Book: "Garden on the Verge: A New Approach"

If you've ever wondered why I am so insistent on native plants and street trees for verges, following council guidelines, and why I think verges are such special places, this book will show you.

I set out to write a book about how we can use verge gardens to transform our cities while building the skills and networks to tackle much more.

There was too much to put into one book. It needed to be split. The first book, “Garden on the Verge: A New Approach”, was published in November 2025.

Here is an image of the contents page of the print book (ebooks have no page numbers.) Enough but not too many words, colour photos, time-saving hints, and some challenging ideas.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents: Garden on the Verge: A New Approach

The paperback and ebook are available through online bookstores, many local bookstores will order one in, and you can buy them direct. Some council libraries have copies. If yours doesn’t, please suggest they get one via their usual library distributor.

Paperback and eBook: Buy Direct

You can buy both the paperback (Australia only) and ebook (worldwide) online from me now.

The eBook is an epub file that you can read on desktop or in your preferred ebook reading app.

Information for Bookstores and Libraries

Bookshops and libraries can order from IngramSpark or through library distributors Peter Pal and ALS Library Services. This page has the book information they need.

Reviews

Please share what you think of this book and the ideas in it. Use the comments below for questions, comments, and reviews. While subscribers can reply direct to this email newsletter, using the comments lets you all read and share ideas with each other.

Short books, big impact by Anna Featherstone, author mentor, author of Look-It’s Your Book!

The book is consciously sparing, refreshing, informative, optimistic, wise, grounded and gives a holistic view of the benefits, risks and how-to of nature strip gardening. It’s a framework for collaboration between individuals, councils and communities for the benefit of all.

How Gayle talks about the personal, social and environmental benefits of verge gardens and how to respectfully work with neighbours, councils, community groups, pedestrians, even the local postie, makes it all seem possible to never mow again…and get even your most perfect-lawn-loving-weed-spraying neighbour on board.

Annabelle Lukin, Professor of Linguistics, Macquarie University. When the world is so dark and so noisy, take some time to look down

A small book with the goal to change the way we see what’s in front of our eyes and our homes. It asks us to consider making a small change, with potentially enormous benefits, both to prepare for increasing heat in our lives, and for developing deeper community connections. It is a joyful book, with both climate and civic benefits.