Janet Luke bees and fresh veges part of her sustainable living plan. Photo Janet Luke.

Home Show visitors who followed the green footprints in hall five would have come across Janet Luke’s Green Urban Living stall, a treasure trove of sustainable gardening ideas.

From the ‘Bug Hilton’ to the chicken tractor, pallet garden, ‘meals on wheels’ and compost tumbler, Janet was more than happy to share the secrets of her philosophy for living more sustainably.

In fact, her first book, Green Urban Living, has just been released and it’s packed with these and many other simple ideas to create a sustainable, productive garden in a small urban setting.

“Green Urban Living isn’t about doing everything,” Janet says. “It might just be composting, keeping quails or chickens, or storing rainwater in a bucket to wash the car.”

Formerly a paediatric nurse, Janet has turned her gardening passion into a career. She re-trained as a landscape architect and now holds a masters degree in environmental and resource planning and is currently completing a certificate in permaculture design.

“I’ve always had a little garden and enjoyed growing food,” she says. “Since having our three children I’ve been at home a lot more and I’m always encouraging them to get outside. From being out in the garden so much I developed a real interest in permaculture [sustainable land use design].”

Scouring books and the internet for ways to create a more sustainable environment made Janet somewhat of a local green urban living (or ‘gurbing’) expert, and soon friends and neighbours in her Havelock North neighbourhood were asking for her advice.

“Gurbing is great for community building.

“It’s good to share the knowledge and get people involved in what our grandparents used to do. Two of my neighbours now keep chickens and move them around ‘crop circles’ in their backyards.”

Interest from friends and family prompted Janet to run ‘green courses’ and later, to establish her Green Urban Living website which is an online goldmine of all sorts of  information for ‘gurbers’.

Of course, part of her research involves experimentation on her half-acre section and she continually comes up with new ideas to share with her online community.

“I tried a lot of things and a lot failed so I had to adjust them for New Zealand conditions,” she says. “My home is filled with gardening books and I’m a bit of a hoarder. I love visiting second-hand shops and demo yards to find materials.”

Part of the gurbing philosophy is using recycled materials which keeps costs down and is friendlier to the environment.

An old school desk can have a second life as a seedling hot house, as can a discarded fridge, Janet says. Used pallets can become vertical gardens, and old guttering is great for growing shallow rooting plants such as strawberries. 

“These are all things I’ve built and I’m no builder. I have a drill, a hammer and a jig saw and that’s all you really need,” she says.

One of Janet’s most popular concepts, the chicken tractor, is made from recycled PVC piping and old real estate signs.

“A lot of people are surprised you can keep chooks in town, but they make a great eco-pet. We move the chooks around the garden in the portable chicken tractor every few days. They are great for fertilising the lawn, eat all the kitchen scraps and generally lay an egg a day.”

For those who have no backyard, Janet says Japanese quail can be kept in a small space such as an apartment balcony.

“We keep five Japanese quail in a converted rabbit run and again they’re a great eco pet for the kids. Quails are really domesticated and also produce an egg a day. They’re much better than guinea pigs because they produce something.”

To get started as a gurber, Janet recommends keeping it simple and family-friendly.

“Start with a small veggie garden and grow what the family enjoys eating. There’s huge interest in edible gardening, which is great – you save money, eat healthily.