Latest / The Shed Organics Show / #41 - Building Pond Ecosystems In Backyards | Brendon [Ecosystem Gardener]

Transcript

#41 - Building Pond Ecosystems In Backyards | Brendon [Ecosystem Gardener] · The Shed Organics Show

0:00
Hey everybody, welcome back to another episode of the Shared
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Organics show. My name is Jordan and today I am
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joined by the Ecosystem gardener or Brendan from SA and Adelaide.
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Brendan is creating incredible native ecosystems in people's
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backyards. He is transforming lawns and
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desolate areas into thriving water features and water
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landscapes. Water ecosystems with flowing
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rivers, creeks, these types of things on any kind of scale.
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It's really interesting to hear the entire thought process from
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start to finish and creating one of these habitats that brings in
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all of the natural wildlife and provides a bit of a hotspot for
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these wildlife to come back to for a drink or to live in some
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of these plants and B hotels and all sorts of things that are
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created around these ecosystems. Now, Brendan shares with us his
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journey into becoming a landscape gardener and the
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various different things that he's done to lead him to where
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he is, and shares some incredible knowledge on those
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ponds and water features in terms of how they work, how we
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can best install them. And also some things that we can
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do, everybody can do in their own neighborhoods to take
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control, take sovereignty of the land that they're on, and
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transform it into a thriving ecosystem where we can all live.
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So let's do it. If this interests you, please
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stick around for the conversation.
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I'm sure you're going to find so much value and you're going to
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love it. This is the conversation with
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Brendan, the ecosystem Gardener. Yeah, so I was working at
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Centennial Park, which is a large cemetery here in Adelaide,
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and I was doing groundsman work, like gardening, mulching,
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pruning. There was like 8000 roses.
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So we always had to stay on top of the roses.
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But 8000, yeah, a lot of roses. They all need to be pruned.
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They all need to be like spot sprayed for disease and
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fertilized and dead headed every.
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So that was a mammoth task. Yeah.
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But as a cemetery worker, we were obliged to work in the
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crematorium as well, so I spent some time burning remains for
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about 6 weeks. I was like 20 bodies a day.
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That's crazy. Yeah.
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So that was an interesting job. And then as part of the job as
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well, you have to go out into the grave section.
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So you actually have to like dig the grave, set up the funerals
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and then do some other crazy stuff as well where you kind of
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move bodies around a little bit with.
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Kindness. People don't really understand
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that that actually happens at cemeteries like.
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Yeah, it's got to get somewhere like it the the body doesn't
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just magically have all this prep done by itself.
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That's crazy. How did you sorry, I know this
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is digressed straight from the normal thing, but how do you how
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did you find your mental health during that time?
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Was it hard to stay positive or can you detach from some of
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these things? I found it quite easy to detach
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from it. That's good.
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Found like just the regular day-to-day, like my family back
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in New Zealand would stress me out more than what I was doing
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at the job, right. But there was a few occasions
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where it was like a really young person had died in a tragic way,
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which was just like really, you know, quite shocking and.
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Yeah, of course. So it was, there was a lot of
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like it was a bit powerful, but it wasn't like bad on my mental
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health or anything. Like that.
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Yeah. OK.
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Oh, that's good. I've always just wanted to ask
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but how that would work. But anyway, sorry.
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Keep going. So that you were working on
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gardens in this place. Yeah.
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Yeah. So, yeah, started off doing
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gardens and then made my way through the crematorium in the
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grave section. And then I I built my own pond
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because there's lovely water features at the park.
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I was inspired like the goldfish and turtles everywhere.
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I was very inspired. So I built my own pond just here
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and then I, I built it completely wrong with the wrong
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material. So got to a local pond builder
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here in South Australia and he enjoyed my work so much that he
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said like, if you want to work for me, you can.
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So for a couple of years I worked with this landscape of
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doing water features. I left the park, I had enough
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body stuff. And yeah, I just started working
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for him and yeah, I was able to kind of delve more into native
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plants and like kind of sustainable, kind of
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naturalistic backyards and suburban environments.
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And that's where I find myself today.
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Yeah. Building ponds and water
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features, wetlands and native gardens and things.
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So yeah, that's what I'm doing at the moment.
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And yeah, it's a lovely job. I, I agree.
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I think from the stuff that I've seen you share, you know, I
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highly encourage people to go and check it out because all of
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the things that you've shared, you share in detail of the
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before and after a lot of the, the whole project as it goes on
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and then as it matures once you've finished it as well,
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which I think is really, really cool.
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What's would you run us through like a, a typical project?
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And I know there's probably no typical project under that
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heading, but in terms of like just the basics of what you have
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to do to get it from start to finish, I'll give you a little
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bit of an example of prep. So you've got one that I saw was
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just lawn. You had a complete lawn area.
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You then came in with diggers. You're carving out all of this,
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doing some land work, you're reshaping the land.
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Then you're bringing in some enormous rocks, piping, you
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know, and pumps and things like this to set up, have a pond,
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some flowing water, some waterfalls, some native plants,
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etcetera, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.
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Can you just run me through some of the things that you do from
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start to finish to transform space?
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Yeah, well, it normally starts with a, like a consultation.
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So I normally go out to the client's house and we assess the
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land. We, we, I try to find an area in
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the house where it allows you to see the, the water feature or
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the main feature of the garden from inside the house.
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Cool. I don't want to have to have,
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like, a feature that's way out in the corner somewhere that you
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never see. You want to, like, either look
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out your window and see it or, like, walk out your front door
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and it's right there. Not only does it just allow you
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to see it more, it just allows the wildlife to come closer to
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the house as well. So like, yeah, instead of having
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a pond way in the corner where you might get some birds every
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now and again, like, if it's, you know, right up next to the
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house, you'll see, you know, little birds coming and taking
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the bath. And you'll see, you know, maybe
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a koala comes down from a tree and has a little drink in the
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hot summer day. So yeah, I'll try and find a
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nice spot that's super close to the house.
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And yeah, once, once we're kind of locked in on a budget and an
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overall design, I'll show up on the site and yeah, we'll have
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our machines. And yeah, we basically, for me,
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I have a, an idea where I'm going to place, you know, maybe
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the, the biological filter and an idea on where I'm going to
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place the mechanical filter. And once I get those, it's just
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a matter of excavating to to fit those components in.
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But it comes very organically, like once you get past the liner
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and the filters and stuff and it's just the rock work.
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I like to imagine that the rocks kind of tell me where they want
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to go. Like once you place that first
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boulder and it's nice and solid, that's going to dictate the
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second, the 3rd, the 4th just becomes a puzzle piece at that
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stage. And then obviously you come in
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with like the natural bits of timber as well just to soften
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the edges and then the plants. But like as soon as I'm
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finished, like the feature in my eyes should look as bad as it
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will ever look, even though it looks crystal clear and
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beautiful. Like pond is in the ground or a
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garden is in the ground evolved so it'll never look the same
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day-to-day. I just love the the evolution of
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a garden and how it it's forever changing and like you can come
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back a year or two later and it's just a completely different
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space. Yeah.
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And it's, yeah, it's so rewarding and magical to come
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back and see, you know, it's, it's hard work digging the pond
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and doing the rock work and moving the gravel.
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But I always forget the hard work at the end of it when I
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come back. And I'm just like, Oh my gosh,
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this is such a nice space. Yeah, yeah, I I can absolutely
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agree. Because like I imagine seeing,
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like you said, the progression of the plants and the native
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like animals and things and, and insects and all of these birds
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coming together in this ecosystem, which you're trying
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to create. That's, that's your whole thing.
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It would, you would see that evolution.
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Then you have that enjoyment. There's so many things that you
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said that I want to go into the the first one.
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Yeah, I loved how you said having it close to the house
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because that integration with the client's life, they want to
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see and feel part of it because then they're going to go out
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there and actually spend their time and effort tending to it if
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they need to and enjoying it and and noticing it.
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So I really appreciate how you do you do that and that sort of
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thing. And then when it comes to
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talking about the plans and like planning out these things, how
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much of how much did the clients know going into it, what it's
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supposed to look like? And how much creative freedom do
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you have to kind of come in and say, hey, look, this is probably
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what's going to work best, even though you may want this
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situation? Yeah.
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Well, I suppose it's it's different for every client or
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every customer, I should say. So sometimes they're just like
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I've seen what you do, do whatever you want.
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This is how much money I have. And.
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Oh my gosh, this is so cool. Other times it's what I want.
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This is my budget. What can we achieve with this?
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And so it's often, yeah, it's you're working with the client
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for the most part. I enjoy when the clients are
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like involved, but not super involved.
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Like I like it where they're like, oh, I wouldn't mind a
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little like a big destination boulder here.
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And I'm like, OK, awesome. That's, that's cool.
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We can make that happen. But when they're like, oh, I
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wonder if I can put this rock with this rock.
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And then and then it becomes like, I'm like, oh, OK, maybe
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just go back inside. We'll sort it out like, but
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start watching you place the rocks and they're like, oh, I
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want it on this angle. That's when it becomes like,
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yeah, but I really enjoy where they're like, you know, I want
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this type of waterfall. I want a nice high drop here, or
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I want like a Beachy zone. I'm like, that's possible, Let's
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do it. But yeah, when they get a little
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bit too pedantic, that's where I'm like, you know, it becomes
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more of a nuisance than like a collaboration.
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Exactly. Yeah, Yeah, yeah.
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That makes a lot of sense because they giving me some sort
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of creative structure is really nice.
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So it's like, I want it to kind of end up in this section with a
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big boulder. You can go, cool, I can see that
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and I'll make it work how I think I can make it work.
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That's right. But yeah, if there's backseat
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driving going on, it's not fun. Yeah, that's right.
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So yeah, I like to imagine it's like a nice collaboration and I
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really take in like clients thoughts.
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I'm like if they have a random idea I'm like that could be
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possible like when it happens so.
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That's and it also gives you things that you might not have
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thought about as well. Yeah, or trying.
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To create something that you might find a bit challenging,
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let's go to the the pumps then. So you've got 2 pumps, you've
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got a biological filter and you've got a mechanical filter.
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Can you talk me through why the two and what they're doing?
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Yeah. So in a small system, like a
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small pond for example, you only really need one pump, and that
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pump will sit in the mechanical filter.
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And the mechanical filter is in the form of a skimmer box.
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So the pump sits at the bottom of the skimmer box and draws
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water into the skimmer. And because you've got water
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being pulled across the pond into the skimmer box, you've
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when debris will land on the water, it gets pulled into the
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skimmer. And then there's a basket or a
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net in the skimmer box that you can empty out the leaves, empty
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out algae or any waste that lands on the pond.
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And then from that point, the pump in the skimmer pushes the
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water up to your biological filter, which I call it a bio
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force. That's what it's called.
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It's an aquascape bio force. And that is essentially like a
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glorified, very expensive bucket with a number of filter pads
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inside of it. And the filter pads just provide
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a high surface area for bacteria to colonize.
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So denitrifying bacterias that breakdown nitrogen, nitrites and
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nitrates as well as ammonia. So it breaks those components
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down into more edible chunks for the plants.
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So yeah, it breaks down the nitrites in the ammonia into
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nitrates and then the plant of the nitrates, so.
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That's brilliant. Pulling out the large bits of
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debris, you're removing nutrients and then any small
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nutrients that accumulate in the pond via fish waste or just leaf
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matter that falls to the bottom and disintegrates, that's broken
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down even further and absorbed by the beneficial bacteria.
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So when you've got those two components working well
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together, it's like it's almost, you know, you can't fail with a
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pond sometimes with ponds, you know, you've got to, you've got
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to really not nail that biological filtration sometimes.
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And just a stagnant pond, you can have really healthy crystal
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clear water, but you need a huge amount of plant matter to, to be
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filtering that. If you just had a, you know, a
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little tub out in the sun with a one or two plants, it's very
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quickly probably going to go green and develop algae, unless
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you've packed it full of plants, and then it becomes almost like
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a self-sustaining system. Yeah, OK.
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So yeah, there's different types of ponds.
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You can have stagnant or just no moving water, in which case you
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need a huge amount of plants, or you have like a flowing pond, in
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which case you need mechanical and biological filtration for it
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to just be crystal clear and functioning well.
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Right. So this is obviously somewhat
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mimicking like a natural process, right?
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And yeah, we might see like creeks, rivers, these types of
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things, we'll have plants all along the edges, mosses, these
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types of things that do a lot of that filtration.
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Is that, is that right? And.
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Then that's right. Yeah.
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What? What happens in the pond
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scenarios? Is it just a a massive organic
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matter that will is is sort of creating this habitat to break
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it all down? Yeah.
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So essentially the systems I build almost mimic a stream or a
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river system as opposed to like a pond system because the water
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is in constant motion. That's not how a pond or a
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natural pond or dam or lake functions.
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They do have intake and output by like a stream coming in and a
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stream going out, but for the most part, the water is
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relatively still. And so.
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Yeah. And a dam or a lake, you either
15:49
have an anaerobic environment, in which case you've got
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bacterias that don't rely on oxygen, or you have an aerobic
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environment in which, you know, you have a lot of plant matter,
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There's a lot of oxygen in the system.
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And so when you have an anaerobic environment where
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there's not a lot of oxygenation, you start to
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develop like really nasty smells, like you've ever, like,
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been around a pond that isn't moving, or you put in a pond and
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had a really nasty smell. That's often times the ammonia.
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So that ammonia is building up. It's not being broken down.
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This is not oxygen in the water. So oxygen helps with that, the
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nitrogen cycle. So when I build my ponds, I'm
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really trying to like nail that nitrogen cycle and get that
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functioning really well. And then I won't have any nasty
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smells or green water or anything like that.
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So yeah, I'm mimicking green section.
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And then like a stream, when stuff lands in a stream, it
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often gets like moved downstream in a way that's almost like
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filter. And then the biological filter
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of a stream is the plants on the outer edges absorbing that
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nutrients. It's the Pebble and the gravel
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that make up the stream there that hold the beneficial
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bacteria that break it down. So yeah, in a way these systems
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are more like a stream or a Creek, even though they've got a
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pond, they've got fish. It's.
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More of a stream system, so yeah.
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It's really clever, man. I love how you're thinking about
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all that kind of stuff because it, it has to balance out to
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become an ecosystem to bring in a bit of everything, to bring in
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the insects and the birds and the frogs and all of this.
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You can't have something that's out of whack, especially if it's
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coming down to the original food source and water source for all
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of these things. Yeah, let's, let's talk about a
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bit of the challenges then with that.
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So have have you come across challenges post setting up some
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of these things and then how do you or how do you envisage
17:57
rectifying these types of things, a place to rectify?
18:01
The challenges with building water features are managing
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water quality. So water quality for people,
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they want to have crystal clear, beautiful water.
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I always tell my clients straight away, you're going to
18:16
have algae, like algae is a inevitable part of a pond or a
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water feature, freshwater water feature.
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And so you have to become OK with algae.
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You have to learn to love it. You have to understand that it's
18:29
actually beneficial. It's absorbing the excess
18:32
nutrients in the system. Even though it's ugly and it's
18:34
nasty and it's slimy, it's not doing the pond any harm.
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It's actually acting as a bit of a medicine for the pond.
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And sometimes it's hard to make that clear to clients because
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algae is oftentimes just looks like detritus, like it's quite,
18:49
you know, ugly and unsung. But I always tell them, you
18:53
know, when the pond or water feature is first constructed,
18:57
you're going to have a huge amount of algae, like an
18:59
outbreak of algae to begin with. And that's just because the
19:02
beneficial bacteria colonies are still catching up.
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So it's actually really interesting.
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There's graphs that show throughout the year you have
19:11
algae seasons. When it's warmer and hotter, you
19:14
have more algae and you had more beneficial bacteria.
19:17
But then throughout the year when it gets colder, the
19:20
bacteria will dip down and the algae will go up.
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So it's almost like an oscillation, like algae will go
19:26
up, beneficial bacteria goes down, And then when beneficial
19:29
bacteria starts to come up, algae goes down, goes down.
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So it's like, yeah, all year long there's a battle between
19:36
algae and beneficial bacteria, so.
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That makes a lot of sense. That's how so many things work
19:42
right in these waves of oscillation.
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So I think having the flow of something explained to the
19:49
client as well saying it is going to, like you said, change
19:53
and evolve over time, you can give them little things to watch
19:57
out for and they become more part of it as well.
19:59
Yeah, that's right. Yeah.
20:00
And I always say, you know, you're always going to have
20:03
algae, but there's things that we can do to limit it.
20:05
So we reduce runoff entering the pond.
20:09
We reduce nutrients entering the pond as much as possible so we
20:12
don't overstock with fish. We make sure that all our
20:15
drainage goes away from the edges of the pond.
20:17
We don't want to pull mulch and soil into the pond.
20:21
We want to map. We have really good biological
20:23
filtration. So in larger ponds, instead of
20:26
using the bar falls, which is that filtration unit, the
20:29
biological filter, I'll install like a wetland filter.
20:34
And obviously it's all man made, but it's an excavation that's
20:38
lined with the rubber liner and then it's filled with different
20:41
size rock and gravel. And those different sized
20:45
substrate levels provide houses for beneficial bacteria.
20:49
So the bigger the pond, the bigger biological filter you
20:53
need. And so yeah, maximizing the
20:56
biological filter as well as like planting around the pond to
21:01
reduce sun exposure or sun, more algae, more sun, more heat.
21:06
So with more heat in the water means less oxygen, so less
21:10
bacteria. So yeah, it's a complicated
21:14
process. And I tell my clients, like once
21:16
I'm done, you know, I'm going to do the best job I can to make
21:19
sure the filtrations now make sure we don't have any run off,
21:23
make sure you've got good plantings with dosing with
21:26
beneficial bacteria every few months.
21:29
But then it's up to nature. Like nature will take its course
21:32
and like I'm almost not responsible for it at that
21:35
point. Like, yeah, up on builders that
21:38
do a horrible job. They don't know what they're
21:39
doing. Obviously, that would be
21:41
responsible for what comes after that point.
21:44
But if you nail the fundamentals and the basics, the feature
21:49
should really start to develop and mature as it should.
21:54
But there unfortunately, as many landscapers out there building
21:58
ponds and giving a bad name for ponds because it's almost like
22:02
when I turn up to someone's house, I have to dispel all of
22:04
these myths about ponds from, you know, the past 50 years of
22:09
ponds. Yeah.
22:11
But they've got a bit of a bad name, obviously, because, you
22:13
know, the leaking component and then, like, the mosquito
22:16
component and the smells and the having to get in there and clean
22:20
it up. So.
22:22
Yeah. Yeah, that's comes from the
22:25
maybe the anaerobic side of things because people just sort
22:28
of think they can set and forget, but it's not what you
22:31
are setting and forgetting somewhat, but you're setting it
22:33
up for success. You're not like just throwing
22:37
like a pool in the ground and just filling it up and just
22:41
letting it sit there. It's just not going to.
22:42
It's going to take a long time for it to turn into an ecosystem
22:47
that's going to work. That's right.
22:50
Yeah. And I'm like, I'll tell my
22:51
clients like, I'm not like a traditional tradie.
22:54
Like I'm not like, you know, I'll put up a a wall and then
22:57
I'm gone. You'll never see me again.
22:58
Like I want to come back. I want to see how the pond's
23:01
going. I want you to message me if you
23:03
see any cool wildlife or if you have any issues with water
23:06
quality, you know, if the algae is being persistent, you've
23:09
tried some beneficial bacteria. You know, I want to come back
23:11
and just assess it, make sure, OK, we are getting a bit of run
23:15
off happening here. You know, we can shade this
23:17
section a little bit more. You know, we might have to empty
23:20
out the filter a little bit more, but it's just a balance
23:23
that you need to find really. Yeah, OK.
23:25
And your whole like purpose behind doing this as well,
23:31
obviously is to, from what I understand, bring in a lot of
23:35
wildlife into more suburban areas and things like this.
23:40
I recently had a chat with Jacinta Humphrey, who does a lot
23:45
of this type of thing, urban ecology, which is really
23:47
interesting. Just hearing about how the
23:49
challenges of having, when they're building estates and
23:53
things with houses, they're not thinking about the wildlife and
23:57
the impact of us being in that environment and how they can
24:00
then survive. Do you think having things like
24:04
this in backyards is something that's slightly more achievable
24:09
where everybody sort of has their own sovereign land and
24:12
they can grow and have these little ecosystems rather than
24:16
having to do it on a, you know, on a neighborhood scale, if that
24:20
makes sense, or maybe a bit of both.
24:21
Hey guys, really quickly jumping in.
24:23
I just want to remind you if you are not subscribed to this show,
24:26
that is the number one thing that you can do to show me your
24:29
support. So if you're finding value from
24:31
this conversation and you're deeply engaged, I would love you
24:34
to hit the follow or subscribe button.
24:36
All right, back to the. Show I would say it's imperative
24:41
that people take control of their own surroundings and it's,
24:47
it's crazy how much good or how much positive impact one person
24:52
can have on the environment. You can go down to your local
24:57
stream and pick up rubbish or you can join a volunteer group
25:00
and plant your streams and your, you know, your new Parklands
25:05
that are being developed. You can plant a native garden in
25:09
your front yard, use indigenous species and put water out.
25:13
There's so much people can do and not relying, relying on the
25:18
government. However, it's it's also in my
25:22
eyes, very important for the government to be involved
25:26
because thanks. We need to put in regulations
25:30
that control land developers that stop them from cramming 100
25:35
houses into what used to be maybe 5 or 6 plots.
25:40
And then there's almost zero tree coverage.
25:44
There are understory, there's no ground covers, there's all grass
25:48
and and concrete. And yeah, all over Adelaide
25:53
there's these new housing developments going, being put up
25:56
and farmland is being transitioned into suburbia and
26:00
all these beautiful river red garms and beautiful trees that
26:06
have existed in the landscape are just being chopped down.
26:08
And then we're putting in things like crate myrtles and
26:12
ornamental figs like fruit trees that don't even produce fruit.
26:17
And it's like, and then grass, like some people put agapanthus
26:22
and then Dina's out the front and it's just, it is creating an
26:25
ecological wasteland and an ecological desert where there's
26:29
like almost 0 beneficial insects.
26:32
The bird life is being dwindled down to like a few black birds
26:36
and some noisy miners. And, you know, there's no,
26:40
there's no big dams or anything for the parrots.
26:42
There's no hollows for all the native marsupial mammals.
26:46
And it's just, it's honestly like just depressing to drive
26:48
through some of these new suburbs.
26:51
But you know, there are a couple that, you know, have put in, you
26:54
know, little lakes and dams and wetlands and actually some
26:57
walking paths through some existing trees.
26:59
And there's the quality of living at those places is so
27:02
much higher, not only for people, but for the wildlife as
27:05
well. But like, even when you look at
27:07
geographically, the different suburbs, older suburbs, the ones
27:12
that are more expensive to live in, always have more tree
27:15
coverage, though. It's like, why are we creating
27:18
these? Like, you know, and you go, you
27:20
know, these poor areas around, they have like no gum trees.
27:25
And it's like, well, why are we then chopping down all these gum
27:28
trees and these new suburbs and jamming houses in them?
27:30
Like we're almost creating like poverty.
27:32
Like we're like, why not keep these big beautiful gum trees
27:36
and keep the Parklands around the suburbs?
27:39
You know, they say like nature is healing.
27:42
So why aren't we like healing ourselves with the existing
27:45
nature that's already here? Instead, we're destroying it and
27:48
then like becoming sardines, jamming ourselves into these
27:51
suburbs. And I want to states it's even
27:54
worse. Oh yeah.
27:56
I mean the the point you said about the having to have
28:00
incentivized things for housing developers and things like this
28:05
to include that kind of stuff, I feel like having that top down
28:09
approach just means that it's integrated anyway.
28:12
Like I'm seeing this all over here as well in Brisbane that I
28:17
just literally used to like over in the Redlands.
28:20
You won't know where it is obviously, but there, there's
28:22
this beautiful area near the coast with beautiful rich,
28:26
fertile red soil. And there's all of this rolling
28:30
hills and farmland that I literally just watch them tear
28:35
down the entire thing, mulch it all out.
28:38
And then they're planting, like you said, just these stupid
28:42
ornamental plants that are just there because they're just like,
28:46
I'll put a little bit of fill that and make a, a quick
28:49
landscape garden. And you're right, it's the heat
28:54
in these places because it's not cooling like the mental health.
28:58
Obviously it's been proven that being around nature helps your
29:01
mental health. And then we're creating areas
29:04
with 0 connection to nature. Have have you seen bro after
29:10
installing one of these projects or heard from one of your
29:13
clients or customers? Have you heard of bringing back
29:18
lots of these, you know, lots of wildlife to an area that didn't
29:22
have any before? Well, I mean, I haven't done any
29:26
like animal study, like I haven't taken numbers and.
29:30
Of course, yeah. Of what the previous wildlife
29:32
was, but it's almost certain that it becomes a hotspot for
29:37
wildlife like projects where it's just been like, you know,
29:43
just a dry backyard has now got 3 or 4 species of native frogs.
29:49
I think that's a win for me because, you know, you're
29:54
providing it's like, it may not be the end like habitat for some
29:59
of these animals, but it's, it's, it's a corridor.
30:03
So birds that may be passing by can come take a drink, whereas
30:08
or in summer, there's not a dam insight, there's no streams
30:13
flowing, especially here in South Australia.
30:16
It's almost like a desert like, and a lot of people don't put
30:19
out water for wildlife. So by having just this body of
30:22
water in your yard, you're, you're creating this hotspot,
30:26
this beacon for wildlife. And I've had clients say that
30:29
they've had like a koala that like they know it's the same
30:32
koala that comes by each year. And so it has like a mental mud
30:36
map and its head, like, OK, these are the trees I love.
30:40
This is my little watering hole in this backyard.
30:44
Like we do, right? That's fine, definitely.
30:47
Yeah, man, Well, look, I think that's that's so important just
30:52
to have. I didn't even think about it
30:54
like that as something to pass by as a final habitat.
30:58
But you're right, just having these sort of dotted throughout
31:01
and having more and more people just putting some of these
31:04
things into practice. And as you say, they've become
31:07
self-sustaining, right. They're the ecosystems within
31:11
themselves that require minimal if any long term maintenance.
31:18
Can you talk to that a little bit in terms of how you're
31:21
thinking about the planting and, and progression of a site and
31:28
how you're planning the plants to kind of take over or succeed
31:32
and then eventually provide shade?
31:33
Like obviously you know, when you put a plant and you go, oh,
31:35
that's going to be a, a bigger shrub, so that's going to shade
31:38
out this eventually. Are you thinking about these
31:40
kinds of things? Yeah, When I do my planting, I I
31:46
don't normally do like a grand plan.
31:49
I kind of get like a bit of a, a pellet of just ground covers
31:55
small shrubs. And then if I'm doing like a
31:59
bigger project with a bit more space, then I'll go into the
32:01
larger shrubs and the bigger trees.
32:04
But I like to have a mixture. And I always over plant as well
32:07
because I, I account for, you know, plant mortality and I or
32:14
pests and disease and stuff. So I always over plant,
32:17
sometimes to my benefit, sometimes not, because sometimes
32:20
it's like everything survives, everything has grown so well and
32:23
it's like, Oh my God, it's a bit of a jungle, strategic cutback
32:27
and whatnot. But most of the time after a
32:31
year or two, we're we're almost completely covered over the
32:35
ground. So we've got all the ground
32:38
covers, we've got grasses, bulbs and tubers coming through.
32:42
And then we've got small shrubs, you know, corrias, grevilleas,
32:47
banksias. I like to use primarily natives.
32:51
And then if I can, I'll use local to the region as well.
32:56
But yeah, I mean, ideally I'm wanting to create a dense canopy
33:00
as soon as possible. So there's, there's, there's
33:04
actually some cool videos about how they build rainforest
33:08
extremely quickly and they like lay down big logs and then they
33:12
put like soft leaves and mulch and then they like, yeah, it's
33:17
pretty cool. I'll, I'll have to figure out
33:20
what it is, but it's like, it's just the most quick way to
33:23
regenerate, really do that. But I, in terms of the density,
33:28
that's my, my way of doing it. Like my front yard out here I
33:32
planted 4 years ago and it's, it's so dense, it's crazy.
33:37
Like I and I just put tube stocks in.
33:39
I probably normally just go with tube stocks because I find the
33:42
tube stocks grow the best. They grow the fastest, whether
33:45
because their root systems are still young and they can send
33:48
their taproot down really quickly.
33:50
Whereas the the larger root balls tend to sometimes dry out
33:55
if they don't get enough water or they'll fall over because
33:58
they're top heavy and they don't have the rock roots.
34:00
So I like tube stock, but yeah, my front yard has gone so crazy.
34:04
And then I've posted videos about some of the wildlife I've
34:07
had in the front yard. But beforehand it was just
34:09
yuccas, like almost nothing. Maybe, you know, You know, like
34:13
I said, the blackbirds and the miners would come in.
34:15
But we've had like Musk lorikeets, rainbow lorikeets,
34:19
rosellas, galas. We had the black cockatoos,
34:22
which was a we've got big pine trees out the back that the
34:27
black cockatoos love. And it was my dream to get them
34:30
out in the front yard here and I've done it a few Times Now
34:32
where they've where they've come and landed on the bird perches
34:35
and they've had a drink out of the bird baths and stuff.
34:37
So that was probably the most rewarding aspect of my own
34:41
garden. Yeah, for sure.
34:44
But yeah, like when I plant out for clients, it depends what
34:47
they're after. Like if they're after just like
34:49
a simple low maintenance thing, I might just do some ground
34:52
covers and some grasses. But if they're like on the same
34:55
wavelength as me, I'll get some Acacia, some bottle brush Banksy
35:00
as melaleuca and just go crazy with it.
35:03
Just like mimic the natural bushland as quick as possible
35:07
and as dense as possible. Very cool.
35:09
And yeah, obviously using natives brings in natives and
35:16
you've done some work with Clancy.
35:19
I know that he's like been helping sort of put in a few
35:23
ideas into bringing native bees into those spaces as well.
35:26
And, and putting native bee hotels.
35:28
There's so many simple things that you can do a that really
35:30
just enhance these spaces for more diversity.
35:36
Yeah. What's what's top of mind for
35:40
you at the moment in terms of what you're doing?
35:41
What's really interesting to you right now that you're trying to
35:45
figure out or you're working on and working towards?
35:47
Is there anything that sticks out for you at the moment?
35:51
Yeah. Well, I suppose, I mean, I
35:55
should be fully committed to my business and what are features,
36:00
But I mean, I really enjoy it and I'll probably continue to do
36:04
it for a long time. But I suppose I admire Clancy
36:08
for what he's doing just because he's, you know, he's so behind
36:11
conservation. And I think he's so good for,
36:16
you know, we need more young voices out there promoting
36:18
conservations. Absolutely.
36:21
If we can, if we can show the younger generations how how
36:26
important wildlife and the ecosystem of our planet is, it's
36:31
going to help our survival. Sorry, going off, our survival
36:38
is intrinsically linked to the survival of our oceans and our
36:44
forests. And at the moment we're like, it
36:47
seems like we're trying to destroy those things as quick as
36:49
possible. And it seems almost like
36:52
conservation is almost like, it's almost like the
36:57
government's way of being like, oh, all right, here you go.
37:00
Here's a little bit of conservation.
37:01
Shut up. Now go like there's almost zero
37:06
protection of our mature forests and our pristine landscapes.
37:12
And it's I think like the measly millions of dollars that they
37:16
give to conservation is just purely to be like, let's just
37:20
vote for me. Hey, look, I'm I'm I'm pro
37:23
conservation, but at the same time I'm going to open up all
37:26
these forests for mining. I'm going to I'm allow off coast
37:30
drilling. But look, we're we're trying to
37:32
save this little quo. We gave we gave 100,000 to this
37:35
quo organization and it's like, that's honestly just so.
37:40
Yeah, I think I've the term I've heard is green washing where
37:43
they they pretend that they're greener or more environmentally
37:49
friendly just for the vote. But I know that these things
37:52
like Clancy's doing are just getting involved in being a
37:56
voice is really important. So I, I see that with you as
37:58
well. And I see that you're pushing
38:00
these things, talking about them and through not only business,
38:04
but through yourself personally as well.
38:06
But something that's very important to to both of us right
38:10
now is obviously becoming a dad and becoming a father role model
38:14
and these types of things. So, you know, firstly, obviously
38:17
congratulations. But how's that, how's that
38:19
changed your view in terms of, like you said, the next
38:22
generation and the importance of these things?
38:25
You you touched on it before, but how is how's that impacted
38:28
trying to show you little one in the world?
38:34
Yeah, well, I suppose I mean, I've always had like a desire to
38:41
try and help wildlife and conserve the natural world and I
38:45
suppose now so more now that I have a child who's going to
38:48
exceed my lifetime. But to answer your question
38:53
before about what else I'm, I'm looking at doing aside from
38:56
boarding water features would be I really want to plant as many
39:01
trees as possible. Like I want to just almost
39:04
dedicate my life to tree planting in a way.
39:08
And they say, you know, not for me to sit under, but for future
39:11
generations and for future families of birds and insects
39:15
and anything essentially. So I've done some planting on my
39:21
partner's father's butter lands just down South of where we are
39:25
here in Mount Compass. And I've done some little, I've
39:29
taken seeds from the the trees there and I've germinated them
39:33
and planted them. And I'm working out which trees
39:36
grow the fastest. But I've done like maybe 3 or 4
39:40
little plots on the farm where I've planted, you know, about a
39:45
dozen or two dozen trees in each plot.
39:47
And it's so cool to just walk through the trees that are now
39:51
taller than me and see all the insects that are on them and see
39:54
the birds eating the insects and stuff.
39:56
So I suppose that's going to be my goal is, is to try and use my
40:03
physical body or my influence or whatever to try and get as many
40:07
trees in the ground as possible. Really.
40:11
Cool, just providing a little bit more habitat for for for
40:15
animals essentially. For life, really, I think a lot.
40:20
Exactly. Yeah, it's like, that's such a
40:23
really cool thing, man, because I really resonate with that
40:26
quote too, about the, you know, planting a tree for someone else
40:28
to sit under. And I often think when I'm
40:33
sitting under a tree or like going walking through trees and
40:36
under trees, especially like I just visited Toowoomba for the
40:39
Carnival of Flowers and they have up there some enormous
40:44
trees that have been there for a long time.
40:46
And you just think like, wow, you know, what was life like
40:50
back then when they were first planting them?
40:52
And, and are these, you know, original trees?
40:54
You just don't see that around Brisbane in the cities and
40:57
things like that. You just don't see any of these
40:59
massive trees. So it was nice to sort of see
41:02
that. But it's your way of paying
41:05
forward and creating a better, more diverse, more, you know,
41:09
nature friendly habitat for us. All right, That's, that's such a
41:13
cool thing. I really like it.
41:15
Yeah, yeah. Everyone has the power to make a
41:19
positive impact. And we can we can vote for
41:22
people that we think will help, but at the end of the day, we
41:26
can see noticeable change just through our own actions.
41:29
So we have to, we have to do things ourselves.
41:32
Because I often say when I make a video, I'm like, we have the
41:36
power to plant trees and put native plants.
41:38
And then people are like, oh, the government's doing this.
41:41
There's no point. The government's destroying
41:43
everything. There's no point us doing that.
41:46
And it's just like, I feel like that's a depressive way to live.
41:50
And I think we do have the power to change so.
41:53
Yeah, yeah. Thinking that it's, it's not
41:56
going to make an impact is quite like unfortunate because
42:00
obviously if you know, the government is 1 body of people,
42:04
they don't do very much for us, unfortunately.
42:06
But then if you're you've got thousands of people that are
42:10
planting one tree each or one native or something, then
42:14
everyone's got the power to go and change that.
42:16
Even like you said, at the front of their gardens, in the nature
42:20
strips, up on the front curbs, utilizing all of this space and
42:24
turning it into something, which is something that I'm guilty of
42:27
myself not doing enough of. But I'd like to try and to get
42:30
more on to that, to that as well.
42:34
What's so, So, yeah, apart from the planting trees and things
42:37
like that, is there anything else exciting that you've got
42:40
coming up that you want to talk about or any projects that
42:42
you're really excited about at the moment?
42:45
Well, I recently finished the project down in Mount Compass,
42:50
which is about 20 minutes from here, and I think that's a cool
42:53
one. It's like a little pondless
42:56
waterfall and it's the homeowner is going to be building a
42:59
beautiful Avery over. It.
43:01
Oh wow. So he's got a collection of tiny
43:05
native birds. So he's got fairy rings and
43:08
silver eyes and little finches and stuff.
43:12
So I'm looking forward to going back once he's built the ivory
43:15
over and seeing the little birds, you know, having a drink
43:19
and stuff. It's kind of, it's kind of sad
43:21
and good at the same time because he's, as he's doing,
43:24
he's building this thing. He's kind of cutting it off from
43:26
the natural world in a way that's a little bit sad.
43:29
But like the insects will still be able to come in and, and
43:34
benefit from the project. And it's going to be cool
43:36
because insects will be able to come in and they're going to,
43:39
you know, act as food for the incaptivated birds because
43:44
they're drawn to the water. So the birds will be able to
43:46
come through and just, you know, eat these natural insects, which
43:49
will be cool. And then I've got a project
43:53
coming up, a big recreation pond.
43:55
So essentially like a pond you can swim in?
43:57
Wow. It's in a place called Hahndorf,
44:00
and Hahndorf is the oldest German settlement town and in
44:05
Australia, I think. I don't know if you've ever
44:06
heard of it. I haven't been.
44:08
It's actually quite beautiful. It's very nice.
44:10
So I'll be building a water feature which is kind of like on
44:13
the main road in Hahndorf. Which issue?
44:16
Because I'll have, you know, heaps of people walking by to
44:18
see it. So cool, pretty cool.
44:21
And yeah, obviously I'll be stocking that with river, my
44:24
rainbow fish and some pygmy perch and as many native fish as
44:27
I can. That's amazing.
44:29
What just quickly on that, what makes it swimmable versus non
44:34
swimmable? Is it just more filtration?
44:38
It's a good question because I can swim in my ponds just here
44:41
and they're not technically swim ponds.
44:43
So I suppose a swim pond or a recreation style pond.
44:49
It just yeah. I can't say the exact difference
44:52
between a just a normal wildlife pond and a recreation pond
44:55
except for maybe the size. I also, I also installed the the
45:01
pumps externally so there's no electricals actually going into
45:04
the water. Not that that's an issue.
45:06
Like I can get in these ponds and not be electrocuted and the
45:09
Fish and Wildlife aren't being electrocuted.
45:11
But I think there's new regulations that state like if
45:14
you're creating a system where people are going to be entering,
45:17
you can't have pumps in the water.
45:19
Fair. Yeah, but that's a component.
45:21
And then, yeah, just Max like doing a massive wetland filter
45:24
so the water is always as clear as possible and crystal clear
45:27
because no one really wants to jump into a slimy pond.
45:32
But yeah, that'll be cool because I'll be doing like a
45:34
nice Beachy section, which will be like a sloped entry into the
45:40
pond. Go for wildlife and people that
45:44
just want to kind of walk into the pond and that way.
45:47
But yeah, in terms of other projects, we're moving down to
45:51
Mount Compass soon, so we'll be moving house and then I'll kind
45:54
of have like this whole landscape to kind of design and
45:58
think about. I don't want to rush into it too
46:01
much. I want to like take it really
46:03
step by step. So I don't, you know, build a
46:05
pond and then I'm like, Oh no, I don't want to put pond here.
46:08
So. And I want to try to live below
46:10
my means as well. So I can't be putting in massive
46:12
ponds just yet. I've got to like pace myself.
46:16
But I'm really excited just to get to there and have the
46:19
landscape and think about how am I going to plant it?
46:22
How am I going to collect water? And yeah, that's going to be a
46:26
pretty cool process. So I'm thinking about maybe
46:28
doing some blogging about that. There's some really cool
46:31
bloggers on YouTube that I kind of look up to.
46:33
I don't know if you've seen Bo Miles.
46:35
No, I haven't. Looking to him, he's he's done
46:38
like really cool planting endeavors where he's like gone
46:42
onto farms and he's planted for 24 hours straight.
46:45
Wow. He's gone back a few years later
46:47
and just seen this beautiful forest coming out of the ground
46:50
and he does he like, picks up rubbish and stuff and like,
46:53
trades it in for native plants. Awesome.
46:57
Really cool storyteller. And then there's another page on
47:00
YouTube called Bamba Bass, I think.
47:03
And he's got this massive pond and he stocks it with bass and
47:06
he like, records the the Eagles coming in and eating the bass.
47:09
And yeah, so I'm thinking about doing some blogging and stuff
47:14
like that, like different projects around the farm.
47:17
So yeah, I'm looking forward to that.
47:18
And yeah, obviously planting as much as I can.
47:20
So yeah, heaps of stuff on the horizon.
47:38
There we have it, ladies and gentlemen, thank you again to
47:40
Brendan for his time. Please go and check out the
47:43
links down in the description or the show notes where you can go
47:46
and find out and see some of these incredible projects that
47:49
Brendan has been working on and has created.
47:52
Now, if you want to do something yourself, there was plenty of
47:55
tips in there in this episode of what you can start doing,
47:59
whether it's going out to your verge to start planting some
48:01
natives or just simply transforming a little bit of
48:04
space in your backyard to put some native plants or some water
48:07
for some wildlife and tend to it and watch and notice what comes
48:12
by. So I think there's plenty that
48:15
we can do to help this planet and help our neighborhoods
48:17
thrive with more wildlife and more ecosystems.
48:21
But for now, that's it. That's the episode.
48:23
If you can leave us a review, that would be amazing.
48:26
It always helps. That's the number one thing you
48:28
can do. Follow us along, give us some
48:29
stars and share the episodes around.
48:33
But apart from that, I'll see you very soon on the next
48:36
episode. Thank you for watching and
48:37
listening and bye for now.