Sustainable gardening

Purple flowers against a green background with bee hovering

Local plants, using compost and conserving water can create a sustainable and beautiful garden.

If we plant local plants, we provide food and shelter for birds, bees and butterflies. By conserving water in the garden, we help maintain water levels in our reservoirs. If we minimise our use of chemicals, we help to keep stormwater runoff into creeks and streams chemical free. By growing food in our gardens, we can reap environmental and health benefits. If we purchase garden products made from renewable resources for the garden instead of nonrenewable resources, we help to protect our old growth forests and river ecosystems.

Creating sustainable gardens and encouraging biodiversity are a great way for us all to take action on the climate emergency together. By composting our food waste and using it on our garden rather than sending it to landfill, we reduce harmful greenhouse gases. Our plants and trees help draw down carbon from the atmosphere, as well as providing shade and reducing the heat generated by the many hard surfaces of our city.

Download the Sustainable Gardening in Darebin Booklet(PDF, 5MB) for detailed information on creating a sustainable garden, including a list of recommended local plant species.

Saving water

You can reduce water consumption in your garden by up to 30% by applying simple design and maintenance principles.

  • Check the weather forecast to avoid watering before rain.
  • Check and clean your irrigation system every spring.
  • Follow EPA guidelines when using greywater from the bathroom and laundry.
  • After watering, dig down to see how far water has penetrated, it should be at least 10cm.
  • Install a large water tank - 3,000 litres of water in a tank for summer watering is ideal.
  • Water pots and plants with a low-pressure nozzle on the hose. The water should be running slowly, not on a spray, as this does not penetrate very deeply. Micro-sprays waste up to 70% water through drift and evaporation, and if the soil is mulched, water will not penetrate to the soil.
  • Use a tough drought tolerant grass like ‘Sir Walter Buffalo’; a native grass such as Microlaena stipoides, or a native groundcover like Myoporum parvifolium for the front garden.

Improving the quality of your soil

  • Worms break down and aerate the soil and so plant roots can breathe.
  • Spreading compost over your soil (under mulch layer) will encourage worms.
  • Late spring (November) is the best time to put on mulch once the winter rains have soaked in.
  • Bark mulch provides limited nutrients so is not ideal in areas where a rich soil is needed.
  • Mulches made from recycled organics last well and feed the soil when they break down.
  • Most local and native plants like a relatively infertile soil so they prefer bark mulch on its own without soil improvement.
  • Minimise digging unless your soil is compacted after building works. Digging disrupts the soil structure, therefore destroying the air holes and drainage spaces.

Mulch

The purpose of mulch is to conserve water, improve the health and fertility of the soil, and to reduce weeds.

  • Mulch adds organic matter and nutrients to the soil and reduces your watering needs.
  • Mulch also helps keep your garden weed free by preventing weed seeds from contacting soil.
  • Apply layers of mulch up to 8cm deep after winter rains to retain moisture in soil.
  • It is environmentally preferable to use mulch containing coarse particles of wood, leaves or straw which have been recycled rather than pebbles.
  • Keep mulch away from tree trunks and plant stems to prevent rot.
  • Unless the mulch is rich in nitrogen (for example, Green Lucerne) it may be necessary to add some nitrogen such as blood and bone to your soil. Most mulch will take up nitrogen as it decomposes.

Visit Melbourne Water for more information.

Chemicals and your garden

Pesticides and fertilisers can be harmful if used incorrectly, so use chemicals with care.

While they are helpful in gardening, pesticides and fertilisers can be harmful to the environment if used incorrectly. Sprays can drift in the wind and powders can wash into waterways, moving from gardens into the natural environment.

Strong chemicals can kill our native insects, plants and animals. Too much fertiliser can put extra nutrients in our creeks and result in blue-green algae growing out of control and harming animals and people.

Reducing chemicals in your garden

  • Many insects in the garden such as ladybirds are “good guys” that will hunt and eat pests such as aphids. If you spray lots of chemicals in your garden you will also kill these beneficial insects and make your pest problem harder to control. Multi sprays kill anything they touch.
  • Too much fertiliser makes plants produce a lot of leafy growth that often becomes a target for pests.
  • Organic fertilisers such as compost, manures, seaweed and fish emulsion break down more slowly than synthetic (chemical) fertilisers and generally match the rate at which plants need the nutrients.
  • Synthetic fertilisers break down quickly and can ‘burn’ plant roots.
  • Organic fertilisers improve the soil structure, meaning the soil is better able to hold water and make it available to plants.
  • Synthetic fertilisers add nothing to the soil structure and tend to move easily from the soil after heavy rain or watering.
  • When a plant looks sick the worst thing you can do is feed it.

Download the Low Environmental Damage Chemicals Factsheet(PDF, 64KB)

 

 

 

Back to top