Blog Articles

As vegetation is removed to make way for urban development, wild species experience a dramatic loss of habitat, making it more difficult for city dwellers to interact with wildlife. But how can you attract back those native bird species? Studies show a lack of connection to nature might lead to anxiety and depression for people in cities. Birds are among the most accessible and aesthetically attractive connection points. Hence, thriving bird communities in cities can have a positive effect on people’s health and wellbeing. Feeding birds is popular in Aotearoa. About half of New Zealand households feed birds in their gardens, predominately with bread ...

Following Costa's Guide to Composting , here are three rookie composting errors and how to avoid them: SAY NO TO RODENTS One of the biggest ways that people go wrong is placing too many food scraps into their bin, which is like nectar to rodents. The key thing is to get your ratio between carbon and nitrogen equal. If you can, it’s also a good idea to have two bins – depending on the season, you need eight to 10 weeks to make mature compost, which needs some time to sit and mature, so having a second bin allows you to keep adding scraps, while you let the other bin do the 'making and breaking' down. EXCESS H2O Adding too much water is another mistake! ...

Not sure what you can compost? Costa says anything that used to be trees can go in the compost bin, including newspaper, cardboard and paper cuttings. Follow his guide to make your compost! FIND THE RIGHT BIN “There are many different ways to create compost,” he says. “If you have space, you can have compost bays, but, in the city, compost bins work well to keep things nice and neat. It’s also a good idea to put bird mesh underneath the bins to keep things like rats out and so liquids can drain to nourish the soil and nearby plants.” LAYERING IS KEY “Once you have your bins, you need your materials to go inside : this needs to be a mixture of ‘browns’ ...

Across all horticultural industries there is an increased focus on installing smart technologies to improve production practices and increase sustainability. Selecting the right sensor can improve the control of your greenhouse’s microclimate by manipulating temperature, light intensity, and irrigation, thereby creating an optimal growing environment for your plants. A recent Greenhouse Technical Management training course facilitated by Graeme Smith Consulting and the Queensland Government’s Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (funded by Hort Innovation as part of the Gatton Smart Farms project) explored managing a greenhouse microclimate using the ...

Gold Coast City has been leading the way in ecological restoration with over 3,000 hectares of land restored over the last 21 years, equivalent to 6,000 football fields. This work has been undertaken by teams of skilled bush regenerators in over 300 projects, with assistance from community at more than 25 sites. “As our city grows in population, it’s crucial we remain dedicated to protecting our green and open space,” Mayor Tom Tate said. “Through our NaturallyGC Landcare program we’re restoring our natural environment one tree at a time and I thank every volunteer – all 3,000 of them – for their contribution.” The City of Queensland is responsible ...

As far as Pakistan is concerned, it is urbanising at the rate of 3.0 per cent annually which is the fastest pace of urban sprawl in the SoAuth Asian wing (Shuaib et al., 2018. The major contributing factors of urbanisation in Pakistan are internal migration (Farah et al. 2012). Pakistan is on the road to urbanisation at a tremendous speed endangering the sustainability of the succeeding generations by converting its fertile agricultural land into housing colonies and commercial enterprises. Most of the ongoing urbanisation is unplanned and irregular and it entirely depends on the will of the real estate developers. The government of Pakistan seems entirely ...

The Geelong region is home to picturesque coastal and country areas which form distinctive landscapes and habitats for people, plants and animals. Keeping these areas free of litter is important to everyone, and our region fortunately benefits from many active volunteer groups and organisations whose focus is keeping our natural areas litter free and healthy. Many residents volunteer their time to participate in clean-ups and citizen science projects which seek to understand the type and source of litter appearing along our coastline. Caring for our Bays Litter Hotspot Champions Volunteering their time to regularly monitor a coastal site. These volunteer ...

If you go walking along your local beach or open space you are likely to find cigarette butts. Although the majority of a cigarette is burnt away, the filter that is left is actually made of plastic. This means that every cigarette butt that is not ‘binned’ and left as litter, ends up washing down our streets, into drains and then our waterways where they eventually end up in Corio and Port Phillip Bay. These butts are easily mistaken for food by our marine wildlife, causing them serious harm. Butts are the most abundant litter item in the world and make up 50% of the Geelong regions litter. A local program called Caring For Our Bays (CFOB) works closely ...