Sustainble living and going green

With the new office open in Wellington New Zealand, House and Garden Design, as a division of Greenstone Design UK Ltd, is rethinking 'going green'. In New Zealand native planting has been trendy for some years. People choose natives not for their green credential so much as their easy care, low maintenance, good looks. This is true of native planting wherever you live.

Sustainable living is all about living more lightly on the earth. We need to use fewer resources if we are to manage a One Planet Living lifestyle in our lifetimes. This means that we need to choose how we design our homes and gardens carefully. Locally sourced materials, local labour, native planting suitable to our soil and climate all make a difference.

When we go green we need less fertiliser, less watering, less additives, less effort from us as the plants like the soil we have, as it is. An annual mulch of home-grown compost will provide all the additional nutrients the soil needs to stay healthy.

This is not to say that all exotic plants are bad, or that we must not water our gardens. The trick, as with all things, is to find the right balance. House and Garden Design.com explores the benefits of balance in our lives, and the potential for our homes and gardens to nuture us more fully.

Feng shui consultant - design for sustainable living

Last month one of my former interior design students contacted me to say "Help!" Her life was a mess. Relationships were faltering, her health was deteriorating and her business wasn't getting the new leads she was used to. She asked could I come in and assess her home.

I offer no guarantees for my feng shui consultant work. I do have sufficient experience to be confident of my ability to make a difference however. Early reports are that my student's life is turning around.

We spent 2 hours working our way through her home, room by room. There were some classic problems with beams cutting across her bed, likely causing health and relationship difficulties. Although the room had a beautifully laid bed the room was set out for one not two people. We energised the space by 'fixing' the beams with red ribbons, moving some furniture, cleaning the windows, added her vibrant handbag as decoration to the otherwise neutral colour scheme, then marvelled as the room came to life.

In each room we repeated the process until the whole house had a new energy about it. What had felt static now feels alive. Her beautifully decorated and composed rooms had lacked the energy she herself felt she was missing.

Interestingly, all the elements were there, just not where they really added to her life. We intrinsically know what we need in our lives but often don't know how to put the pieces together. By using current and previously stored items, and rearranging her potted plants, furniture and art, choosing colours and shapes carefully, we changed the feel of each room.

Next we moved on to her garden. As indoors, each corner of the garden has a particular function in feng shui terms. Knowing how to energise each space to boost income, personal recognition, health, relationships, creativity, career is both an art and a science. The ancient Chinese developed the system as a way of living in balance with nature. We offer feng shui cures to support sustainable living.