Sunshine Coast residents can put their fruit or vegetable patch on the map during a nationwide celebration of backyard farming.
Sunshine Coast Council has partnered with the Grow It Local program, alongside 52 other councils and almost 19,000 growers across Australia.
The program provides aspiring gardeners with opportunities to learn skills, connect with others and to embrace healthy and sustainable ways of living, which will contribute towards our biosphere.
The program includes the Grow it Local Spring Festival which starts on Saturday, September 17.
More than 100 growers from around the region have already registered to participate.
Council has invited residents, businesses, schools and community groups to take part in festival activities.
The festival will include a grow along challenge, which gives residents the opportunity to grow a garden salad from scratch, alongside master gardener and celebrity chef Paul West.
Sunshine Coast Council Environment and Liveability Portfolio Councillor Maria Suarez said getting into the garden was an activity that everyone should have the chance to enjoy.
“The Grow It Local program is a fantastic initiative that aims to make growing more accessible, provide a connection to nature and inspire positive health and wellbeing,” she said.
“The initiative is part of a nation-wide mission to make growing more accessible, encourage us to share and eat locally grown food, help build stronger and more resilient communities, increase composting, and reduce organic waste going into landfill, all while having fun.
“Interest in growing food at home has soared over the past couple of years, and despite the surge in interest, a lack of knowledge and skills is a key barrier faced by aspiring growers.
“Council’s partnership with Grow It Local seeks to address this hurdle by enabling knowledge and skills to be shared, to help edible gardeners succeed.
“Whether that’s harvesting the herbs in your courtyard or balcony, spending the day planting seedlings in your neighbour’s sprawling yard or learning some tips from a third-generation gardening guru, there’s a way for everyone to get involved.”
The festival will include local visits from River Cottage Australia’s Paul West, the Grow It Local Awards and a number of exciting workshops and local activations.
Mr West said the mission at Grow It Local was to make life happier, healthier and more delicious.
“We believe that one way to achieve this is simply to grow and eat more salad,” he said.
Participants in this year’s grow along challenge will learn how to make a delicious garden salad from scratch, using organic green butter-crunch lettuce and organic red lettuce salad bowl seeds.
Residents who register for the grow along challenge will have access to instructional how-to-grow videos from Paul West where they can learn about these plants’ origins, their nutritional values and health benefits and harvesting tips.
With the grow along program kicking off this weekend, locals can access the Zoom link and register to participate via Grow It Local.
While orders for free salad seeds have closed on the Grow It Local website, residents can take part in the grow along challenge by sourcing organic lettuce salad seeds from local suppliers such as Green Harvest Organic Gardening or their local garden centre, home and hardware or feed barn.
More information about local spring activations and how to get involved in the Grow It Local program can be found via Living Smart.
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