I find picking up rubbish therapeutic; it’s exercise, outdoors, an activity that is mildly stimulating (“what is that???”) but repetitive so it’s calming, and I know I’m doing good for the environment. 148 pieces picked up that won’t get into our streams and ocean. 💪❤️

Visited the biobasin and removed numerous baby glycine vines, and 3 large ones that were starting to cover the lomandras on the western side. Otherwise it is looking really healthy!

Revisited the Biobasin after some recent rain. More rubbish had been washed into the basin. Lots of plastic sadly.

I removed the last remaining large glycine vines from the lomandras in the biobasin. If these were left unchecked they’d overgrow all the vegetation. Doing this service frees up Brisbane City Councils time and money, but also saves vital biodiversity from being killed. Removing weeds by hand, by root also saves the use of poison.

There is a worldwide push to plant more trees and vegetation in cities like London to not only cool temperatures but increase biodiversity. London has 21% tree cover, with the mayor committing to increase this by 10%. Involving the residents helps by not only reducing the costs of helping keep the plants alive, but improves their care and community ownership. This story’s photos show a newly planted tree and a request for locals to care for it. Another role this platform can perform!!

On my recent trip to London I came across many different examples of making a difference, at an individual and business level. One of the first was the Oakleigh House Dental Practice, which has created a flower garden to encourage plant and insect biodiversity. Their website also has a great history of the house and area.

While waiting for my flight home I caught up with my mate Emmett who works at Sky HQ campus. How impressive are the grounds!! Full of native flowers, trees, insects and butterflies. Well done Sky!

Last day in London! What an amazing trip! I’ll post some more stories soon. I’m full of positivity as my flight approaches. I spent 30min picking up some more rubbish in the streets around our accommodation. I counted 92 seperate pieces, mostly plastic and smoking related. As I left I came across another group picking up rubbish! Long story short, LD Care services have a residential building close by and once a week a volunteer and residents pick up rubbish…..a future potential user group for the platform!!

In the queue for Wimbledon tickets! Vines seem to be a problem in the UK as well. Looks like ivy has been chopped to help the trees.

Picked up some rubbish on the way for a coffee with my Aussie cricketing friends

Here we are in London! First impressions tell me (at least in Isleworth), there is an awful lot of rubbish in the streets and they let the grass grow quite tall, and when I say grass, it’s grains like a wheat or barley! This verge below would be providing food for insects and birds, and is much better for biodiversity than a lawn. The locals tell me this is a council failure….but I like it

Off on my trip to the UK! Singapore is renowned as a very progressive city environmentally. 3 types of recycling bin, and I’m sure they actually do the recycling.

Our current housing crisis doesn’t only affect humans. At least 300 Aussie species of animals rely on tree hollows for shelter and nesting. Planting new trees to replace old ones with hollows doesn’t help for many decades. So artificial nestboxes can help our Aussie animal families. I’ve just picked up a Rosella nest box and a micro bat home! Follow me as I take them to Toowoomba to install in trees at my parent’s home.

Another instance of people eating their KFC food and then just leaving their rubbish on the street. Happening all the time in my neighbourhood sadly. Ended up collecting two bags worth of rubbish - mostly fast food wrapping, plastics and cigarette butts and boxes. I read the latest KFC Corporate Sustainability Report. I wonder if companies like KFC would be open to having their staff clean up their local areas on a regular basis??? Would be good marketing and demonstrate their impact.... Food for Thought.....

So, I came back to clean up the rest of the Singapore daisy infestation and the wonderful ground staff had cleaned up most of the remaining plants and removed the waste!! Well Done Dovetree staff!! Singapore Daisy creates a matt of roots and suckers, so there were a few stalks left, so I removed all that I could see. This is the small pile seen between the two grevillias on the left in the photo. But early detection before becoming too large an area, and prompt action and joint effort has stopped this infestation!! So Happy!!

Where my mum is now living, at Dovetree, there are lovely grounds with lots of native trees planted. As everywhere, weeds are invading. I noticed this single patch of Singapore Daisy, and no other infestations. So I spent an hour removing the weeds by the roots. Prevented its spread into and over the other native ground covers. I’ll come back another couple of times to make sure it’s eliminated. A bit of education and early intervention makes all the difference!

I used to think that most of the rubbish I saw on the streets had blown out of bins, or was accidentally dropped. Sadly, time and time again I see the discards of whole meals from the KFC, and containers from Starbucks, where people park their cars, consume the food, then leave their rubbish 😔So sad. I repeatedly pick up the rubbish noting how grass cutters just mow over the top helping speed the creation of micro plastics….and on cue!!! A ride on, mowing grass that doesn’t need mowing, goes straight over the top. Wrong on so many levels 😢

Revisited the biobasin, removed a shopping bag of rubbish washed there after the rains, watered the seedlings and pulled out 50+ baby glycine vines. It’s looking really healthy ❤️

Invasive vines are everywhere in Brisbane, but these ones on Padstow Road were annoying me every time I drove past them. The trees had been deliberately planted, and some weeds had recently been wiper snipped. The Lilly Pilly and Eucalyptus now have a second chance!

Planted a Banksia and a Brisbane wattle in Skyview biobasin. Glycine has started to infiltrate the bed of Lomandras, so spent 45mins removing most of it. You can see the pile of removed glycine in the second pic