Grow Goulburn Mulwaree Farms and Gardens
The Grow Goulburn Mulwaree Farms and Gardens project launches two groups: a Grazing and Farming Group that welcomes all graziers and promotes regenerative/resilient practices and; a community in Goulburn Mulwaree made up of individual streets to promote sustainable gardens and biodiversity
The vision for the Grazing and Farming Group is:-
To have healthy, sustainable and profitable farms and farming families across Goulburn Mulwaree.
The Mission of the Grazing and Farming Group is:-
To promote the adoption of Regenerative Practices to help farmers in times of drought and rising temperatures; to improve the landscape and to build trust and expertise in the farming community so as to be able to cope with the changing conditions.
The vision for the Sustainable Gardens part of the project is:-
To create a community of sustainable private gardens and public green spaces that will help to develop healthy families
The Mission of the Sustainable Gardens Part of the Project is:-
To help gardeners to make their gardens sustainable; to grow vegetables and increase biodiversity by planting to attract wildlife. This in turn to keep the garden and the area around the house cool.
See the leaflet on sustainable gardens:- https://www.cv-4h.org/information-leaflet.html
About The Street Community
This plan is the first of a number under the “Building Hume’s Future Together” program and is starting in Goulburn Mulwaree.
The plan is designed to help its residents to adapt to life in times of drought and rising temperatures in a way that will improve the environment and create new jobs.
The “Building Hume’s Future Together” program aligns to existing Council and NSW Regional plans, in particular: the Regional Community Strategy Plan; Community Social Sustainability Strategy Plan; the recently updated Climate Change Risk Assessment and Mitigation Plan.
This project will help with one of the most important climate mitigation strategies identified in the Council’s Climate Change Risk Assessment and Adaptation plan, which is to increase the number of trees, bushes and other vegetation to help keep temperatures down, especially around private houses.
The objective of the sustainable gardens plan is to improve the ability of private and public gardens survive and, hopefully, thrive in difficult conditions. It is also to support the growing vegetables to help with the sustainability of families and individuals .
The plan is in draft and the next step is to call a public meeting to socialise the larger program, extend the membership of Commuity Voice for Hume and the project team prior to its roll out.
To align this project to the Council’s vision and its Social Sustainability Plan, the project uses the term “sustainability” in referring to the objectives of the project.
Keys to Achieving Garden Sustainability and the Summary Benefits
The keys to achieving garden sustainability are
- to increase the amount of moisture in the ground and
- to improve the quality of the soil.
This will reduce water use and help to:-
Reduce soil temperature as well as the temperature of the areas around gardens and houses
- Sequester carbon in the soil thereby reducing CO2 in the atmosphere
- Generate more rainfall by reducing atmospheric water vapour which comprises 80% of greenhouse gases.
Keys to Achieving Improved Grazing and Farm Productivity
Since European settlement Australian agricultural soils have lost about two-thirds of their carbon content. But as soil-carbon expert John White has reported, a 0.5 per cent increase in soil carbon on only 2 per cent of our agricultural lands would more than offset all of Australia’s emissions from all sectors.
Advice from Dr John Hewson, chair of the Business Council for Sustainable Development is that this increase to our soil carbon is achievable through the adoption of Regenerative/Resilient Agriculture.