A CERES ly Good Time

Yesterday two uni friends and I made our way to Brunswick to visit the Centre for Education & Research in Environmental Strategies (CERES). The sun was shining, the chooks were clucking and we were enjoying our walk around the gardens. 

Take a look at what we saw... 

Meagan, Frank (Mel's little boy) and myself, ready for some fun at CERES.

The nursery was beautiful! We spent a long time looking at all the amazing plants.

Here is Mel holding one of the cute plant baskets made from recycled wood. I think we all decided that our partners would be making us some of these in the near future! Thanks guys.

Chooks in the nursery. Very willing to eat up all the food scraps and if you're lucky, lay you some yummy eggs as well! If we had the space I would definatley be getting some chooks.

Compost bin. Lots of food scraps, garden vegetation and paper in here! You can't see it in this photo but the bin has an opening at the bottom so that the finished product is easily removed. There are some great tips on the CERES website about composting and if that's not enough just Gooogle composting and you will find all the information you need. Hopefully my neighbours agree to setting up a compost somewhere on our apartment block.

Only part of the large vegie garden at CERES. Filtered stromwater collected from carpark run-off is used to water the garden. One day I would love to have a big vegie garden - perhaps just not as big as this!

We initially thought that these bathtubs were used to collect water, however I read on the CERES website that they are in fact solid compost bins for the farm vegie scraps.

Another view of the garden. It's hard to believe we are only a short trip out of the city.

Something to think about.

It's time to take action!

Interesting plant arrangement. I love the bluestone walls.

Community Gardens. Recycled materials used to build the fences around individual garden plots.

Renewable energy. We saw many solar panels as we were walking around CERES.

Confused at first.

Now I understand.

As you can see CERES is a wonderful place to learn about Sustainable living and what we can all do to reduce our eco-footprints. Although our visit was inspiring I think a guided tour would be very beneficial in order to fully understand the environmental strategies that are in place.

Unfortunately the EcoHouse was not open so we did not get to see inside for tips to use in our own homes. 

Perhaps another visit is on the cards, and another trip to the Cafe - YUM!



WATER USE AT HOME THIS WEEK

insert results from diary