Green-Change.com

An Australian family trying to live a little greener

  • Garden Planning

    I’ve always wanted to sit down and draw up a proper plan for our garden, but we never seem to find the time. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy, like you’d expect from a professional landscaper. Just a quick sketch to help figure out what you can fit in, and where it’ll all go.…

  • Sustainable Illawarra Nov 2008 Event Calendar Available

    The [Sustainable Illawarra event calendar for November 2008](http://www.sustainableillawarra.com.au/pdf/SustainIllawarra_ActivitiesTableNOV08.pdf) is now available. There are some very cool sounding workshops, including cheesemaking, gardening, backyard chook-keeping and water wise gardening. Hopefully I’ll be able to get to a few!

  • Triple J Hack – Waste

    While we were at the Sustainable Illawarra Super Challenge launch last night, Ally (one of the Super Challenge coordinators) and her partner Richard were simultaneously appearing on Triple J’s Hack Half Hour on ABC2. The topic of the show was Waste. You can find the episode [here](http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/hackhalfhour/default.htm) (it’s episode 7, 3 Nov 2008), or download…

  • Sustainable Illawarra Super Challenge Launches!

    Last night was the official launch event of the [Sustainable Illawarra Super Challenge](http://www.sustainableillawarra.com.au/The-SuperChallenge.html), the programme that prompted the start of this blog. It was a great turnout, with most of the 120 or so families participating in the Challenge represented. I was excited to see a few familiar faces – people I hadn’t seen for…

  • Sydney Water “Love Your Garden” Review

    Yesterday we had our [Sydney Water “Love Your Garden”](http://www.sydneywater.com.au/SavingWater/InYourGarden/LoveYourGarden/) session. For $33, a qualified horticulturalist comes and inspects your garden and gives you advice on its watering needs. Our horticulturalist (let’s call her Linda) arrived bang on time. She was very friendly and knowledgeable, and understood right away where we were coming from. I explained…

  • Kiama Council Composting Workshop

    This afternoon I attended Kiama Council’s Composting Workshop, held at the Girl Guides’ Hall down in Hindmarsh Park. It was run by Josephine St John, council’s Waste Minimisation Officer. What a great event! I had really thought I wouldn’t learn much from this workshop, but I thought it was a good opportunity to meet some…

  • Opportunities

    I didn’t realise it until we signed up for the Sustainable Illawarra Super Challenge, but our local councils and other organisations put on quite a lot of free and low-cost workshops, talks, demonstrations, tours and other events. Just have a look at Sustainable Illawarra’s [What’s On](http://www.sustainableillawarra.com.au/Whats-On.html) page to get an idea. In the spirit of…

  • First Post!

    This is the start of our new blog, documenting our efforts to make our household more sustainable. The [Kiama](http://www.kiama.nsw.gov.au/), [Shellharbour](http://www.shellharbour.nsw.gov.au/) and [Wollongong](http://wollongong.nsw.gov.au/) councils have joined together to create the [Sustainable Illawarra](http://www.sustainableillawarra.com.au/) project. This project has funding from the [NSW State Government’s Environmental Trust](http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/grants/envtrust.htm), and aims to pool the three councils’ resources and knowledge to promote…