A collection of factsheets that will help you on your journey to reducing your footprint. Every little bit counts!
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BAAG Park and Community Partnerships – BAAG has been working to improve habitat, protect local ecosystems and plant species in the Little Bolin Parkland adjoining our garden centre for over twenty years.
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Backyard Chooks – Sceptics say that you can’t have a garden with chooks. They dig up plants, they make a mess of mulch, they leave droppings around, but this could be said of many pets. My experience is that a garden just isn’t one without them. To see them strutting around the lawn, or lying down and stretching out their wings to soak up the sunshine brings colour and movement to a backyard like nothing else.
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Bolin Bolin Billabong – The Bolin Bolin Cultural Landscape Precinct is part of the “Valley of the Arts”, which derives its identity from its arts and cultural heritage. Places of interest include Heide MOMA, Banksia Park, Bulleen Art and Garden, the Bolin Bolin Billabong, the Veneto Club and Bulleen Park.
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Benefits of being in the garden – When I feel blue, or need a distraction from the stresses of life, I head into the garden! Time slows and my mood becomes lighter when my fingers are in the dirt and the intricacies of the world beyond my back door come to life before my eyes. There are many health benefits to be had from gardening. Here are a few of my favourites…
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Community Gardens – What is a community garden and what’s the fuss about? There are many fabulous advantages for your community to have a shared garden. If you’re curious, or thinking about getting involved, here are a few aspects of community gardening you might find interesting.
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Holiday-proof your garden – Planning to get away for a break is a part of summer in Australia. But the last thing you want to happen is to go away on a holiday, only to find a dead garden when you return. So before you head off, it’s time to holiday-proof the garden.
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Friends of Yarra Valley Parks – The Friends of Yarra Valley Parks is a group whose primary aim is to involve the wider community in conservation issues and activities within the Yarra Valley Parklands. Their activities include plant propagation, planting and weed removal.
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Nestboxes – A nestbox can provide a range of native birds and animals with shelter, and you with hours of joy watching once elusive fauna frolic in your backyard! There are a few things you need to consider when installing a nestbox (or two) in your garden.
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Permaculture – Feeling daunted by permaculture terminology? Wondering what it all means and whether you can have a slice of the Permaculture pie? Let us lead you gently through zones, elements and relative locations with our simple guide.
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Pot and Soft Plastic recycling – Unfortunately we are no longer able to offer a pot recycling service at BAAG. Check this page for info on services of the six local government areas closest to us. We DO offer a recycling service for all soft plastic purchased at BAAG (Potting Mix bags, yard bulk bags etc). You will find the container for soft plastic bags in the Landscape Yard.
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The Renter’s Guide to Produce Gardening – It can be tricky setting up a productive garden when you don’t own your own place. However it’s certainly not impossible – so if you rent and you’re dreaming of a bountiful yard full of homegrown produce, here are some tips on how to go about it.
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Starting a gardening group – I love working in the garden. However when you have limited time and/or small children, sometimes the hard yakka you want to put into gardening is pushed down the list of priorities after changing nappies, making a kite, sticking feathers on a headband, doing the washing, walking to the playground… So a few years ago my friend Ella and I started a fortnightly gardening group, to get our friends and their kids helping out in each other’s gardens.
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Use Quality Tools – Often when it comes to garden tools people think the cheaper the better. Like anything, you get what you pay for and you should always buy the best you can afford. Why? Well, there are a number of reasons, the first being that cheap garden tools simply don’t last long, be they secateurs, shovels, shears, picks or loppers.
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What is Urban Ecology? – A few thoughts from BAAG’s CEO – In nature the line between the natural and built environment is never as clear cut as you might expect. Interactions are continuous. Native animals and plants seek out new habitat while combating the impacts of humans and invasive species. These interactions make up the urban ecology and the systems that we are all a part of.
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What to do with your excess produce – Gluts, gluts, gluts. Funny word, but gluts in your produce garden are rather unfunny if you can’t get rid of the excess. It’s a familiar story: joy as we watch the new season’s vegetable and fruit crops starting out healthy and abundant, and our disappointment with the waste when crops become over-productive.
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Why grow your own? – Growing your own fruit and vegetables is one of the most environmentally friendly things you can do. Here’s why!
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Why your garden matters! – Every garden is its own (or is a unique but connected) ecosystem containing an extraordinary array of living organisms including plants, fungi, bacteria, microbes, insects and animals that all impact on the health and resilience of the living network.