Where Shade Hits the Pavement
Is diversity of participants a problem or a strength? And what’s it got to do with verge gardens?
The “Where Shade Hits the Pavement” summit held at Brisbane Powerhouse in March 2024 brought together professionals working in forestry, stormwater research, ecology science, product innovation, engineering, planning, green architecture and design.
Recordings of the speaker presentations are available online at the City Green Institute here
(You can also follow CityGreen on LinkedIn)
What’s this got to do with verge gardens?
Like the climate scientists, the urban planners, the transport planners, the people who design initiatives like Shaping SEQ 2023, the presenters in this summit have a lot of knowledge and passion. To my mind, they are some of our true environmentalists because they understand better than the rest of us the science behind what is happening with climate change and make it their work to address the challenges.
They know what we need to do. If only people would listen.
This challenge is often called a communication challenge but that can be misleading. If communication is thought of as simply packaging a message so other people will accept it, or to raise awareness, or protest, or just shout into the ether on social media, we aren’t going to get far.
We won’t get the changes we need until the majority of the public demand it and vote accordingly. Change has to be mainstream. We won’t get green streets until we change the culture that means residents don’t care about street trees, shade, or biodiversity. We all have to walk the talk.
What we really have is a culture change challenge. It’s not about facts and information, it’s about values and priorities, and interlinking systems. It’s the epitome of a complex or wicked problem.
Communication and language is how culture is changed, or reinforced.
If we want the change that will make greening our cities a priority, we all need to play our part. Change happens one conversation at a time. Not lecturing, or surveys and consultations, or arguing our case, but conversations.
We move in the direction of our conversations.
Most importantly, we need conversations that bridge the gaps between all the different disciplines, and different sectors, and the public. That means communicating as people, getting out of institutional and disciplinary silos, off professional pedestals, and connecting as citizens with civility and curiosity.
That’s what Shady Lanes and verge gardens is all about. The verge creates a special place and topic that sets the stage for serendipitous conversations between diverse people as fellow citizens. We need to manage those conversations well. See the Understanding the Space articles for more on how to manage conversations for change on the verge.
Increasing the Impact for Change
We increase the impact and reach of those conversations by writing our stories and sharing them online. This does many things, including:
The act of writing makes us reflect on our own journey, our motivations, and how our ideas have developed. See Tony’s verge story here.
It reaches a wider audience. Using a combination of stable platforms like the
Shady Lanes directory, our own personal or group websites and substacks, and by sharing those posts on more ephemeral social media, our stories can reach many more people with little extra effort.
The stories provide inspiration, information, and examples for others to follow. These don’t have to be big showcase gardens. People want to see examples of verges like their own. They want something that feels doable. Jim’s verge story provides a listing of local plants and introduced me to the Bradley Method of Bush regeneration.
It lets people know what interests and values you might share so gives more conversation starters. My verge story lets people know that I’m a wildlife gardener, I care about streets that encourage walking and active lifestyles, and I’ll bond over a dislike of noisy mowers on the weekends.
It gives clues about your expertise and raises your credibility. This is where you can signal your expertise and how it contributes.
Is diversity a problem or a strength?
Summits and most large projects bring together intersecting professions and disciplines because there is simply too much for anyone of us to know. We need collaborations.
Making access and recordings of professional events openly available broadens the conversation by allowing everyone to understand just how much is behind what can seem like simple decisions.
The place for the greatest diversity of people is on the verge. It’s the commons where different people and viewpoints and priorities comes crashing together.
That makes it the place where we can learn how to have collaborations without heroes or hierarchies of expertise. We learn by doing. In the process, we broaden our understanding of different viewpoints and strengthen our collaborative muscles.
Conversations and curiosity lead to opportunity
By increasing the diversity of expertise, experience, viewpoints and participants, we increase the opportunities as we realise which of our assets (skills, knowledge, experience, time, money, networks, location, etc.) might be useful and relevant. Being curious about other people and their stories also helps us re-evaluate our own stories and viewpoints.
We all have something different to contribute and often something seemingly insignificant can be the key ingredient that brings it all together.
What will you do in the next week or month?
Liking and sharing posts helps.
Even better comment below and start conversations.
Post your own story in the Shady Lanes directory, your group’s substack, or start your own substack.
If all 300+ subscribers of this newsletter planted your gardens, imagine how much land that would add up to - and we’d have 300 examples dotted around the country.
If you all told your story, or helped others write or video and post their story, and then share your own and others story posts on social media, these diverse stories would reach many thousands of people very quickly.
Please use the comments below to share what you plan to do, what you have done, what hurdles you face, and to ask questions.
We’re all in this together.
June is a busy month for East Gippsland Verge Garden members. I have held the belief for many years that we must get out of our own specialization or single passion and meet with as many other people as possible to discuss changes needed and the way to go forward with them.
So to Walk the talk, as Gayle suggests, here is our program.
- 2 x Meet and Greet events in two different locations. Local residents are invited via social media, specialised groups eg Landcare, garden clubs are invited by mail sent to the club Secretary, posters are placed in shops where possible.
- a meeting of interested people to discuss the possibilities around developing an event to highlight our street-scapes in one of the towns in East Gippsland. It will be Paynesville, the local town for these particular members.
- a presentation introducing East Gippsland Verge Gardens to Landcare Facilitators.
Diversity is another way of saying 'All in together"!