Composting

Anything organic can be composted, including fruit and vegetable peelings, newspapers, grass clippings, weeds, tea leaves, coffee grounds, egg shells, potting mix, flowers, hair and fur. Avoid putting meat and dairy products into your compost until you are experienced, as these might attract mice and rats.

In 4 easy steps you can set up your own compost:

1. Choose the site for your compost: A good drainage and shade are ideal.
2. What can you compost: A compost is a mix of different organic materials, you can therefore compost basically everything that was once a plant or an animal.
3. Layering: The best way to start a compost is with a thick layer (15 cm) of twigs or coarse mulch at the bottom to facilitate the drainage. The next (thin) layer (A) should be kitchen organics and green garden organics. Cover completely with a layer (B) of brown garden organics, suchas straw, wood shavings, hedge clippings, bracken, saw dust, wood shavings, leafmould. Finally moist (C) these layers well. Then repeat steps A-C.
4. Maintaining your compost: To avoid smell it is important to add air. You can either turn it with a garden fork or place garden stakes or pipes through the heap. Cover your heap to avoid a wet compost. Sprinkle soil or finished compost on top of the food scraps to minimise odours and introduce the micro-organisms that recycle

Worm-Farms

Worm-farms are a great way to turn your organic kitchen leftovers into a rich fertiliser. Worm-farms are especially convenient, if you live on a small block or a flat, as they can even be placed on a balcony.

How to build your own worm-farm:

1. Choose the site for your worm-farm: the spot should not be too hot or cold.
2. Get 2 boxes. Poke about twenty holes in the bottom of one box. Put the lid and place it on the box without  holes. The bottom box will catch the liquid produced by the worms (worm tea).
3. Layers: Place about 10 cm shredded paper, leaves and finished compost as a bedding layer.To this you should add about 1,000 worms. The worms used for worm farms are called compost worms, tiger worms or red wrigglers. Cover the bedding with a layer of hessian, newspaper, carpet etc. Once the worms have burrowed into the bedding (two to three days) you can start adding small amounts of kitchen scraps.
4. What to feed your worms: vegetable and fruit peel, tea bags, coffee grounds, paper. Avoid meat, dairy products, gardening waste, and acid foods like onion, garlic, citrus.
5. Harvesting your castings: move them to one side of the farm and add new food to the other side. Soon your worms will migrate into the food pile, and it will be safe to remove your castings.  In addition, the liquid which is called 'worm tea' that collects in the bottom box can be used as a liquid fertiliser, once it has been diluted. It should be diluted at about 1 part worm tea to 9 parts water.

Manly Vale Community Garden

• • 4-8 Innes Road, Manly Vale

Rozelle Bay Community Nursery

• • Chapman Rd (rear 3-7 Crescent), Annadale

Glebe Community Garden

• • 132 St Johns Road, Glebe

Newtown Community Garden

• • In the grounds of Jane Evans Day Care Centre, off Longdown St, Newtown

Angle St Permaculture Garden

• • Corner of Angle and Harold Streets, Newtown

Woolloomooloo Garden

• • Corner of Dowling Street and Sydney Place, Woolloomooloo

Greg Hewish Memorial Garden

• • In the grounds of St Saviours Anglican Church, corner of Ogden and Marriot Streets, Redfern

The Luncheon Club Eden Garden

• • In the grounds of the Uniting Church, 56A Raglan St, Waterloo

Cook, Solander and Marton Gardens

• • Raglan St, Waterloo

• Teaching children about their favourite fruits and vegetables and the local biodiversity
• Hands on learning experience exploring issues around planting, sustainability and human impact
• Increasing environmental awareness
• Improvement of environmental attitudes
• Encouragement of a healthy diet
• Increasing physical activity

The school benefits from locally grown, nutritious fruits and vegetables for healthy, environment friendly school lunches.

Local School Garden example:

The Balgowlah Heights Public School Eco Garden
Balgowlah Heights Public School Eco Garden has been set up to teach children about growing seasonal fruits and vegetables, from cultivation and preparation to planting, harvesting and maintenance. Students from Kindergarten through to year 6 gain hands on sustainability and healthy eating education through their new eco garden.
The garden was funded by the Manly Council, Coles, Junior Landcare, The Green Room and Bunnings.

The main use of a community garden is to grow vegetables, fruits and herbs or whatever the community desires. You will often find events, workshops, shared cooking and eating in a community garden, which enhance the community ties.

Community gardens offer a sustainable gardening solution.

• Cutting down on long distance transportation
• Growing of seasonal fruit and vegetables, which benefits the local environment
• Access to nutritious and healthy food

Local Community Garden example:

The Manly Vale Community Garden
The newly established Manly Vale Community Garden will create a meeting place for the local community, where people can share ideas of organic food growing, food preparation and eating. The community garden shares education, peer learning and sustainable use of the allocated land with the wider community.
The aim is to establish a network between the community, government, and businesses. This will facilitate the on-going support of the Manly Vale Community Garden and make it a successful social activity for the local community.