Want a sustainable edible garden that nourishes you with delicious healthy foods and reduces your carbon footprint? We’ve got you covered. Here are some practical ideas that will help you get started:
- Grow your own fruit, vegetable and herb produce. This will help reduce the distance your food travels from the farm to your plate , it avoids plastics and food packaging and promotes food security. Don’t have a backyard, why not join a Community Garden.
- Keep chickens. They are low maintenance, provide fresh eggs saving you money at the shops, their manure can be used as fertiliser on the garden, they eat food scraps and are great pets for children.
- Install a beehive. Bees play an important role in pollinating fruit and flowers, they support biodiversity and are crucial to our agriculture industry. Bees provide honey to eat and wax for various products such as candles, cosmetics, food wraps, furniture and shoe polish, waterproofing and so many more.
- Use water wisely and consider adding a rain garden with native shrubs and perennials to an area that tends to collect runoff, where they will be able to absorb excess rainwater. Installing a rainwater tank can be useful too.
- Plant indigenous plants. They are drought tolerant and need less water. Species that are best suited to your local soil and climate can be found here which plants are indigenous to your area.
- Heavy rainfall events are predicted to increase in the future due to climate change. Prepare for heavy rainfall events by including lots of permeable ground such as grass, garden beds or loose gravels in your backyard. If you have large areas of hardstand, ensure there is appropriate drainage or gutters as flooding can cause significant damage to buildings.
- Have a compost or worm farm and apply for a rebate.
- Upcycle items in your garden to divert waste from landfill. Use old items for containers to grow vegetables or herbs in, get creative and build a sculpture, use old items such as a wheelbarrow or timber ladder as interesting focal points in the garden.
- Nature strip planting has many benefits that you may have not considered.
- Join Greater South East Permaculture Group who meet at the Old Cheese Factory, on the 2nd Friday of each month. You can contact them at gsepg1@gmail.com
- Avoid plants that are known invasive species in our bushland and wetlands. Find out how to better manage weeds.
- Create a wildlife-friendly garden
- Avoid using synthetic fertilisers and pesticides.
- Plant indigenous plants