Blog
Our blog features a variety of gardening and growing tips on topics such as soil biology, wicking bed construction, composting, grafting, pruning, water-saving and irrigation. Plus we regularly post recipes to help you make the most of the ‘seasonal glut’ and tips on how to live in a more sustainable way.
Recycling Footwear
It's the start of the sports season and you realise that your budding footballer or netball star has outgrown their shoes. How will you dispose of them? A few enterprises are now focusing on upcycling or recycling sports footwear and equipment or making recyclable...
Queensland Fruit Fly Strategy no.7
It is now late April and Queensland Fruit Fly (QFF) is abundant, infesting raspberries, guavas and feijoas in particular. Watch out for infestations also in persimmons and tamarillos as they ripen, and later in citrus. There are three actions to take: Remove any fruit...
Figuring out the fig!
The fig family is a complicated one when it comes to fertilisation, choice of variety, cropping and pruning, but very easy to grow in most soil conditions and in our climate. Different types of fig There are 4 types of fig: Adriatic or common figs which are a variety...
Jagajaga Volunteer Award recipients
The annual Jagajaga Volunteer Awards which were presented on 2 April to 51 recipients including six members of Sustainable Macleod. Most recipients received awards for service to Jagajaga across a number of organisations. The awards were presented by our federal...
What worked and didn’t work for prevention of Queensland Fruit Fly (QFF)
Please send us about 200 words on what worked and didn't work for you. Thanks Greta and Marie-Claire for your contributions! From Greta in Heidelberg Heights: This summer QFF infected our nectarines and to a lesser extent our Chinese quince. Nothing else was affected....
The under-rated turnip!
Turnip top tips Net seedlings Water well Succession plant for a constant supply Eat when young Turnips are a much under-rated but easily grown vegetable. The root can be eaten raw either grated into a coleslaw or sliced for a salad or cut into fingers for dips;...
Banyule Bicycle Strategy
Rising petrol prices, increased road congestion with the pandemic and the indisputable health benefits have all made cycling more popular than ever. Banyule City Council have released the Banyule Bicycle Strategy for 2022-2027, building on the 2010-2020 Bicycle...
Harvesting, curing and storing pumpkins
Pumpkins are planted in spring and harvested in autumn. That means they take up space for anything from 4-6 months so harvesting, curing and storing them carefully is a must if we are not to waste that long growing period and have our own supply throughout winter. How...
Banyule’s No Local Species Extinction plan – part 2
Jen Willis interviewed Banyule’s biodiversity adviser, Paul Davis about the No Local Species Extinction Plan that Council are developing. If you haven’t already, you can read the first part of the interview with more information about the six key indicator species...
Get to know your committee
We recently held our annual AGM and voted in our committee for the coming year. Find out all about the newly elected committee and why they decided to get involved.Paul Gale-Baker - President I am grateful to be elected President of Sustainable Macleod for another...
Great news – Banyule is developing a No Local Species Extinction plan!
You may have seen a request from Banyule City Council’s (Council) biodiversity team for community group input into the No Local Extinction Plan they are developing. This is the first action plan of its kind locally and is a fantastic initiative to attempt to retain as...
All those cords and old mobiles? …solutions for managing your E-waste
Each time you upgrade your phone, TV or other electrical device, the redundant or broken item becomes ‘e-waste’. How can we do our bit to keep e-waste out of landfill? Firstly, we need to understand the definition of e-waste. E- waste is a much broader category of...
What’s wrong with my zucchini?
I have always assumed that pollination is a once off event for fruit and vegetables. In other words, I’ve always assumed that a fruit has either been pollinated or it has not. But, from my research, it appears that this is not true for all fruit, including zucchini....
What Banyule Clean Energy Group can do for local organisations
Local support centre BANSIC, which provides emergency food relief and other services, has experienced much higher demand for assistance over the past year. As a result, they’ve had to install additional fridges and freezers to store enough food for our community’s...
Join Sustainable Macleod
Become a member and get access to the community garden, the tool library and our seed library. We welcome all members of the community and have regular events and workshops to enjoy.