SOIL: The world beneath our feet and its importance to our food and environment

This winter we had a freezing Saturday morning; however, our Boyd community garden space was warm, welcoming and buzzing with the energy of enthusiastic Southbank residents who turned up to support our gardening efforts.

July arrived with lots of rain, which was great for the garden replenishing the watering levels. In May and June, we planted seedlings and seeds, including leeks, fennel, kohlrabi, turnips, parsley, radishes, rocket, brussel sprouts, silverbeet and lettuce. These plants are growing well with the vegetable beds looking healthy.

The green foliage of these vegetable beds made up for the absence of flowers and colourful blooms in cold weather. However, the leeks and fennel were picked too early by those disregarding our “not quite ready to pick” signages.

Southbank Sustainability Group (SSG) would like to request our community, to look out for the GREEN “ready to harvest” signal rocks. Alternatively, checkout the harvesting information on our Notice board in the garden space.

SSG volunteers have been busy through chilly winter mornings to get the beds ready for spring time planting. In the second fortnight of July at our working bee, volunteers cleaned weeds and applied worm juices, fresh mulch to the soil, in preparation for spring.

The soil is now ready to welcome spring! The importance of soil health cannot be overlooked as an integral part of environmental sustainability.

Healthy soil is crucial for supporting plant life, food production, and human wellbeing on Earth. It is the foundation of agriculture, maintenance of ecosystems – it impacts plant growth to water quality to climate regulation. A healthy soil is a living ecosystem, and it is crucial for the younger generation to learn about its importance.

The healthy soil school competition is now open to school students (deadline October 12) and the theme for this year is “The World Beneath our Feet – its Importance to our Food and Environment”. Check the link soilweek.org.au/schools-competition for details of competition and other valuable information.

Sustainability tips from our SSG volunteers

The 2025 tax return season has just concluded. We put a question to all our volunteers on what sustainable practices WFH Southbank residents should follow and would advocate for, to live and work sustainably.

One of the big suggestions from SSG volunteer Hars is to avoid buying new products (printers, copiers, calculators, paper, pens etc.) just to claim tax rebate in tax returns.

Other ways to reduce electronic waste in daily life would be to use excellent tech facilities available in our City of Melbourne library network for copying, printing, etc.

Additionally, we should encourage sustainability by walking or using bikes or public transport for local commutes, using LED bulbs and lighting at home and working area.

Check out some other suggestions:

The Woolworths REDcycle plastic recycling is back. Check out your local participating stores and to drop off eligible soft plastics, such as plastic bags, bread bags, chip packets, cereal liners, and confectionery packaging, at designated collection points within participating stores. Select Coles, Aldi and Woolworths have deposit boxes for battery disposals. Telstra, Optus and Vodafone have collection boxes to drop used mobiles and other electronics for recycling.

Explore the Makerspaces spaces at our City of Melbourne libraries (Docklands, Queen Victoria Market and Kathleen Syme Library and Community Centre), which provide free access to high-tech gadgets like badge makers, sewing machines, 3D printers, editing software, DJ equipment and more. Make use of these. Hopefully soon we Southbank residents get our own Makerspace. Visit Makerspaces link melbourne.vic.gov.au/makerspaces for details.

About the group

Southbank Sustainability Group is a solutions-focused group of Southbank residents working to bring positive change in sustainability practices. Reach us

at [email protected] or via Facebook and Instagram.

If you are interested in getting involved, join us at our upcoming August meet-up on Saturdays August 16 and 30 at Boyd Community Hub between 10am to 12pm. •