environment
Gardening and Food Production

NOTICE

Smaller scale home based, or community-based food production systems integrate well into Wellington’s food and fibre hub.

Growing your own food is a simple solution to numerous health, environmental and economic problems.

Growing your own fruit and veggies at home or a community garden is a rewarding experience. Growing veggies can suit any lifestyle from potted herbs on your windowsill to creating your own self-sufficient haven, and anywhere in between. Creating a veggie garden will allow you to produce fresh and tasty food for your family, and allow you to enjoy the mental and physical health benefits of gardening.

Three great reasons for growing your own food include:

1. More nutritious: Your organic, homegrown food is fresher and more nutritious. Fruit and vegetables lose vitamins and minerals when they are stored for lengthy periods.

2. Staying active and healthy: Gardening is a fun way to get some fresh air. You also absorb essential Vitamin B when you active in the garden. Did you know research indicates that soil microbes, including Mycobacterium vaccae, have been found to mirror the effects of anti-depressant drugs on our brain neurons.

3. Better for the environment: Growing, processing, storing, packaging and transporting all comes at a financial and environmental cost. Freshly eaten home grown food produces no green house gas emissions and your food travels metres instead of hundreds or thousands of kilometres. You also get to choose what pesticides and/or fertilisers, (if any) that goes into your food production.

Find your bin day...
Filter Results
Showing 0 results.
Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.
No items found.
There are no results to display, please search again.

Gardening with Indigenous Plants

Sustainable gardening is about choosing what to grow and how to grow it in a way that saves resources and reduces our impact on the natural environment. With a little thought and planning, you can create a beautiful garden which is suited to local soils and climatic conditions.

A garden with indigenous plants uses less water, attracts native birds and wildlife, celebrates the character of local environment and connects to the cultural history of the land and its traditional owners, the Gunaikurnai people.

Trade your locally grown produce

Council strongly advocates for our community to 'Buy Local'. Head to Farm Gate Sales – Gippsland Facebook page to see where you can buy straight from the farm or sell your home Gippsland grown food produce.

Worm Farms, Compost and Chickens

We can recycle food waste from the kitchen and green waste from the garden into compost. Making compost can be on a small or large scale, and there are a variety of methods to choose from to suit your situation. Compost is rich in nutrients and humus which keeps soil healthy, retains moisture and feeds plants.

Chickens in your backyard is another way to dispose of your kitchen scraps. Keeping backyard chickens requires an appropriate space for the chickens to live, and ongoing care is required. The bonus is a supply of fresh eggs, and the chickens can help with pest control in the backyard. Our Keeping Animals page informs on how many chickens you can keep without needing a permit.

Council's Sustainability Education Officer can provide further information and advice on Composting and Worm farming.

Getting started is easy...

  • Visit Sustainable Gardening Australia website and subscribe to their monthly e-newsletter.
  • Chat with a friend or neighbour who has a veggie garden.
  • Visit the Seed Community Garden and rent a plot if you don’t have room at home.
  • Borrow books and magazines from your Local Library.
  • Seek advice from your local plant nursery.
  • Check out Open Gardens to pick up ideas.
  • Join the Self-Sufficiency in the Suburbs learning platform - a free education platform offered by Council.

You can download a copy of our Composting Fact Sheet here.

Contact our Sustainability Education Officer who can offer advice and information of gardening, tours and local groups.

In this section...

No items found.

You may also be interested in...

Sign-up to our Digital Edit newsletter today and stay up to date!