My Smart Garden
Hobsons Bay 360 #94: Empowering residents to make sustainable choices
Hobsons Bay City Council respects and treasures our environment, and offer many programs, services and events centred around improving sustainability.
My Smart Garden is a free sustainable gardening program that supports residents in transforming their outdoor spaces into productive, functional gardens.
The program is designed to help residents to grow their own food, shelter their homes from the sun and wind, create homes for local wildlife, use water wisely and to recycle waste.
The program offers free sustainable gardening workshops, a monthly newsletter with seasonal tips, online resources, and recommended library books plus opportunities to swap and share with local gardeners. Subscribe here.
The program has solutions for small, rented balconies through to larger suburban gardens across five themes: food, waste, water, shelter and habitat.
My Smart Garden also tackles issues like:
- climate change
- biodiversity and resource consumption and
- increases health and wellbeing through food security, cost of living, physical and mental health and social connection.
Participants also report that they feel more positive, that My Smart Garden is saving them money, and that the program is influencing other sustainability practices like buying local, cutting food waste, avoiding chemical use, participating in revegetation programs, and reducing consumption.
Picture: Jane, a My Smart Garden participant in Newport.
“The presenters all come with great technical knowledge [and offer] practical knowledge and skills that I can apply right away. All through winter I had staples like silver beet, broccoli, beetroot, pumpkins and potatoes. Previously I would have to buy all these, and with the extreme weather lately the prices have shot up.” Read Jane’s full case study on the My Smart Garden website.
Read about Council’s work around Sustainability, click here.
My Smart Garden is a cross-council collaboration between Hobsons Bay, Moonee Valley, Maribyrnong, Brimbank, Wyndham, Stonnington, Merri-bek, Yarra, Glen Eira, Boroondara and Port Phillip City Councils.
a series of stories exploring all corners of Hobsons Bay.