Top Tips to Tread Lightly in 2022

The recent challenges of wild weather and flooding around Northern New South Wales and along the Eastern coastline of Australia have dramatically highlighted the unpredictability of the weather and the magnitude of the impacts that these severe weather events can have on our health, our food supply systems and our immediate resources.

While it has certainly hammered home the need to take much better care of our Mother Earth, we know that it can sometimes feel overwhelming knowing where to begin. Listening to the voices of our beautiful community, even the simplest things are feeling challenging for everyone at the moment. Many of us still deeply sharing and experiencing the ripples of flood trauma across our community. With our stories reaching wider Australia, it has also signalled a great need for stronger communities, compassion and readiness in times like these. 

So for Earth Month this year, we felt like sharing a few simple things to celebrate our Mother Earth, keep our communities connected and to also help each of us feel a little better prepared when these extreme events may happen in future.

Grow

A simple way to become self-sustainable while nourishing our bodies and nurturing Mother Earth is to create a herb and vegetable garden, however big or small, to grow our own food. This can be done by building a simple veggie bed, purchasing a pre-made bed or creating a “no-dig” garden above the ground. A small food garden can also be created inexpensively by repurposing styrofoam boxes or old planters. Making your own compost is also a great way to add rich nutrients and valuable microbes to the soil. This can simply be a matter of collecting all your food scraps in a bucket in the kitchen and then putting them in a compost bin in the garden. Turn and aerate the compost regularly and beautiful compost for your garden can be produced in just a few months. Compost bins can usually be purchased from your local Council. One of our favourite creative ideas can be found at www.subpod.com.au. This is an inspiring system where a worm farm forms part of your garden bed and all you need to do is give the worms your food scraps and they create a nutrient dense vegetable garden by processing the compost, fertilising and aerating the soil. 

Create

Build and create relationships with your local neighbours and farmers. If you and your neighbours are already growing your own food, it’s likely that there will be a surplus of produce that can be shared amongst your immediate community. Visit farmers markets and get to know your local farmers so that you can be more connected to what is grown in the seasons and what is abundant in your area. This also gives you a good idea of what grows well in your surrounding area and what you may be able to grow easily and successfully yourself! By connecting and strengthening these vital links within our community, not only do we create new friendships, it also means that our food supply chains are less likely to be impacted and interrupted when these severe weather events limit the transport of food from further away.

Connect

Spend a little bit of time each day doing something you love, taking a walk in nature or simply just connecting with yourself. Taking care of ourselves and nurturing our connection with Mother Earth is such a simple and beautiful way to rest, reset and recover from some of the wilder effects of Mother Nature that we’ve recently experienced! Take a moment to sit with her somewhere and marvel at her magnificence!