Low Impact

Growing your own food is - on the whole - easy, enjoyable and better for the planet. Practically anyone can do it, too - from the owner of the traditional “quarter-acre block” to a high-rise unit dweller. “Urban Farmer” might be overstating it a little - growing all your own food is a big ask! Still, we can all make a small contribution to our own dinner plates, and reduce our impact on the environment in the process.

The environmental benefits largely come from two factors:

• Food grown in your own backyard requires no transport to get to your table. Supermarket-purchased produce has at the very least been trucked hundreds or thousands of kilometres. In some cases, it’s even been shipped in from overseas!  All that travel requires oil (in the form of petrol, or diesel, or aviation fuel) to be burned, resulting in greenhouse gas emissions. Thats not even factoring in all the packaging that needs to be manufactured to protect the produce on its long trek to your table!

• The other benefit is that you control how you grow your own food. If you want to steer clear of dangerous pesticides and herbicides, the decision is in your hands.

Obviously, growing your own food has other, non-environmental benefits. With Australia’s current drought, food prices are going up and growing your own food could well save you a dollar or two. Whats more, growing your own fruit and vegetables can be enjoyable for its own sake - kids especially can get into the process of planting a tiny seed and seeing it grow into something that will end up on their dinner plate!

You can choose to dabble, or set up a massive, multi-bed garden - whatever works for your space, and your spare time! Living in a townhouse, we have a variety of herbs growing in our small courtyard - they go nicely with the flowers and ornamental plants, and its great to be able to duck out to cut some fresh rosemary or parsley rather than the wilted, wrapped-in-plastic samples that we’d otherwise buy from the supermarket.

And on our balcony, we’ve often got a pot or two vegetables or herbs on the go. This summer I’m going with a cherry tomato that doesn’t require staking. Its been planted out in some recycled pots, and gets regular fertiliser courtesy of the small worm farm I have in the garage. They’re going to be just the thing for salads when summer arrives!

Your local nursery should have a big range of vegetable seeds and seedlings, as well as small fruit trees or vines. You might also want to check out one of the mail-order seed catalogues to try your hand at rare or heirloom varieties of fruit and vegetables. And if you encounter problems, the internet is a great resource - I particularly like the ABC’s “Gardening Australia” website.

Categories: DIY, environment, green

Tags: drought, gardening, plants, self-sufficiency