Verge Gardens

For the current rules about gardening on the footpath where you live, check your local council's website.

At the moment, this is a page to archive some older news items on the topics that may have appeared in Get Results Gardening or elsewhere on the websites.

Get Results Gardening is a weekly email publication for Australians, with a focus on SEQld and NNSW and the type of plants suitable for this region. Find out how to get a free trial at calyx.com.au/getresultsgardening.html

The verge - that area between the road and the front fence - has gotten a lot of attention as a space for gardening in recent years. Research in Perth has looked at the social and ecological potential of verge gardens with a focus on Australian native plants.

The report, which includes photographs of many real-life verge gardens in Perth, is available from the Clean Air and Urban Landscapes Hub: The-social-and-ecological-values-of-native-gardens-along-streets-1.pdf.

Key findings include the inspirational role played by other verge gardens or similar landscapes in public places or online. Having positive childhood experiences of nature and gardening also influenced many people to set up a verge gardens.

However, many of the gardeners needed more information about landscaping suitable for such difficult conditions, especially water-efficient species and practices.

Although there was interest in attracting birds and bees, there was also a lack of knowledge on this topic, too. Some of the residents interviewed had assumed European honey bees were native.

Although not without challenges, verge gardening was generally a positive and rewarding experience for the participants surveyed and they would recommend it to others.

In Queensland, the various councils set their own policies concerning verge gardening. If you're interested, you should check with your council (starting with its website) to find out what's allowed and whether a permit or other documentation is required.