Sometimes you can feel a little bit like a ‘one woman band’ when you make the decision to change the way you live. That’s why I’m forever grateful for living here in Daylesford because I’m not the only one paving the path to living a more sustainable life. As I recently discovered, it’s not just individuals making considered choices to live more sustainably but businesses are as well.

As part of my quest to make this new lifestyle choice work, I’ve established a sustainable lifestyle solutions business. A recent local project showcased what this means. It demonstrated what could be done without using new materials but instead through recycling, upcycling and reusing the outcome was even more satisfying - creating something new from something old while reducing the environmental footprint.

I spend a lot of time thinking about how we can approach most things that we do differently, as our need for ‘stuff’ coupled with our growing population, means we will need 3.5 planets to meet the size of our demands over the next 50 years. We have to be smarter about how we can use what we have already, as I’m ashamed to say Australians have one of the largest footprints per capita compared to the rest of the world.

EKO Skin Care Spa, a health and wellbeing business here in town, wanted to improve their garden space for their clients while minimising their footprint. Gardens can be intensive in their energy use and, as the business rents the premises, the ‘pop-up’ garden concept was a great option for them. The aim of the pop-up is to grow edible plants in pots and planter boxes made from materials that have been upcycled, recycled or re-used. It also means if they relocate the business at any time the garden can go with them. Nothing wasted.

So the wellbeing ‘pop-up’ garden emerged with the aim to enhance the service experience for their clientele, not just by providing a visually appealing entrance to their premises but to engage them in the delights of fresh herbal tea brewed directly from the extensive herbal garden.

The key features of the garden are the bench seat created from recycled timber pellets and planter boxes, again built from pellets and old fence palings to support the wide variety of plantings. Other items that have been upcycled (creative reuse) were an old preserving pot and an industrial metal container that stored nuts and bolts in a factory setting. Both have been perfectly reconstituted to grow lovely herbs.

Willow trees are considered an environmental weed and the recent felling of some local willows meant we had access to these wonderful branches to make a tee-pee to support a climbing rose. In terms of reusing, a large old plant pot was given a new lease of life with a coat of low VOC (Volatile Organic Compounds) paint in line with the business’s colour scheme and now provides a home to a beautiful bay tree.

A meridian of herbs has been planted out in these items and most will provide, by using their leaves and flowers, soothing remedial teas for clients. For example, simply pick three to four mint leaves directly from the garden, rinse then infuse them in boiling water and it will provide you with a refreshing tea that will aid anxiety and tension. Fennel has a strong aniseed flavor and both the leaves and seeds are used to aid coughs, colds, indigestion and nausea, rosemary’s aromatic leaves help anxiety, tension, headaches and insomnia and chive leaves are used in tea to aid fevers

So there is no need to go to the expense of always buying herbal teas that come with extensive packaging – remember if we aim to reduce what we buy we eliminate the waste that cannot be recycled. Instead, gain the satisfaction of venturing out to the garden to create your own special brew from what you grow. It really is a mind, body and soul experience.