Grow Your Own
Small Space Container Garden - grow herbs
like thyme, rosemary, basil, mint, and garlic
chives, salad & asian greens ( rocket, lettuce )
and strawberries.
If you have a bit more room go for pots of
dwarf tomatoes, and chilli bushes. But good
sun, not too hot, and water often.
No Dig Garden - on a base of wet
newspapers (weed barrier) build a “lasagne”
of alternating brown (carbon-based - straw,
leaves, wood chips, newspapers) and green
(nitrogen-rich - manure, compost, worm
castings.) layers. Water each as you build.
Perfect for potatoes, beans, pumpkins, & in
second year for deeper rooted vegetables -
carrots, onions, beetroot.
Let’s Be The Change
Activating
Sustainable Living
in Moonee Valley
Reducing Food Waste
Suburban Bush Tucker - edible Australian
native plants like muntries, finger lime,
warrigal greens, apple-berry, native pig-face,
midgen berry, and sea-celery, can add spice to
small gardens. In larger spaces, trees like
riberry, and macadamia. Resource 3-19.
Food Swaps
Community Gardens
Swapping your surplus food or buying direct
from the grower helps you plan your meals
around fresh, in-season fruit, vegetables and
herbs. It also reduced “Food Miles” and saves
“not quite perfect for supermarkets” food from
landfill.
Moonee Valley Garden Group - Swap
60 Maribyrnong Rd Ascot Vale 3032
Pascoe Vale Food Swap
Gavin Park Pascoe Vale 3044
The Big Picnic / Regents Produce - Swap
Edwardes Lake, Reservoir 3073
CERES Urban Orchard - Swap
Stewart St Brunswick East 3057
Ascot Vale Community Garden
Walter Street Ascot Vale 3032
Avondale Heights Community Garden
22 River Dr, Avondale Heights 3034
Essendon Community Garden
56 Brisbane St, Ascot Vale 3032
Active Compost - use a Bokashi type
fermentation system, which can process
prepared foods, meat, dairy, egg, coffee & tissues
into compost Resource 3-12
Compost Farming - start a worm farm and let
them turn your fruit and vegetable scraps in
liquid fertilizer and rich composted soil.
Active Farming - build a chicken run and nesting
box ( or find a neighbour with one ) and feed
them with your food scraps. They will eat what
they like and crush what they don’t like, creating
a composted soil, while laying fresh eggs.
REDUCING FOOD
WASTE
Activating Sustainable Living
in Moonee Valley
Store potatoes and onions in the dark and cool,
and away from each other, because like bananas,
they give off a gas that quick-ripens and spoils
other vegetables.
Eat Everything - thoughtful planning means no
wasted food, just enough for the one meal, or a
cascade of left-overs into other meals. Resource
3-13
Be Wise With Water - hygiene and meal
preparation comes first, but develop a plan for
the separation and collection of this water, and
use it to grow more food.
Buy Imperfect Produce - such as single bananas,
‘the odd bunch’ and unusual shapes.
Basic Compost - collecting your fruit and
vegetable peelings and cuttings for an outside,
garden compost bin - In-ground, or On-ground
to let in the worms & bugs.
Household food waste averages 400 kgs per
person per year. And half that is food bought,
never eaten, and sent straight to landfill.
Resource 6-1 & 6-2
Another issue is the huge amount of water
used to grow food. In Melbourne, our average
household use is 260 litres, but the food
grown and processed for that household uses
an extra 475 lt per day. Resource 3-20
What Can You Do?
Start a simple food waste diary and get an
idea of what you do throw out.
Sort your pantry, bring older items to the front.
Plan meals around what you have.
Donate your surplus to a charity or the Little
Food Pantry
Organise your fridge and cloth wrap
cucumber, herbs, capsicum, celery, beans and
eggplant, don’t pack the shelves - let the fridge
breathe on the inside.
Online resource topics at:
or bit.ly/3rqpLxs