2023 Sustainable Goals Review
Going for a walk during the eye of Cyclone Gabrielle
It’s early in the year, so it’s natural to take stock, think about what’s important, where you want to end up by the end of the year. This year feels more important after the increasingly scary weather of 2023.
So our big goal for 2023 was to survive our house build, and to push our cookie-cutter house into a more sustainable design.
We made sure we have good airflow throughout the house to help with the humid climate. The cross-breeze, extra insulation, and ceiling fans have meant mostly we haven’t needed to use the heat pumps to cool the house, even though it’s been 97% humidity a lot of the time this summer.
No one tells you that when you get your house, it’s a new house on a building site.
The concrete floor on the ground floor has meant the house has stored the sun’s heat during the day, and slowly released it at night. The eaves have meant that the sun mostly doesn’t hit the interior of the house in summer, but we still need to make some adjustments.
The solar panels and giant rain tank have made life cheaper for us. We’ve not bought batteries yet, but once they become cost effective, we will.
The washing line out back has gotten a serious workout, and is in a just-windy enough spot that the clothes don’t get ripped off!
I have compost piles going, a vegetable garden, and fruit trees in. Tithonia Diversiflora and Tagaste are growing like crazy, and I use these as living mulch. Our ongoing battle is with the very aggressive Kikuyu grass as it is more like a vine than a grass. I don’t want to spray, but it is time consuming to suppress it, even when covering and mulching it. The Tithonia keeps it back, so I’ve planted more along the edges of where I want the grass to stop.
Some friendly monarch butterflies visiting the Tithonia Diversiflora (Mexican Sunflower) in winter. That bush is a beast and I can’t keep up with the pruning for mulch.
Things to do before next summer:
Build the louvred roof to cover the (yet-to-be built) deck and to keep that last bit of sun off the concrete floors.
Grow hops up strings along the west side of the house to keep the late afternoon sun out of the house. I have no idea how well they grow in a climate like ours, but I’m going to put in some raised beds and have hops grow up strings. Watch this space for this experiment!
Finish the windbreak along the west side of the section of land as that’s the windy side, and the dear neighbors with the most amazing garden ever say that nothing grows too well with too much wind.
Learn more about growing food!
How did you do with your sustainable goals for 2023?