The Melbourne Food and Wine Festival is on this month, and at Queensbridge Square you can discover how to save water by building a raingarden.

The raingarden at the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival at Queensbridge Square

A raingarden is a series of pipes to collect rainwater which then drains directly into the garden. A more elaborate version would see the pipes run underground to deliver the water directly to the roots of the plants, cutting down on water lost through evaporation.

The raingarden at the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival at Queensbridge Square

While at the garden you can snack on treats prepared from local produce. When we visited, dumplings were being dished up!

Eggplants at Melbourne Food and Wine Festival at Queensbridge Square

And not that you’ll need it this week, but the upstairs deck area has a moisture-mist set-up to keep you cool.

Melbourne Food and Wine Festival at Queensbridge Square

The weekends also have attractions for kids too, with kitchen workshops for the little ones.

Last weekend’s children’s activities at the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival at Queensbridge Square

And for the small kids and not-so-small kids, you can pretend to present Nine’s evening news in front of a city skyline backdrop.

Nine News at the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival at Queensbridge Square

To be perfectly honest, the festival was not that exciting, however much of it also takes place outside of Queensbridge Square and in the city’s top restaurants. That said, there was nothing wrong with sitting by the river, watching the world go by and chowing down on a couple of dumplings.

Melbourne Food and Wine Festival at Queensbridge Square

For more information, go to the Melbourne Food & Wine Festival’s website.