Greener living - ABC Organic Gardener Magazine

Greener living

Join our green living community where we share tips and insights on the best eco-friendly practices, from reducing household waste to simple ways to save water. Be inspired by your fellow travellers!

This hover fly is good for pollinating flowers.

What's happening

Student citizen science project encourages love for bugs

New research shows students who take part in insect-based citizen science projects are more likely to adopt pro-environmental behaviours.

Seed saving helps preserve desirable traits and build crop resilience.

Organic life

Seed saving for the future

Leonie Shanahan looks at why seed saving is so important to our health and food security.

Image of Lottie Dalziel (founder of Banish) in front of the recycling drop off.

Organic homes

Creating eco-friendly waste solutions

Banish founder Lottie Dalziel is helping to create new solutions for those hard-to-recycle products through the program BRAD.

Panels can work whichever way your roof is facing but get advice to make sure you can maximise power production.

Organic homes

Making the most of solar panels

Solar panels on your mind (and your roof)? Here's some tips to keep them providing you with the energy you need.

Jensen enjoys his time in the Wayside Chapel rooftop garden.

Inspirational gardeners

Gardening above the fray

The Wayside Chapel rooftop garden is an oasis above the busy city, providing a quiet haven for those who need it, writes Leanne Croker.

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Community

There's multiple benefits to having a garden in the school environment.

Organic solutions

A green learning environment

One principal’s vision to enhance his students learning environment through gardening has everyone at the school seeing green, writes Kate Neale.

You can help keep track of local frog populations, like this Motorbike frog.

Community

Become a citizen scientist

Looking for a holiday activity that you can do in your own backyard or local area? Try helping out researchers by becoming a citizen scientist.

Greener living

Community owned food co-ops

Looking for an ethical alternative to grocery giants? Jacqueline Forster takes a look at one food co-op and what it offers.

Greener living

A seed of an idea

A small project to start a street seed library in a Tassie town is expanding throughout the state’s north.

Community

Thousands of men (and women) are coming out of the woodwork as part of the Men’s Shed movement, finding a place for friendship, handiwork, community gardening and, ultimately, better wellbeing, writes LINDA COCKBURN.

Community

If you can’t beat ’em…

JUSTIN RUSSELL's apple trees have finished fruiting for the season, so he turns to a Stanthorpe orchardist to get an apple fix into winter.

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Organic life

Organic life

A life filled with the joy of chooks

Celebrity chook lady Elaine Janes has a very special connection with her feathered friends, it all starts with a firm hold.

Mchaley Ho, holding a chicken, from her time as a volunteer on a farm.

Organic life

What is WWOOFing?

Established in 1971, the international WWOOF program allows organic farmers to share their home and experience with travellers.

A container of hemp milk next to hemp seeds.

Organic life

Real-world uses for eco-friendly hemp

When it comes to sustainability, it's hard to beat hemp, especially as it has so many practical uses.

Native flowers growing wild in the bush.

Organic life

Have you considered a natural burial?

Leanne Croker considers how she wants to be buried so the disposal of her remains makes the least impact on the earth.

Organic life

Beware buruli

Although previously a tropical problem, over the last few years Buruli cases have spiked in Victoria with potential for it to spread.

Saving seeds and then packaging them up as gifts.

Organic life

The art of organic gift giving

We gardeners have plenty to give, whether it's a homemade present from our harvests, sharing our growing experience or taking the time to help others.

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Inspirational gardeners

The cliffs of the coast of Norfolk Island with some Norfolk Island Pines scattered along the top.

Inspirational gardeners

Norfolk Island: a living history

Norfolk Island has a colourful past that includes convicts and the descendants of mutineers, but it is its natural history that provides inspiration for the future.

Inspirational gardeners

Wurundjeri Biik Baan

This indigenous garden, with a focus on the significance of water, was created for the 2025 Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show.

Inspirational gardeners

In conversation with: Costa Georgiadis

Costa Georgiadis's love of gardening is an absolute joy, and it's catching. The best part? He also has heaps of hope for our future.

Inspirational gardeners

Gardening for all seasons

Linda Blencowe says gardening is an ever-unfolding adventure and an opportunity to hone her skills throughout each season.

The grounds of the Heide Museum of Modern Art include a healing garden.

Inspirational gardeners

A garden for the senses

Heide Museum of Modern Art, which used to be the home of Sunday and John Reed, is open to all with its rich cultural and plant history and many sensory and food gardens.

Landowners receive a weekly selection of fruit and vegies.

Inspirational gardeners

Connecting through gardens

A social enterprise called Farm It Forward helps connect landowners with young people to grow food and community, writes Jacqueline Forster.

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Our planet

Our planet

Frogs in the city

Frogs in urban areas face many challenges, so much so that we need to help them if they are to continue supporting local habitats.

Our planet

Earth calling SOS

It is time for us all to harness our courage and the people power in our communities as we never have before to answer our planet's call for help.

A range of emerging challenges are disrupting planetary health and wellbeing.

Our planet

UN Calls for New Monitoring Tools to Protect Planetary Health

Environmental, technological, and societal changes are disrupting human and planetary health. How can we minimise this disruption? A recent report from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the International Science Council (ISC) suggests that better tracking and response to emerging challenges are essential.