9. get shower timer and use it

A dry creek bed near our house.

I've been reading about water in South Australia. As a state South Australia is often touted as "The driest state in the driest country in the world". As such, Adelaide is heavily dependent on the River Murray for our water needs. With lower rainfall in many catchments, including the Murray-Darling, and increased demand from farming and domestic water users, our state's water use is far from sustainable. Meanwhile the aquifer under us is, in some parts of the state, running dry while others have to deal with rising salt. Mining requires a huge percentage of this. There are plans for a desalination plant to clean seawater but that's at least four years off and has many environmental and social impacts.

Help me! I am a giant Australian Cuttlefish! (image from here)

While it will supply domestic users, the desalination plant is basically being made to keep the world's largest uranium mine in water. The environmental impacts have been sidelined and South Australia is in danger of making a big mistake.

Cass sending a letter to the Mike Rann about uranium mining.

Stormwater recycling is an under-examined option with a great deal of potential. On the domestic front, we're interested in grey water systems and rain harvesting and storage tanks. As we are renting this gets a little more tricky but not impossible. Inspired by Cass' defacto sister-in-law Em, we've done some rain water harvesting into a spare green wheelie bin in the last few big rains we've had. Em is the executive director of Riversides, a Torontonian water conservation NGO.


This is a picture of Em impersonating a kangaroo on her recent visit to Adelaide.

It was taken on the rooftop garden at Christie Walk, Adelaide's inner city eco-housing community. When she and Cass' brother Chris were here we got all fired up to build a mudbrick rain water tank but time only permitted us to wheel a green bin into position under the overflow from our shared backyard neighbour/housemates Anna and Lily's gutter. If you do have the dosh to get something done right rebates are available, and it's not too expensive.


Our system isn't the most glamorous in the land but it works.

Another lo-fi watering measure is to place a hole in the lid of a bottle and put it upside down in the soil at the base of a tree. That way the tree gets water all day long.

A hole in the lid

This is great for plants that are establishing themselves as it gives a good steady supply. I got the idea from the bottles near the meeting the other day.

Also good for plants in recovery, the lemon tree's leaves are getting greener by the day.

Alison giving us some info.

The Water Wise Communities initiative which Cass' sister Alison put us onto seems like a good place to take some action. She saw number 9 on our list and said there are Water Wise kits available which include a shower timer. As our council is not yet on board with this we are going to try to get one from someone in another council area. I'll post an update with a bit more when we can get our hands on one. The pack will be most useful but till we get it we'll just have to rely on being late to give us the incentive for short showers.


Water wise communities


We've sent them an email and stopped round.

And finally here's something a little bit educational. The game is very cute.
Savewater.com.au

1. Weed tea

Sorry to all the stoners out there, this isn't what you thought.
If there is one thing that grows in any garden it's weeds and our garden is no exception. Weed tea is a way of making a high nutrient liquid fertiliser. It takes about 6 weeks but we got the process rolling today. It makes a great fertiliser and renders the weeds compostable.

If you want to do it too you will need a big container, tub or other water-holding vessel, a flowerpot and a big lot of weeds. The flowerpot acts as a big tea bag that can go into the compost after it's all brewed.

We used an old record crate and a flower pot that seemed designed to fit perfectly.

Like this.

Pack the offending plant matter in tightly.

For tufty grass cut off the roots so they can't feed the stems.

Add some water till it's all covered.

Cover the whole lot so no light gets in and let it brew for 5 or 6 weeks.

The other reason I wanted to clear out the weeds was to give our poor lemon tree a chance. It was being choked by cooch grass and so getting little to no water. The leaves were turning a distressing shade of yellow and falling off.

Before

After

Now the tree can get a drink it should start to bounce back. Hopefully the compost and mulch I added will help too. Cass and I got an old bath some time ago and turned it into a garden bed. We put a small aquaduct made of roof tiles from the plug hole to drain the bed and to give more water to the lemon tree.


Watering the bed


Aquaduct

The Gardening Australia Fact Sheet.

21. go for bush walk

Cass, Maja, Suzana and I went for a bush walk today, up from Waterfall Gully to Mt. Lofty and back again. I love the hills. From the heavily manicured European styled part just near the waterfall you go straight into a stringy bark bushland. The wild flowers that fringed the paths were delicate and pretty. The trees were filled with the twitter and gab of birds and the sky was full of shifting clouds. Here and there you can see a blackened stump from a bushfire. The ferns in the understory are so green in the gully but you can tell this is a dry land forest. Some of the trees are very old and grand.


Cass gets support from an old friend.

It was a fine day to walk up hills as evidenced by the huge number of people out and about on the walk today. As we were climbing up we saw a lot of people running down. Running down, as we found out, was not the problem. With the momentum you got from each step it was hard not to run. It was the people who ran up the hills I admire. People were not the only creatures we met today. Skinks crossed the path from time to time and we were accompanied by beautiful dusky orange butterflies. Insects were in abundance and a passing man saw a small dark brown snake hurry into the bushes.


Here's a bug we met.

On the way back down I rolled my ankle twice. I've got rather bad ankles form an old injury or two and the track was very dry and dusty, very easy to slip or roll. I spent the last part of the walk leaning on Cassie and trying not to do it again. I think I need to invest in some hiking shoes. I've also been told about ankle straps that support the ankle and stop it from turning in a bad way.


Ouch! but there always seems to be a bench nearby.

The way we went is crossed by the Heysen Trail. The Heysen Trail goes from Cape Jervis on the Fleurieu Peninsula to Parachilna Gorge in the Flinders Ranges, 1200ks. I think it may be on a future list of things to do.
Here's the Heysen Trail web site