World Environment Day + Winter Start

You don't need a bumper summer harvest to make a difference

When people think about sustainable living, they tend to picture big solar panels, electric cars, or zero-waste pantries. Rarely does a frosty winter garden come to mind. But it should.
Growing your own food -- even a small amount, even in the coldest months -- is one of the most practical, accessible things you can do for the environment. And unlike a lot of sustainability advice, it doesn't require an overhaul of your life. Just a patch of soil, a windowsill, or a few pots on the balcony.
This World Environment Day (5 June), we want to make the case for winter gardening as environmental action. Not the preachy kind. The kind where you step outside, pick a handful of herbs, and know that those herbs didn't travel a single kilometre to reach your plate.

The hidden environmental cost of winter produce

Most of the fresh produce you buy at the supermarket during winter has racked up serious mileage before it reaches your trolley. We're talking:

• Food miles: Leafy greens, herbs, and salad vegetables are often trucked interstate or flown in from overseas to meet winter demand.
• Refrigeration: Cold-chain logistics keep produce chilled from farm to shelf -- a significant energy cost, especially across long distances.
• Packaging: Winter produce tends to arrive in more plastic than summer fruit and veg, because it needs more protection in transit.
• Food waste: The longer food travels, the shorter its shelf life. That means more waste at every stage -- from warehouse to your kitchen bin.
  None of this is meant to make you feel guilty about buying broccoli. But it puts your winter garden in perspective. Every bunch of silverbeet you grow at home is one that didn't need a truck, a cool room, or a plastic sleeve.

What you can grow right now

Winter gardening in Australia is more productive than most people realise. Depending on your climate zone, you can grow:

• Leafy greens: Spinach, silverbeet, kale, lettuce, rocket
• Herbs: Parsley, coriander, chives, thyme, rosemary
• Root vegetables: Carrots, beetroot, turnips, radishes
• Brassicas: Broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, pak choy
• Alliums: Onions, garlic, spring onions, leeks
  Even if you only have a windowsill, you can keep a steady supply of fresh herbs and microgreens going through the cooler months. Our Kitchen Windowsill Bundle ($72.40) is designed for exactly this -- everything you need to grow indoors when the weather won't cooperate.
  For those with a bit more space, the HydroGarden Bundle ($112.35) lets you grow year-round without soil, making it perfect for apartments, balconies, or anyone who wants a reliable winter harvest without battling frost.

Small patch, real impact

Let's put some numbers behind it. If an average Australian household grows just 10% of their own produce over winter, that's roughly:

• 30-50 fewer plastic-wrapped items from the supermarket over three months
• Hundreds of food miles avoided per household
• Less food waste, because you pick only what you need, when you need it
  Multiply that across a community of growers and the impact adds up quickly. This is what Grow It Local is all about -- not perfection, but participation. Every seed you plant is a small act of sustainability.

Indoor growing counts too

Don't have a backyard? That's fine. Indoor growing is legitimate growing, and it's one of the easiest ways to keep food production going through winter.
A few things that thrive indoors in winter:

• Herbs (parsley, basil, mint, chives)
• Microgreens and sprouts
• Lettuce and salad greens (in a bright spot)
• Chillies (if you have a warm, sunny window)
  You don't need a greenhouse. You just need light, water, and a bit of attention. The barrier to entry is genuinely low.

It's not just about the food

Winter gardening has benefits beyond what ends up on your plate. Getting outside (or tending indoor plants) during the colder months is good for your mental health. It keeps you connected to the seasons. And it gives you something to nurture when everything else feels a bit dormant.
There's a reason so many GIL+ members tell us that gardening helps them feel grounded -- especially in winter, when it's tempting to retreat indoors and disconnect.

Get started this winter

If you're ready to make your winter garden count, here's how to start:

• Pick one or two easy crops that suit your space and climate. Don't overthink it.
• Set up a small indoor growing station if you don't have outdoor space.
• Check out our winter bundles for curated kits that take the guesswork out of getting started.
• Join GIL+ for quarterly heirloom seed deliveries, expert advice, and up to 20% off everything in the shop. Start a 30-day free trial on any annual plan.
  Your winter garden might look small. But every leaf, every herb, every handful of homegrown food is one less thing the planet had to work to deliver to you. That's sustainability you can taste.
  [Start your free trial]
  Happy growing,
  The Grow It Local Team

Last verified: 17 February 2026

The food on your plate has a backstory

Before that bunch of supermarket parsley reached your kitchen, it went on a journey. Picked on a commercial farm, packed in plastic, loaded onto a refrigerated truck, driven interstate, unloaded at a distribution centre, repacked, driven again, and finally stacked under fluorescent lights in the produce aisle.
All for a bunch of parsley.
Now think about the parsley growing in a pot on your kitchen bench. It went from plant to plate in about three seconds. No truck. No cold chain. No packaging. No waste.
This World Environment Day (5 June), we want to zoom in on something that doesn't get talked about enough: the carbon footprint of the food you don't grow yourself.

Food miles are only part of the story

You've probably heard the term "food miles" before. It's a useful shorthand, but it only scratches the surface. The real environmental cost of supermarket produce in winter includes:

• Transport emissions: Refrigerated trucks running diesel across state lines. Air freight for out-of-season imports.
• Cold-chain energy: Keeping produce chilled from the moment it's picked to the moment you pick it up. That's a lot of electricity.
• Plastic packaging: Winter produce uses more packaging because it travels further and needs more protection. Punnets, cling wrap, polystyrene trays -- all of it.
• Food waste at scale: Long supply chains mean shorter shelf life. Supermarkets throw out tonnes of produce every week. So do households.
  When you grow something at home, you bypass every one of those steps. It's not a token gesture. It's a genuine reduction in resource use.

What a single household can offset

You don't need to be self-sufficient to make a meaningful dent. Here's what growing just a small portion of your own food over winter can look like:

• A windowsill herb garden saves roughly 20-30 plastic-wrapped herb packets over three months.
• A raised bed of leafy greens means fewer bags of pre-washed spinach and rocket from the supermarket.
• A few root vegetables (carrots, beetroot, radishes) replace produce that's often imported during the colder months.
  It adds up. And when you multiply that across a community of thousands of growers, the collective impact is significant.

The winter crops that pack the most punch

If you want to maximise your environmental impact this winter, focus on the crops that would otherwise travel the furthest or use the most packaging:

• Herbs: Parsley, coriander, chives, thyme, rosemary. Supermarket herbs are some of the most over-packaged items in the produce section.
• Leafy greens: Spinach, kale, silverbeet, rocket, lettuce. Pre-washed bags generate enormous plastic waste.
• Microgreens and sprouts: Grow in days, require almost no space, and replace the priciest and most packaged supermarket options.
  Our Kitchen Windowsill Bundle ($72.40) is built around exactly these crops -- everything you need to grow herbs and greens indoors through winter. For a soil-free option, the HydroGarden Bundle ($112.35) offers year-round indoor harvests with minimal setup.

Beyond the food: soil health and biodiversity

Growing at home does more than reduce your carbon footprint. When you garden without synthetic chemicals, you're also:

• Building healthy soil that sequesters carbon
• Supporting local pollinators and beneficial insects
• Reducing demand for industrial agriculture, even in a small way
• Creating habitat in your own backyard
  Hannah Moloney, one of our GIL experts, often talks about the "ripple effect" of home growing -- how one small patch can influence a whole neighbourhood. When your neighbours see what you're growing, they start asking questions. And that's how the movement spreads.

Getting started doesn't need to be complicated

Here's our honest advice for making your winter garden more sustainable:

• Start with herbs. They're the easiest win -- low effort, high impact, and they replace some of the most over-packaged supermarket items.
• Grow what you actually eat. There's no point planting turnips if you never cook with them.
• Use what you have. Old pots, recycled containers, leftover seeds. You don't need to buy a full setup to get started.
• Join GIL+ for quarterly heirloom seed deliveries, expert growing guides, and up to 20% off everything in the shop. Annual plans start at $99/yr with a 30-day free trial.
  Every leaf you grow at home is a small act of defiance against a food system that relies on trucks, plastic, and waste. Your winter garden is more powerful than you think.
  [Start your free trial]
  Happy growing,
  The Grow It Local Team

Last verified: 17 February 2026

Winter gardening is sustainability in action

This World Environment Day (5 June), you'll see plenty of advice about how to live more sustainably. Some of it will be useful. A lot of it will feel out of reach.
But there's one thing you can do right now that's practical, affordable, and genuinely impactful: grow something. Even in winter. Even if it's just a pot of herbs.
Here are five concrete ways your winter garden helps the planet -- no lifestyle overhaul required.

1. You eliminate food miles instantly

The average piece of winter produce in an Australian supermarket has travelled hundreds -- sometimes thousands -- of kilometres. Leafy greens from interstate. Herbs from overseas. Tomatoes from heated greenhouses far from your region.
When you grow food at home, the distance from patch to plate is measured in steps, not kilometres. That's a direct reduction in transport emissions, with zero effort on your part beyond planting and picking.
What to grow: Parsley, coriander, chives, spinach, silverbeet, rocket. All of these thrive in winter and replace items that would otherwise travel a long way.

2. You cut plastic packaging from your kitchen

Fresh herbs from the supermarket come in plastic clamshells. Salad leaves come in sealed bags. Root vegetables often come in plastic mesh or on polystyrene trays.
Your home-grown produce comes in nothing. You pick it, you eat it. No packaging at all.
If one household replaces just their herb purchases with homegrown, that's roughly 20-30 fewer plastic items from the supermarket over a single winter. Scale that across a community and it's significant.

3. You reduce food waste at the source

The commercial food system is designed around shelf life. Produce is picked before it's ripe, shipped long distances, and arrives with a ticking clock. Anything that doesn't sell in time gets binned.
At home, you pick what you need, when you need it. No waste at the farm. No waste at the warehouse. No waste at the shop. And no sad, wilted herbs decomposing in the back of your fridge.

4. You build healthier soil (even in pots)

Every time you grow something without synthetic chemicals, you're contributing to soil health. Healthy soil stores carbon. It supports microorganisms. It holds water better, reducing runoff.
Even container gardening makes a difference. When you compost kitchen scraps and feed them back into your pots, you're creating a closed loop that mimics natural systems. Costa talks about this a lot -- the idea that your kitchen and garden should feed each other.

5. You inspire the people around you

This one's harder to measure, but it's real. When you grow food visibly -- on a balcony, in a front yard, on a kitchen windowsill -- people notice. Neighbours ask questions. Kids get curious. Friends start thinking about what they could grow.
That's the Grow It Local effect. One patch leads to another. One grower inspires the next. And the cumulative environmental impact of a community that grows its own food is far greater than any individual garden.

How to get started this winter

You don't need much to make a difference:

• A sunny windowsill is enough for herbs and microgreens. Our Kitchen Windowsill Bundle ($72.40) has everything you need.
• A balcony or small courtyard can support leafy greens, root veg, and brassicas. The Winter Seasonal Bundle is curated for exactly this.
• An indoor hydro setup like the HydroGarden Bundle ($112.35) lets you grow year-round without soil and without worrying about frost.
  GIL+ members get 15% off (Base and Grower) or 20% off (Pro) across the shop, plus quarterly heirloom seed deliveries from the Rainbow Range. Annual plans start at $99/yr with a 30-day free trial.
  Your winter garden might be small. But the environmental impact of thousands of small gardens, all growing real food through the coldest months? That's how change happens.
  [Start your free trial]
  Happy growing,
  The Grow It Local Team

Last verified: 17 February 2026