A short while ago Donna left a comment asking about tips to get the family grocery bill down. Making your own laundry soap is a great way to save a lot of money!

The recipe we’ve been using is very simple:

• 1 cup Lux flakes or 1 bar grated Sunlight soap
• 1/2 cup borax
• 1/2 cup washing soda
• 10 litres water

Add the Lux flakes (or grated soap) to 1.5 litres of water in a saucepan. Warm over a medium heat until the soap is dissolved. Add the Borax and washing soda, continue stirring until dissolved and mixture is just starting to thicken. Pour liquid into a large container or bucket, and add water to top up to 10 litres. Leave to cool and set into a gel, then store with a lid on top.

It only takes about 10 minutes, and gives you 10 litres of clothes washing gel for under $2. Compare that to 10 litres of shop-bought laundry liquid!

To use, simply scoop out a small amount (about 1/4 cup – or just use an old washing powder scoop), mix it with a little hot water to dissolve, then add it to your washing machine and wash with cold water.

After a few days the gel may separate (a bit like a custard left in the fridge!). This is fine – just mix it up with an egg-whisk until it’s nicely blended again.

If you want to get all fancy, you can experiment with adding essential oils to the gel mix to give it more of a fragrance. Or even better, just add a drop or two of the oil to the machine as the wash cycle starts – this way you can use different fragrances for different loads. Some people like to use a soothing oil like lavender for bedsheets, and a more invigorating oil like citrus for sports clothes. Tea tree oil and eucalyptus oil have antibacterial properties that are supposed to help with hard-to-shift odours.

To help shift stains, rub a bit of the gel into the stain before the wash.

If you prefer a powder to a liquid, you can mix soap flakes, borax and washing soda in the same quantities as above but without the water, and store in an airtight container. Shake well before each use, and add 2 tablespoons per wash.

Another great tip is to use normal white vinegar as a fabric softener. You won’t smell it on the clothes, but it will leave them nice and soft. And it’s cheap – 2 litres costs less than $2 and lasts many loads. I’ve also read that if you put your clothes through the dryer (What? You don’t use the sun to dry your clothes?!) the vinegar helps reduce static cling, meaning you don’t need to use dryer sheets.

I’ve read that using soap like this in a washing machine can lead to a build-up of soap residue. To prevent this, you can run the occasional wash with a commercial laundry detergent to break down the residue. If you’re using vinegar as a fabric softener, though, you won’t even need to do this!

The “Kev’s Patch” campaign is gaining momentum! I’ve teamed up with a couple of other bloggers (Gavin from The Greening of Gavin and Julie from Go Greener Australia) to set up a new site promoting the initiative – the Kev’s Patch blog.

I love that header image above that Julie did for us!

If you think it’s a good idea for our PM to start a vegie patch at The Lodge, please help us publicise the site. We’re hoping to have some small promotional graphics soon that supporters can put in the sidebar of their blogs.

While putting together notes for my talks over the weekend, I noticed something interesting. The amount of electricity we saved each day by converting 10 halogen downlights to CFLs (4 kWh) is about equal to the amount of electricity we are generating each day (on average) since installing a 1 kW grid-connect solar power system.

The difference is, the 10x GU10 conversion kits and CFL lamps cost us about $120, whereas the solar power system, after government rebates ($8000) and renewable energy certificates (RECs) (~$1500), cost us $2675.

Similarly, replacing our clunky old second fridge with a chest fridge cost $140, and saves us about 2 kWh per day.

In most cases it’s way, way cheaper to reduce your power consumption than it is to generate the equivalent amount of additional power.

And that’s why people living off-grid, generating their own power, are happy to pay big bucks for super-efficient appliances like the Vestfrost range of fridges and freezers.

I spoke at the launch of the Sustainable Illawarra Super Challenge Round 2 today at the Dapto Ribbonwood Center. Sorry guys if I rambled too much .

It was a great session, with beautiful food and lots of local families to meet. I was pleased to see a nice strong Kiama contingent! It was great to see lots of young families involved too. Once again backyard vegie gardens came out on top as the most popular goal households had set.

Now we just have to get Mr Rudd onboard.

Yesterday’s Kiama Library Living Book session went really well too. I was ‘read’ by about half a dozen people, and we had some really good conversations about what we’ve done to become more sustainable and what the ‘readers’ were thinking of doing.

If I spoke to you this weekend, chances are I sent you to this web site for more detailed information about something. To make it easier to find, here are some of the most common things people asked about:

• chest fridge conversion
• converting halogen downlights to CFLs
• plug-in power meter review
• Kiama FutureCare launch
• our rooftop solar electricity panels
• solar hot water
• wicking beds and wicking boxes
• make your own tumbling compost bin
• 5 things to cook with lilli pillis
• feral peach filo pastries
• green manure crops
• growing potatoes in the front yard
• growing mushrooms under the house
• aquaponics in Gerringong
• chicken ark plans
• where to buy chickens in the Illawarra
• Sydney Water “love your garden” service
• the “Kev’s Patch” campaign
• Australian rebate information
• Illawarra green directory
• backyard escargot

Whew! I’m sure there’s something in there for everybody.

Feel free to ask questions in the comments!

Tomorrow morning, Kiama Library will be holding a Living Books session with World Environment Day as the theme, and I’m going to be one of the “books”! You may have heard me on ABC radio this morning promoting the event .

This is an exciting new project which provides the opportunity for you to meet someone with an unusual occupation or lifestyle, or from a different social, religious or ethnic background, in the congenial atmosphere of the library building.

Readers sign up for a half-hour session with a living book (no need to pre-register, just come along on the day). They then sit down with that person and ask questions, chat, and learn more about their story and what they have to share.

Books that will be available on the day include:

• A Lifetime of Lantana
• Bale Tales (straw bale building)
• Envirovolunteering!
• Environmentalist/Vegetable Grower
• Green Girl
• One Family’s Green Change (that’s me!)
• Slow Down (Slow Food Movement)
• Streamwater (Streamwatch volunteer)
• Sustainable Dairy Farming in Kiama Region
• Valuing Land (all about Voluntary Conservation Agreements)
• WIRES (Wildlife Information Rescue and Education Service)
• Your Planet Needs You (a travelling dancer’s omnibus)

The idea of a Living Library came from a concept developed by the Danish youth Non Government Organisation “Stop the Violence” in 2000 to counter racism and discrimination in their community. The original inspiration was: “Meet your own prejudice” literally. Their Living Library operated at large music festivals and invited people who were suffering discrimination and prejudice to be ‘living books’ and sit down with a ‘reader’ who could ask questions about all aspects of their life.

While we’re on the topic of self-promotion, I’m also going to be speaking at the launch of the Sustainable Illawarra Super Challenge Round 2 on Sunday.

What a great night Friday night was, with the official launch of Kiama FutureCare.

A little over 60 people attended as the Mayor of Kiama, Sandra McCarthy, spoke about climate change, about what the Council has done and continues to do, and about the role that grass-roots community groups like Jamberoo FutureCare and Kiama FutureCare can play in the challenges ahead. Also in attendance from Council were our Deputy Mayor, Ben van der Wijngaart (who arrived on his new electric motorbike!), and Councillor Monique Dare-Ward.

It was great talking to the 11 eco businesses that had display tables on the night – I especially enjoyed meeting Chrissy and Simon from Eco Manifesto, who I’ve chatted with several times via email but never met in person.

The workshop session ran smoothly, and I think we’ll have a ton of project ideas to consider for the next year (at least!). The Sebel Harbourside was a fantastic location, and they must be thanked for providing us the room free of charge. It’s really gratifying that businesses like that are willing to help out small community groups.

A brief write-up has already been posted on the Topix web site.

If you live in the Kiama area, don’t forget to come to the launch of Kiama FutureCare tonight!

If you’re interested in being part of the group, we’d love to meet you and get your details.

We know that not everyone has the time to commit to joining every group they’re interested in. That’s OK. But if you can spare the time to come along to this free launch event, we’d love to hear your ideas for projects we might be able to undertake in the local area.

The event will be held in the Sebel Harbourside, Kiama (the old Infants’ School down near Black Beach). Head out the back to the older section, behind the restaurant building.

See you there!

My article on hand pollinating zucchini flowers proved very popular, so I figured I’d post another on hand pollinating pumpkin and squash. It’s pretty much the same principle, but I had the photos so I thought it worth posting.

As for the zucchinis, if pumpkin and squash flowers don’t get pollinated they’ll just rot and drop off the vine. And for some reason, the bees just didn’t seem to be pollinating them this year so I’ve had to do it myself.

Pumpkin and squash flowers are a lot like zucchini flowers, but here are some photos as a refresher. These photos are all of my butternut pumpkins (I think Americans and Canadians call them butternut squash?). Click on them to see larger versions.

You don’t need to get fancy with paintbrushes or cotton swaps to transfer the pollen from the male flower to the female. Just pick the male flower, peel back the petals, and use it like a paintbrush:

If you do this each morning, it won’t be long until you’ve got a healthy crop of pollinated fruit growing!

If you intend to save seed from your pumpkins or squash, it’s a good idea to take some extra precautions to ensure you get a pure pollination and not a cross. Take some masking tape out in the afternoon, and put tape around the ends of the male and female flowers that are ready to open the next day (after a while you’ll be able to spot them). The next morning, remove the tape and pollinate the female flowers, then tape them up again. This ensures that you have complete control over what pollen goes into which flower, and the bees don’t get a chance to muck up your plans.

Have you heard about the organic kitchen garden that the Obamas have set up on the White House lawn in the US?

Wouldn’t it be great if our Prime Minister did something similar?

Peter Cundall and Stephanie Alexander think so, and have both called for Mr Rudd to start a vegie patch. So far nothing is happening, though.

If you think this is a good idea, please join the push and help make Kev’s Patch a reality!

My friend DiscoPig is getting a new vegetable garden started on the common area in the block of flats where he lives, along with a few of the other residents. He liked my DIY tumbling compost bin, so we set out to find some suitable plastic barrels.

This proved to be harder than I expected. Last time I looked (8 years ago!) you could get drums from pet feed stores, country stores, etc. Most of them no longer seem to stock them.

A horse-owning friend at work mentioned to us that horse-people get drums for feed from Drum Master Wollongong (actually in York Road, Woonona). A quick web search and we found their details.

It can be a little tricky to find Drum Master, with the construction work going on for the Northern Distributor. This map should help – they’re on the opposite side of the green-roofed building to the four rust-coloured tanks.

Give them a ring on 0417-420-760 if you’re not sure.

They had 220 litre olive barrels for $25 each that were perfect for the job. We ended up buying two each – perhaps a little overkill, but they just looked so damn useful!

Remember, if you’re storing water or compost in these drums, you really need to make sure they haven’t been used for any nasty chemicals. Check first!