Community gardening won a battle for the streets, after the Melbourne’s bayside City of Port Phillip backflipped on its proposed nature strip guidelines that would have restricted the ability of residents to plant gardens on nature strips.
The petition received almost 6000 supporters from the local area and beyond, and a crowdfunding campaign raised more than $30,000 towards The Heart Gardening Project (THGP) – with organiser Emma Cutting stating her movement has “set a precedent” for community gardening with the win.
The group’s focus (for now) is the Melbourne Pollinator Corridor, an 8 kilometre wildlife corridor that will link two green areas – Westgate Park and the Royal Botanic Gardens – running parallel to the Birrarung (Yarra River).
With the aim to increase biodiversity and bring in native bees and other native pollinating insects, the community group hopes to plant 18,000 indigenous plants in 200 gardens by the end of 2024.
The Corridor has been designed with input from more than 20 scientists and specialists. Two years of work later, the group has created 10 gardens covering over 480 square metres on what was previously barren public land, and have another four sites underway.
The project plans to expand across the city, with a view to possibly spread as far as Adelaide and Sydney.
In these cities, footpath gardening is permitted with restrictions.
THGP’s crowdfunding campaign hinged on the idea that community gardens are “for everyone”.
“They are for people of all socio-economic backgrounds, cultures and ages… These are gardens that spark conversation, joy and action. These are gardens for our pollinating insects who are vital for our precious ecosystems and food security. These are gardens for our indigenous plants that are an integral part of our land’s history and First Nations culture.”
The battle for the streets
The Port Phillip Council introduced draft guidelines to restrict nature strip plantings to leave a 1.5 metre radius around utilities such as power poles and NBN pits. This has now been changed to 30 centimetres. The rules would also restrict plantings to further than 1.5 metres to 2.5 metres from a tree. This has now been changed to 50 centimetres.
The council planned to bring in the restrictions to increase accessibility for footpaths and children’s crossings. They are now considering de-paving to provide more space for public gardening.
Port Phillip Mayor Marcus Pearl told The Fifth Estate: “Accessibility of public places, including streets and footpaths are a top priority.”
“As part of the development of Greening Port Phillip, opportunities for de-paving will be investigated and that investigation will focus on retaining accessibility. De-paving is important in urban areas to improve permeability, increase green space, assist in mitigating the urban heat island effect and provide more opportunities for people to garden in streets.”
Plans underway for Urban Forest Strategy
Pearl said the council is currently in the final stages of the recruitment of a community greening officer to support community gardening in public space (nature strip gardening and community gardens) and develop resources to support gardening and biodiversity in the area.
He said the council is about to commence an update of Greening Port Phillip, the Urban Forest Strategy, “which will set the direction for urban greening throughout Port Phillip into the future”.
Engagement on the development of the new strategy will begin later this year.
Pearl said the council is interested in finding out more about and the Heart Gardening Project how it could work with its other urban greening projects.
THGP organiser Emma Cutting told The Fifth Estate that her group was thankful to the council for “voting unanimously to help the community and the environment and have proactively sought out conversation with City of Port Phillip Council since we started.
“We have gifted each Councillor our book Melbourne Pollinator Corridor Handbook are always willing to speak further to any of the Councillors that wish to know more.”