Gardening Australia - The Video

Here's a link to the ABC Gardening Australia webpage with the story including the 7 minute video, “Urge to Verge”, aired as part of the Gardening Australia program. Let us know what you think.

The Gardening Australia team did a fantastic job constructing the story, “Urge to Verge”. They picked up many important points made during the day and squeezed them into just seven minutes. The postie was a bonus.

Here is the direct link.

https://www.abc.net.au/gardening/how-to/urge-to-verge/105319680

Thank you to everyone who has contacted me online, signed up to this newsletter/Substack, or came for a chat at the Sustainable BNE Festival on Sunday. There have been many questions and comments that I’ll address in future posts, but for now the big one.

What if my Council doesn’t have a policy?

In the Understanding the Space articles, I talk about the plants you choose being advocates for verge gardening to your community (here).

When there is no policy, you need to be an advocate for verge gardening to your council. Your words and actions need to assure them that you can be trusted not to get into a dispute with your neighbours, not to cause safety issues, and not to do environmental harm.

More councils are adding policies but please don’t think that it’s a simple thing to do. Even for councils with a policy, not everyone who works there or every councillor is keen.

Creating a verge gardening policy is quite a complex and brave thing for councils to do. The first thing they need to do is work out which department should be responsible because it crosses so many areas of responsibility. When you look at the language and requirements of different council verge garden policies, you can often see the varying influences from planning, community, environmental and even legal viewpoints.

You could start with talking to your councillor and any council contacts, refer them to the Gardening Australia story and ask them how you might be able to do this in your area. Make sure that you’ve done your reading first so that you’ll be able to respond to their concerns thoughtfully. And expect them to want to go and find more information before they commit to anything.

The Guiding Principles for Shady Lanes are based on years of research to work out how to turn verge gardening from a niche activity into something that will scale and become mainstream. Transforming our cities needs the majority of verges planted with biodiverse gardens to support street trees, with the bare verges as the exception. This scale is what we need to create sustainable and liveable cities. We can only do it through collaboration.

The corridor view of the verge garden placing pedestrians as primary users is the key to gaining support from the wider community and councils. (from An Apron or a Long Paddock)

What if my Council is too strict?

Every council policy is different. Potential verge gardeners often complain about the local council policies, imagining that other councils are somehow more accommodating.

Often that is because gardeners start with an idea of their ideal verge garden, only to find that it doesn’t fit the local council’s requirements.

What if you start from the opposite direction? You have a set patch of land, your council’s existing policy, and your local native plants to choose from. Do your research to find what you might do to create a verge garden within those parameters. Start with the Understanding the Space articles, visit other people’s verge gardens and see what they grow and ask what challenges they faced.

As knowledge and trust grows, more options may be allowed when they review the policies. On the other hand, neighbourhood disputes, gardening practices that don’t fit the space, and dismissive attitudes towards the views of councils result in more restrictive policies.

Group Projects

Groups who run verge garden projects play an important role in helping their members interpret and follow the council guidelines, provide examples with their members’ gardens, and avoid disputes. It requires commitment and at least one of the group leaders should have created their own garden first.

Your Views

What did you think of the Gardening Australia program? What points surprised or resonated with you? Is there anything you are unsure about? Let us know in the comments.