Supermarkets rely on mass market farming which takes a considerable amount of carbon emissions to get your food from farm to fork. We look through some of the most innovative Australian made garden products featured at the Home Show.
5 Composta
This nifty little device is an all-in-one composting worm farm plant pot. The set-up is easy and just requires some wriggly worms from a local supplier to go inside the central canister. When you’ve finished preparing food, simply take food scraps and throw it in the centre of this circular garden feature.
The soil and plants sit on the perimeter while the nutrient-rich material sinks and regularly feeds it. This takes an unnecessary step out of composting and streamlines the process of producing delicious fresh greens!
Did you know worms can eat… • Tea bags and coffee grounds • Tissues Vacuum cleaner dust • Human and pet hair • Paper and cardboard • Natural fibres such as cotton and wool • Animal manure
4 The Worm Shed
Everyone knows worms are good for gardening, but exactly why is a mystery for many. That’s why the good guys over at The Worm Shed are out to educate the world of their super abilities.
Rather than put all of this into the landfill, you could be using it to grow giant fresh food that would make your neighbour jealous! You can simply buy worm fertiliser or produce your own with a worm cafe – a house to accommodate 4000 worms (1kg) which can eat two or three times their body weight a day!
3 Aquaponics
Hydroponics is a word that is widely understood, but little is known about aquaponics – the ability to grow just about anything without soil, even fish… Overfishing is a huge problem for the world’s oceans causing unprecedented ecological damage. So the ability to produce your own fish and veg means you can have a guilt-free varied diet. Unless your vegan that is!
As with many new personal farming techniques, workshops and seminars are run to educate people on how this stuff works. In a nutshell, plants and fish live symbiotically; the fish excrement feeds the plants and the plants filters the water to go back into the fish tank.
2 Ecowater
Having a sewage treatment plant in your backyard is not an attractive proposition. But recycling all your wastewater into highly fertile water for your garden is. The Japanese made tank has no moving parts, makes no noise and produces no odour.
While this is perfect for areas with difficult plumbing, those looking to go completely off the grid or complete their zero carbon footprint will love the design.
1 Drought Resistant Plants
Most of us have experienced drought conditions where councils have enforced hosepipe bans to some degree. But what if your garden was naturally low maintenance to begin with? If you live in an area where water shortages are frequent, make your life easier by kitting out your garden patch with drought-resistant fauna.
That doesn’t mean cactus and tumbleweeds. You can have gems like lavender, aloe vera, banksia, echeveria and thyme to name a few. You’ll save countless hours of watering and hundreds of litres of water every year and won’t have to *sigh* every time they put out a public announcement.
Eco Town
Perth and Brisbane Home Shows are showcasing Eco Town, a utopian space demonstrating many of the products featured above to create a zero carbon footprint.
