's the fact that you can find some quite unique and interesting plants that sheds some light on who Frank is.
The main clue though, as to his eccentricities - are the poems, sayings and garden/life wisdom that are scattered around the nursery. Look out for the city of Gondolin built around a water feature in the middle of the nursery.

To top it all off (literally), Frank's home is a tree house at the top of a beautiful Acacia growing in the heart of his nursery. He is something of a bohemian character to say the least.

But Frank is also leading the way in sustainable living. In attempting to lessen his environmental impact, he has installed a solar geyser for hot water, a worm farm to deal with some of his kitchen waste, and the latest project is an electricity generating wind turbine.

Paula Osborn from Inkanyiso Sustainable Systems - the company that installed the wind turbine says that the plan is to create sufficient energy to run Frank's home and office, and possibly even feed back into the grid.

At this point in time, there is little in the way of financial encouragement from the government, or municipality to make it worth the investment in the equipment necessary. The only pay-off being the self satisfaction in doing what you can for the environment around you.

Going off-grid (creating all your own electricity using 'green' energy) has become quite vogue in environmental circles, but feeding back into the grid is one step better - Germany is one of the countries that has been leading the way for quite some time. An article on Wikipedia states that: "In 2005, 10 per cent of electricity in Germany came from renewable sources and 70 per cent of this was supported with feed-in tariffs."

Apart from trying to educate the public, Paula is working on a few other projects - A Community Gardening program, to make growing beds of vegetables easier for the average person, and experimenting with several different vermiculture methods. She also sells worms for any budding vermiculturists out there?

If you are in the area, and have time these holidays - take a trip to Tropical Nursery, and spend some time looking around - you'll come away a little wiser!

Garden Coaching & The 2nd Law of Thermodynamics

In very basic terms, the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics (or the Law of Entropy) says: "That everything tends towards a state of decay." That's probably a little too simply put, and its also probably a bit of a stretch to try to apply a law of physics to gardening, but here goes...

Looking at gardens over the last few years, I can see a definite pattern forming, of:

• initial energy and enthusiasm in the planting of a new garden,
• a tapering off of the enthusiasm,
  
• the garden starts to become neglected,
• its then left to people with very little knowledge of gardening or the care of gardens,
• the garden begins to decay
  

Its definitely a symptom, (of something I can't quite put my finger on) of the way we live our lives today - that we have a lot of energy for new ideas and projects, but lack the long term commitment needed to keep nurturing them.

When I look around at the gardens all around me, the majority just seem to be in a slow state of decay. This might be a bit of a glass-half-empty mindset, but the frustrating thing is that I can see these gardens as they are, but in my minds eye, I can see what they could be with a little bit of knowledge and focussed energy.

Another aspect of the Law of Entropy is that without any outside energy acting on a system, it will tend towards chaos.

But maybe a change is on the gardening horizon. Garden Coaching is a new idea that seems to be catching on as a way of learning about gardening from gardeners that have the experience and passion, and want to share some of their enthusiasm. Hopefully this will create the kind of 'outside energy' that we need to bring gardens out of the chaos that they're tending towards.

What is a Garden Coach?

Garden Coaches are experienced, passionate gardeners who give consultations to first-time gardeners, and to those with a little more experience that might just want a second opinion.
They’ll give practical advice, help you identify your plants, give you design ideas or show you how to look after your garden properly.

I am hoping that Garden Coaching goes right past being the latest trend, and really catches on as a positive influence on the average garden, and practical help for the novice gardener.

For more information on Garden Coaching check out The Garden Coaching Blog.

Green Spaces - D'MOSS

I've been working across the road from a reserve called Pigeon Valley Nature Reserve. Its a little breath of fresh air (literally) in the middle of the Berea (a suburb of Durban). Its part of a bigger picture of parks, open spaces, recreational areas and green corridors.

These all link together to create an environment that helps to preserve the city's ecological diversity, by creating corridors through which plants and animals can move through the city. It also helps keep our surroundings beautiful and green.

The planning of the Durban Metropolitan Open Space System (D'MOSS) began as far back as 1979, and has developed and transformed through quite significant political, social, economic and environmental changes in this country.
It has come under significant pressure in a country where housing, land ownership and land use is quite a strongly debated issue. But its value can't be underestimated - the savings to the city are conservatively estimated at about R2.24 billion (294 million USD). This is apart from the role that D'MOSS plays in providing clean air, fresh water, protected soil cover, protection from exposure to light, noise, heat, and flood attenuation.

It was quite a forward-thinking project when it was initiated, but I think the true positive effects of it will really only be fully appreciated decades from now.

Green Roofs

I stay on the top floor of a block of flats, and lately with the temperatures reaching 30-36 degrees Celsius, it has been really hot inside.

As the temperatures go up, on go the air-conditioners to try to keep us cool.

But what with the recent Eskom power failures and the need to reduce the amount of electricity used, I was thinking about how a country like South Africa could really benefit from using plants for insulation on roofs - "Green Roofs."

Provided its done properly, the savings on cooling and heating costs could be quite considerable.
The soil, and plant material act as a far more efficient method of insulation, keeping you cool in summer and warm in winter.

Other benefits of Green Roofs include:

1. It could reduce the amount of surface water runoff
2. An effective water filtration system
   
3. Protection and extended life of the roofing membrane
   
4. Improves the air quality in and around the building
5. Green Roofs could improve the environment - attracting birds and butterflies
6. Makes for an attractive looking roof - especially when viewed from above
7. Harvesting of vegetables etc. for food
8. Sound insulation

Some other sites that talk about green roofs are Soekershof and Urban Habitats

A more detailed look at Green Roofs can be found here.