Eco interviews

COSTA'S SYDNEY GARDEN ODYSSEY

Bondi's bearded Adonis gives Time Out five ideas to flower imaginations this summer

 
Start a Worm Farm
Why have a dog when you can have a thousand worms? Starting a worm farm means you can recycle your kitchen waste (worms will eat their bodyweight every day!) and produce great plant food full of rich nutrients in the form of the worm's pooh!

Tip: Flood the worm farm once a week and dilute the worm tea for organic lifter!

Dabble in Compost
To have a healthy garden you need healthy soil. But creating perfect compost is like baking a cake. You can throw together leaves, grass clippings, kitchen green waste and soil but you can't just ‘set and forget' compost, you've got to observe and engage with it.

Tip: Smelly compost? Add coarse material. Not heating up? Pee on it (for the nitrogen!)

Seed a Sunflower
Sydney loves Sunflowers almost as much as me. Why? They grow so big and they smile! Sunflowers go gangbusters because they bend every which way to chase the sun. Plant one today and in 100 days you'll have a happy face at home (and 1000 seed babies too)

Tip: Sprinkle ‘em along your front fence and you'll spread Sunflower love to the street.

Plant Tomatoes
My little goddaughter and I planted three pots of cherry tomatoes this time last year and from December to May, we never paid for a single tomato! Pot some seedlings today, don't over-water, grow ‘em up a stake or across lattice and watch for yellow flowers!

Tip: Pair tomato plants with pretty marigolds as companions - they're insect deterrents!

Create a Cocktail Garden
What could be better in a Sydney summer than mint, lemon and lime on tap for cocktails? You can buy mini-trees called Lotsa Lemons or even get a double graft of varieties - lemon and lime, mandarin and orange, May and Eureka. A "splits-er" for your spritzer!

Tip: Mint will grow anywhere there's water, even in a foam box under a dripping tap.

A second season of Costa's Garden Odyssey will screen SBS in early 2010


COSTA'S WATER SAVING TIPS

Reduce your shower time to 4 minutes.
Install aerators or flow restrictors in all your taps.
Install a cistern weight, if you have an old single flush toilet.
Turn the tap off while brushing your teeth or shaving.
Keep bathwater to a minimum and divert to the garden if possible.
Don't wash your dishes under running water.
Only wash with a full load of clothes.
Make sure the dishwasher is full before turning it on.
Safely divert your washing machine water to your garden.
Repair leaking taps immediately.
Use alternative sources of water for garden, mulch and wetting agents.


ECO WARRIOR: TIM FLANNERY

He's a hero for the environment unafraid of saying what's on his mind. Listen up!

What role can Australia play in setting the agenda on climate change? We could lead the world if we chose to. The question is what role do we want to play? I worry Kevin Rudd is too cautious in his approach to climate change. Leadership in the absence of complete knowledge is hard. It takes a real hero to do that.

What impact will a desalinisation plant have on Sydney's water crisis? Water prices will be far higher than necessary, and there'll be greater greenhouse gas emissions. We should have built a small plant as an insurance policy, and hoped never to run it.

What is the most prevalent misunderstanding people have on climate change? That it is their children's problem. I greatly fear that we'll be seeing very serious global changes in a decade or so.

You've been accused of misanthropy.Is ithard to be sympathetic about people? No. People are Gaia's intelligence; her most wondrous production. We need to rise to our own potential greatness, and I get disappointed when instead we squabble in the mud.

What should every Sydney household be doing to guard our environment? Getting to know their country, and world. I mean really getting to know and understand it and how it works. How many Sydneysiders know how many plant species are found only in their precious sandstone environment? How many have seen a hanging dick? (If you don't know what that is, google Origma solitaria).

What green tips can we learn from the Eora, the original Sydneysiders? To the Eora, some of whom were known as Kadigal – the people of Kadi, Sydney Harbour - the water is sacred. Where does the lawn fertiliser you put on the grass go when it rains? And the contents of your toilet bowl?

What were the biggest mistakes of Sydney's first settlers? Believing that we've boundless plains to share. They weren't just our plains and they weren't boundless.

What Sydney sites represent the perfect equilibrium between mankind and nature? North Head. It's the last home of the bandicoot and penguin in the Harbour area.

Who are the great eco heroes working in Sydney today? Jeff Angel, and 10,000 unsung heroes who weed the bush, walk in it and admire its blooms.

What books would you recommend to Sydneysiders wishing to understand their city and its environmental history? Watkin Tench's diary, A Narrative of the Expedition to Botany Bay, and my The Birth of Sydney.

You've borrowed Doc Brown's DeLorean. Where do you go? Back to the 25th January 1788. I'd love to know what Sydney was like the day before.

Interview by Dan Rookwood

TIM FLANNERY'S CLIMATE CHANGE CHECKLIST

Action Change to an accredited Green Power option
Impact Eliminate household emissions from electricity

Action Install solar hot water system
Impact Up to 30% reduction in household emissions

Action Install solar panels
Impact Eliminate house4hold emissions from electricity

Action Use energy-efficient whitegoods
Impact Up to 50% reduction in household emissions from electricity

Action Use triple-A rated shower-head
Impact Up to 12% reduction in household emissions

Action Use energy-efficient light globes
Impact Up to 10% reduction in household emissions

Action Check fuel efficency of next car
Impact Up to 70% reduction in transport emissions

Action Check fuel efficiency of next car
Impact Up to 70% reduction in transport emissions

Action Walk, cycle or take public transport
Impact Can reduce transport emissions

Action Calculate carbon footprint
Impact Can eliminate transport and household emissions

Action Suggest a workplace audit
Impact Up to 30% reduction in emissions

Action Write to a politician about climate change
Impact Can change the world

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