With so many of us working from home, growing something, whether it’s just a succulent in a pretty pot or a thriving vegetable garden that’s helping to feed the family, has become a deeply satisfying way of reconnecting with nature and also the neighbourhood.Gardening Australia host and landscape architect, Costa Georgiadis, says your garden offers plenty of opportunities for pleasure and getting to know your neighbours, even if you onlyhave your nature strip, or verge, to work with.Here, he explains the unexpected joys of taking gardening to the streets.WHY CREATE A VERGE GARDEN?There’s kilometres of weed-infested, semi grass-covered areas filling our suburbs that really offer nothing in terms of rain absorption, biodiversity and habitat for insects and birds. For a lot of people, the verge or nature strip is an overgrown wasteland. I see it as a potential to grow corridors of habitat and beauty for everyone to appreciate.WHAT MAKES A GOOD VERGE GARDEN?It has a mixture between groundcovers that help to reduce erosion and run off as well as a nice mixture of flowering plants that bloom across all the seasons, not only for passers-by but also as some sort of floral service for birds and insects.When you create something even in just the smallest of areas, just one or two square metres, and you see the impact that it has, you might see an insect come visit something you planted, that’s an incredible joy.Those small moments can tie into the bigger environmental picture.You can contribute to citizen science by signing up to programs such as the Aussie Backyard Bird Count or the Australian Museum’s FrogID Project. When you provide habitat, you are participating in a rewilding of our cities. That is one of the highest order pastimes you can participate in.It’s not something we can do alone but every little piece of the jigsaw adds up. Your three square metres of nature strip then becomes just as valuable as the bushland at the end of your street because they are part of the green corridors. Our streets are valuable arteries for refuelling of wildlife.When we have healthy, luscious gardens with canopy, we can also change the temperature because it impacts on the coolness of the air.IS SHARING PRODUCE WITH NEIGHBOURS A GOOD IDEA?Absolutely and there are so many ways to share edibles.Things like perennial basil and silver beets or warrigal greens which are all hardy, long-lasting plants provide ‘pluck and pick’ opportunities. A rosemary hedge is a simple way to provide for everyone in the street. There’s usually enough to take a little piece most nights. All through Covid I had amaranth growing, which I was harvesting every second night to steam it as a side dish.Plus, with many plants, the more you pick them, the more they will grow.WHAT’S THE BEST WAY TO PUT YOUR PRODUCE OUT FOR THE NEIGHBOURS?There are so many things you can find during council clean-ups, like drawers or shelves, that you can attach to your fence, or a box by the gate to put your produce in. You can put a little water in jars and add a sign saying ‘free herbs for tonight’. You can make a Crop Swap stand.They have groups all round Australia.There’s a laneway in Ballarat where people bring cuttings, pots and share pot plants. I have a street library outside my house in Sydney and a shared waste system on my nature strip where people can bring their scraps.ShareWaste has hosts all over. HOW DO YOU CREATE A FRONT GARDEN THAT ENCOURAGES INTERACTION WITH THE NEIGHBOURS?The best thing is just being out the front and saying hello to people as they pass.They might not say anything the first time, or even the second time. They might have earbuds in, which is often the case, but keep trying. The key is to ditch the ego and throw a ‘hello’ out there. Sooner or later, they’ll respond.I had someone run past a while back who was peeved because my waste bucket was in his way. The next time, I said hello as he ran past and eventually, we started talking.Your garden is being observed all the time, whether you are there or not.My young neighbours down the street watched the garden during Covid and they would come by to say goodnight to the worms. They come in the gate to see the chickens, or the frogs, which are going off right now.The verge is like a wonderland.Those sorts of experiences are where we can have an influence. One lady told me that my garden was cool, literally. She felt the air cool as she passed. During Covid there were hundreds of people walking by so I planted native paper daisies and I made a woven willow fence, which people loved.It’s inspiring people to look at the world around you and see the changes that happen seasonally. All the little details are what invite and entice the neighbours to participate.I planted a whole section of sunflowers and my neighbour took some of them to the surgery where she works.There are so many ways a street garden can touch people’s hearts. Your garden can connect with others and break down barriers by creating little moments.The Fixer is here to answer all your home improvement, renovation and repair questions.Email us at athome@news.com.auNED-3749-Australias-top-100-sustainable-homes-banner-CM
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