Green Dean’s Blog

•

As the economy changes and utility bills increase, most people, especially families and small businesses, are feeling the pinch (a great Aussie expression!) While many people will complain of rising food, fuel and living costs, many will adapt by starting a home garden and growing their own food. Even without a garden, everyone can grow something in a pot, a box, an old bathtub, on a window sill and in many other creative spaces. It’s easier than you think and it’s much healthier for you, your family, your wallet and your planet.

My passion and business is all about sustainability and helping people save money and the Earth by growing your own food, which could include having a couple of chooks for eggs in your backyard. I live in Brisbane, where most land blocks and backyards are big compared to other cities in Australia, and I am astounded why more homes don’t have vegie patches and chooks. It takes a lot of pressure off shopping bills, is great for kids to be involved in and is good for the planet.

Now you might be thinking, ‘But I don’t have any space or a yard for a garden.'

 Well, there’s a lot of easy ideas to grow your own food in small spaces, and in fact, that’s what permaculture is all about – maximizing what you can produce in the space you have. Many people grow more than enough food to feed themselves and their neighbours just in balcony pots and planter boxes. Increasingly, we’re seeing more and more community and guerilla gardens popping up in cities around Australia, where the public can grow and pick their own vegies, fruit and herbs on footpath and street median strips, public gardens and even around bus and train stations.

To see the power of such a guerilla garden, read the article posted previously about a community garden that saved a small town in the UK, called Vegies Save a Town.

Bunnings, garden centres and nurseries will all be able to set you up with the right pots and planters, soil, seeds, seedlings and other garden needs to get you started. There really is no excuse not to grow something, however small a space, in your home or workplace. Many businesses are also now growing their own herbs and vegies in small spaces, for use is their cafés and restaurants.

Some important tips I highly recommend, if you are considering growing your own food, include:

  • Make sure you use as much organic material as possible, including soil, seeds and seedlings.
  • Try to maximize what you can produce in your given space, such as planting a few varieties of herbs in the one pot.
  • Grow what you’ll eat the most, and what grows well in your area or climate. Leafy greens and herbs grow fast, can be picked daily without killing the plant and are easy to care for, feed and water.
  • Grow fun stuff that you and your family can enjoy regularly, such as culinary herbs, leafy greens and easy-grow vegies like capsicum, chillies, eggplants, beans, peas and even dwarf varieties of citrus fruit and berries.
  • If you do have a larger space, make sure you compost all your kitchen scraps, lawn and garden clippings and other organic matter to put back into your soil and garden beds.

It's much easier than you thought to learn about composting, small permaculture gardens and growing your own in small spaces. Come on ... start today! Decide on at least one pot or space and plant something you can enjoy eating in a few weeks. In Queensland, we’re very lucky to be able to grow most things year round without too much trouble, and certainly our seasons are warm enough to stretch out a good growing period for most home use vegies, fruit and herbs. Enjoy!

•

In the late 1970s in Australia, backyard or urban farming started to decline. People stopped keeping chickens, many times because of noise complaints and also because local council laws began changing around Australia. Supermarkets increased their range and availability of produce year round, making it more convenient for people to shop for their food instead of growing it. Families got busy. Life sped up. The focus changed to fast, easy consumption and away from sustainability. A generation focused on growing and producing their own food aged and died, and many traditional skills, such as food growing, chicken keeping, preserving and composting suddenly seemed archaic and hippy.

Statistics show that in 1960, around 92% of Aussie homes had backyard edible gardens and kept a few chooks, including roosters. Noise complaints about roosters crowing at 4am were very rare. Neighbours routinely swapped produce, information and stories. It was a simpler, and perhaps much healthier, happier time. Those of us old enough to remember those days, and still in love with growing our own food, keeping a few chooks and maintaining good relationships with our neighbours, would love to see a return of those days, and certainly there are some lucky people who have maintained or achieved that where they live now.

There is hope, though!

There’s a quiet revolution and revival growing in pace and popularity throughout Australia and many developed countries around the world. More people are waking up to the fact that those responsible for producing and safeguarding the food and produce we consume have long been taking shortcuts when it comes to our health and wellbeing, and the safety, care and respect for our planet. Big powerful corporations have slowly gained control over all kinds of food and natural capital, resulting in the exploitation of humans, animals and habitats. But will they take control of our backyards and verges? There is evidence they are trying, with companies like Monsanto trying to stop people seed saving from their own gardens, trying to force the use GMO (genetically modified organisms) and chemical use on our food, and in many ways threatening the survival of natural, ancient food as we know it on Earth.

Whether you subscribe to this or not, or you just want to live a simpler, more sustainable life, growing your own food and caring for your own space, you are part of a revolution – a growing wave of people choosing to take more control and responsibility for their own health and wellbeing, and for the welfare of their planet. The more of us taking up urban farming, which is as ancient as human civilisation, the stronger our collective voice will be if such a voice is needed to combat potential threats to our food systems in the future from multinationals seeking to patent nature and control what goes into our mouths.

Want to do more?

Grow more food! As much as you can, in every space possible. Produce, make, preserve and store more of your own food also. Eat less meat. Shop for commercial produce and products less, and network more in your local and wider community. You are a stronger cog in the wheel of positive change and greater sustainability on the Earth than you realise.