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Sustainable Gardening in Darebin This revised Sustainable CONTENT Gardening booklet was produced by Darebin City Introduction 2 Council in 2020. Garden Design 3 Original text by Sustainable Gardening Australia. Sustainable Products 6 Printed on recycled paper with vegetable based inks Caring for your Soil 8 Disclaimer: Although Compost and care has been taken to Worm Farming 9 ensure the accuracy of the information, the publishers, Water 19 authors and printers cannot accept responsibility for Plant Selection 25 any claim, loss, damage or liability arising out of Darebin Local Plant Guide 26 the use of the information published. Darebin Garden Escapee Guide 34 Darebin Council is committed to contributing Food Gardening 43 to the achievement of sustainability within Chemical free Darebin and promoting gardening and natural sustainability to others. pest management 49 Get Involved 55 Further Information 61 Sustainable Gardening in Darebin 1 INTRODUCTION GARDEN DESIGN You are on your way to a sustainable garden if you: Gardening is all about creating food waste and using it on our Many gardens still have a Have a plan of sun/shade, a beautiful environment. garden rather than sending it traditional English layout, which slope and soil variation in Sustainable gardening is about to landfill, we reduce harmful usually includes a paved sitting your garden gardening in a way that supports greenhouse gases. Our plants area, large open lawn and Have a rough planting plan the natural environment and and trees help draw down flowerbeds of exotic plants that groups plants according ecosystems of the place where carbon from the atmosphere, around the outside. to their water, sun and we live, and minimising our as well as providing shade and With many people now having soil needs negative impacts. shelter and reducing the heat busier lifestyles, modern generated by the many hard Have designed your garden Gardening can benefit our gardens are becoming smaller surfaces of our city. for low water use (page 18) local environment in so many in size and requiring less ways. If we plant local plants It is easy to create beautiful maintenance. This does not Have thoughts about the we provide food and shelter gardens that suit our local mean that your garden cannot amount of garden waste for birds, bees and butterflies. climate and soil and support be sustainable, it just means it you might produce (e.g. By conserving water in the our natural environment. needs to be designed well. law clippings and prunings), garden we help maintain Sustainable gardens can be and ways for managing A sustainable garden design water levels in our reservoirs. introduced gradually e.g. as this waste onsite (e.g. can offer habitat for wildlife, If we minimise our use of an exotic plant dies, replace it composting and mulching) provide you with fresh food, chemicals, we help to keep with a local plant. Sustainable and can even impact your Have maximised the stormwater runoff into creeks gardens are low maintenance, as household energy use. For permeable surface e.g. and streams chemical free. By they require less watering, lower example, well placed deciduous replacing concrete with gravel growing food in our gardens or no application of fertilisers trees and climbers can provide we can reap environmental and chemicals, and less mowing Have designed your garden shade in summer and light in and health benefits. If we and pruning. to have flow and interest winter, reducing heating and purchase renewable resources to create appeal And last but not least – cooling costs for your home. for the garden instead of non- gardening is good for our Have designed your renewable resources, we can Interior design, architecture, souls! Spending time in our garden to reduce your help to protect our old growth cars and fashion change to suit gardens with family, friends and home energy use forests and river ecosystems. new lifestyles. It’s time gardens neighbours is a great way to did too. To design a sustainable Have included food Creating sustainable gardens connect with nature and garden, take the time to work production in your garden and encouraging biodiversity are each other. out how to create a garden that Have included variations also a great way for us all to take Sustainable gardens: good you feel comfortable with, that in your garden design to action on the climate emergency for us, our communities and maximises the space you have, increase habitat and food together. By composting our our planet. and that suits your lifestyle, sources for wildlife. local soil and climate. Sustainable Gardening in Darebin 3 GARDEN DESIGN TIPS 1 3 6 List what you need Do a scaled plan If you want to Running grasses (shed, washing or mark out where reduce your lawn are tough to remove. line, water tank, different garden area to make bigger Try one of these kids swings, elements will go garden beds, you methods to remove entertainment area) (following the tips need to know what them: and what you want in this guide). For type of lawn you • cover the grass (vegetable garden, example, placing a have. If you have with a sheet shade area, pond, new shed in a shady a fine lawn grass of clear plastic fruit tree/s). corner, vegetables such as Rye or for several weeks where they get full Fescue you can in hot weather sun, a pond where mow the lawn low, 2 so that the grass it can be seen from cover with 8–10 Do a site analysis, effectively ‘cooks’, inside the house, and sheets of newspaper (sun, shade, slope, a shade tree to the (overlapping), add • mow the lawn privacy – all the north of the house. 10–15cm of pea area you wish to problems that need straw on top, wait remove on the solving) which will 3–4 months and lowest mower tell you what your 4 then plant directly setting and then site will let you do. Find a style you into it. This must be dig out the like that suits your done when the soil remaining root garden, so your is moist and all the system. paving, pots, water grass should have features, and plants died. If you have match, especially in ‘running’ grasses a courtyard garden. such as Couch or 5 Kikuyu they will not be eliminated Make garden beds by newspaper bigger and lawns and mulch. Further Information smaller. If you mulch all The Australian Garden – Diana Snape beds this will reduce Beautiful Gardens with Less Water – John Patrick your maintenance and Bold Romantic Gardens – Oehme Van Swede enable you to create www.darebin.vic.gov.au/environment interesting areas within your garden. Sustainable Gardening in Darebin 5 SUSTAINABLE ALTERNATIVE PRODUCT TIPS PRODUCT SELECTION 1 2 4 When buying products for the You are on your way to a Look for Forest Grass trees, tree Ceramic pots fired garden we often don’t think sustainable garden if you: Stewardship Council ferns and native using gas and about where they have come (FSC) certified orchids may have produced locally Ask where a product from, for example, River Red timbers. While some been sourced have a lower comes from and avoid Gum trees grow in woodlands outdoor furniture illegally from the environmental buying unsustainable which are part of an intricate companies claim forest. Plants impact than those products ecosystem that supports native teak is plantation- should be sold fired using coal fauna. Red gum timber is used Use recycled products, harvested in Asia, with a government or wood and to produce items such as like bricks, timbers, this magnificent tag stating they transported from bark chips, tomato stakes and plastic sleepers tree is a rainforest have been legally overseas. railway sleepers – harvesting Reuse your plastic plant that cannot collected. this product is unsustainable. plant pots or put them be grown in 5 With some thought we can plantations. in a Garden Center 3 River pebbles may support more environmentally pot recycling bin Make sure to ask have been sourced sound practices through the where mulch has from waterways products we choose for our come from as some in developing gardens and homes. are sourced from countries such as the logging of old China and India. growth forests or This destroys the contain weed seeds. local ecosystem and causes silt to wash down stream to communities who rely on the river for drinking and washing. Use locally crushed rock and granitic gravel. Further Information Building Timbers – The Wilderness Society www.sgaonline.org.au Sustainable Gardening in Darebin 7 CARING FOR SOIL IMPROVEMENT TIPS YOUR SOIL You are on your way to a sustainable garden if you: Healthy soil = healthy plants. 1 4 Soil needs organic matter Check mulch levels and (mulch, compost, manure, replace every year to bring The soil needs to be damp Soil improvement such as pea grass clippings). Worms back to 8–10cm deep before adding mulch, so late straw placed on the soil surface is break it down to make food spring (November) is the best generally only required for exotic Regularly add organic for plants to use and their time to apply mulch (once the plants, vegetables and fruit trees. matter to your soil burrows allow air into the soil winter rains have soaked in). Most local and native plants like so the plant roots can breathe. Know which are the best a relatively infertile soil, so they Organic matter needs to be types of mulch for different 2 prefer bark mulch on its own without soil improvement. replaced regularly as the types of plants Top up mulch annually to worms consume it and plants Have at least 3 worms in 8-10cm deep.

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