West Tamar Council: Here is a problem worth solving

Click Here ... To put this advertisement in context. the challenge is now out for an environmentally sustainable and aesthetically appropriate solution with community support

We trust that it will be possible for the Council 

make this an exemplar that sets the pace

TYREpots: An oldy but a goody

This pot was ‘inherited’ with a house purchase. Its a little amazing that someone with something like this – the owner or a tenant – didn’t value it enough to take with them. Nonetheless the new owners treasure it and its destined to be a talking point for some time yet. Well it’s made it to the internet as has the access to the DIY information.

• HOW2 #1:  Click Here 
• HOW2 #2: Click Here 
• HOW2 on YOUtube: Click Here 
• Tyres to Gold: Click Here 
• Pakistani Examples: Click Here 
• Columbian Pot Examples: Click Here 

Urban farming in Detroit

“Every year I’d tell myself it’s going to get better… and, sure enough, it didn’t get better.” – John Hantz – http://www.hantzfarmsdetroit.com/ ... John Hantz, a local resident and successful businessman, has been working since 2009 to develop the world’s largest urban farm in Detroit as a for-profit enterprise. Hantz wants to buy about 140 acres of city-owned land approximately six kilometres from the CBD, in order to plant thousands of hardwood trees. Hantz Farms claims they will improve the area by clearing overgrowth and rubbish and by demolishing abandoned houses which have fallen into disrepair – tasks which the city, facing possible bankruptcy, can little afford to do itself. Yet despite these contributions, persistent questions have been raised about whether the project is really about helping the community, beautifying the city, or simply generating personal wealth...  It remains to be seen if this is a vision that can help Detroit to address its challenges, and it certainly runs counter to some of the more collective, collaborative approaches proposed in recent years. Hantz himself is fine with this mix of methods; in his view, Detroiters “have so many opportunities with the issues we face that we could try every idea.” having recently approved his proposal, it seems Hantz will now get to test the idea he hopes will be a “game changer” for Detroit"... click here to read the entire article

AUTHORS: 

• Laura Crommelin PhD candidate, Faculty of Built Environment at University of New South Wales
• Christine Steinmetz Lecturer in Built Environment at University of New South Wales

Permaculture Research

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FLIES: There is good news and better news

Click Here:  for HOUSEfly BAD NEWS

Some dot points:

• The housefly is without doubt the most common, domestic flies around. They are the most distributed insect as they can be found world wide. Out of all flies that inhabit human habitats, the housefly makes up 91% of them.
• A female fly can lay a batch of between 75 to 151 eggs at any one time, while laying a maximum of around 500 eggs in her lifetime. 
• Within a day of the eggs having been laid, the eggs will Hatch into larvae or otherwise known as maggots. The now pale White maggots measure between 3 to 9 mm in length, have no legs and are thinner at the end where the mouth is. 
• The maggots will then thrive and feed on the likes of dead, decaying organic material, garbage and feces. 
• The maggots will grow through three instars' over the period of at least one week. 
• Once they have reached their third instar the maggots will find a dry and cool place to transform into a pupa. 
• As a pupa, they are a reddish or Brown colour measuring around 8 mm in length. Once the pupae have matured, and adult fly will emerge from the pupae. 
• As adult flies in the wild they will live between two weeks and month while in captivity such as in a laboratory they can live longer.
• A female fly will become receptive to mating in only 36 hours after emerging from its pupa stage. 
• Copulation will take very little time, a few seconds to possibly a couple of minutes. The female fly will normally store the sperm and mate only once using the sperm several times for several sets of eggs.

Click Here:  for HOUSEfly GOOD NEWS

• Jason Drew, author of The Story of the Fly and how it could save the World, believes that the insect, widely regarded as a pest, should be used to provide a protein-rich diet for chickens and fish.
• Mao Zedong's Great sparrow campaign also known as the Kill a sparrow campaign, and officially, the Four Pests campaign was one of the first actions taken in the Great Leap Forward from 1958 to 1962. The four pests to be eliminated were rats, flies, mosquitoes, and sparrows. The extermination of the last upset the ecological balance, and enabled crop-eating insects to proliferate. It turns out everything has an ECOLOGICALplace in the world –  even flies.
• China’s Worst Self-Inflicted Environmental Disaster an exemplar of ONEdimensional thinking.
• Black Soldier Fly Farming, arguably the next generation of composting, has a website dedicated to learning and teaching about what it takes to breed the black soldier fly. Researching the benefits of using black soldier fly's in waste avoidance, resource recovery, and waste management by developing, maintaining, and studying BSF farms and designs. All the research findings will be published on this website to be used as a free information source for anyone interested in learning more about these amazing insects. A key objective of this site is to use the findings to minimize the amount of damage we do to the environment in the future. AND here is the BLOG http://www.blacksoldierflyfarming.com/blog

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Guerilla gardening on Radio

Guerilla gardening on Radio .... click here

Out the back of a local nursery, a moveable garden is quietly taking shape under a wintery sun.

Stuart Muir Wilson has been busily preparing garden beds in wooden pallets and in used car tyres for installations around Launceston's streets as a part of Junction 2012.

The annual Winter arts festival is in its third year, beginning as a part of the biennial national Regional Arts conference ... click here to access the program

Stuart Muir Wilson Community Ecology Proposal

Community Ecology by Stuart Muir Wilson

‘Community Ecology’, by fourth year Master of Architecture [2011] student Stuart Muir Wilson, also proposed an integrated approach to addressing the recommendations of the ‘Hobart: A City with People in Mind’ report through intertwining ecology, functional transport and place-making within the heart of the CBD. The project intends to leverage the established sense of community at the Melville Street CBD Farmers Market through a series of community buildings, apartments and small commercial produce outlets to encourage people back into the city. The jury noted the inventiveness of integrating the vertical mixed-use solution with an ecological element and the holistically sustainable and logical solution of encouraging a positive form of 24 hour activity... click here to go to source

Hidden Hobart: People With a City in Mind was an ideas competition that called for submissions from Tasmania’s young designers for their visions for the future of the Hobart CBD based on themes from the Gehl Report. From the seventeen entries that were received, ten projects were chosen for a shop-front exhibition around the Hobart CBD that invited both members of the public and a panel of judges to each pick the project that they believed was the best vision for the city. This was an initiative of the Australian Institute of Architects with financial support from the Hobart City Council to help celebrate Hobart Architecture Week.

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Permaculture Garden Launceston 2012 Inveresk Precinct

This garden is/was/may be under treat because it is not understood and is imagined as being "ugly". BUT it does have some supporters and it might well be educative, and it may even supplement the food supplies of those with the wit to think about how it might. So watch this space because in actuality its an intelligence test of a kind ... click here for more