Ecogarden
The key features of the EcoHouse garden are:
- A low water use indigenous plants garden that provides habitat
for native wildlife as well as floral displays and bushfoods
- Water recycling through the black and grey water treatment system
onto reed beds and then sub-surface irrigation to fruit trees
- A productive, deciduous pergola on the West side of the house.
This provides shade from the hot afternoon sun in summer and allows
the sun's heat to warm the western wall in winter
- A demonstration balcony garden, applicable to flat dwellers
- Outdoor meeting space
- Indigenous Wetland or "damp garden in the North West corner
of the building, that will cool the EcoHouse in summer
Bicycles and Bicycle Parking Facilities
Bicycles are environmentally sound for the following reasons:
- They don't add to polluted road run-off (which can contain dangerous
organic petrochemicals and heavy metals)
- They don't pollute the air, unlike many alternative methods
of transport.
- They take up minimal "hard surface", unlike the larger
options such as private cars
- They have a relatively low embodied energy, i.e. much less power
is used to produce a bicycle than a car
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Recycling Office Paper
The paper industry is one of the biggest consumers of native forest
wood- chips. The wood-chip industry employs few people living close
to forests yet are a major threat to forests eco-systems worldwide.
Individuals and corporation can minimize their use of wood chips
two ways:
- Low paper office and communications systems
- Recycled paper
The recycled paper that we found to be readily available, good
quality and printer friendly was "Canon 100 recycled paper".
Ecohouse Project Coordinator 2000-2003:
Peter Barker. Photo Zoe Hogg |
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