FAQs!
I want an awesome street garden- now what?/ I need help with my street garden!/ Where can I learn more about street gardening?
Well you have come to the right place!
Check out writings for some handy info on how to start, how to get into the right mindset and how to manage your expectations.
You can grab a copy of the Melbourne Pollinator Corridor Handbook here which takes you step by step through how to create your own street garden for biodiversity (much of the info in the book is transferrable to other councils and private gardening as well!). There are pages of resources at the back too which you can explore.
Talk to any neighbours that have street gardens already.
What is street gardening exactly?
Street gardening is creating a garden in a public space (often by a resident outside their home) combining site awareness, observation and immersion with a particularly determined, generous, positive and community-centred mindset.
Street gardening is a generous positive action you can take to improve your community and this planet. It has many positive flow-on effects environmental and emotional. You don’t have to be a great gardener to be a great street gardener! If you can do it- go for it!
Where can I buy the Melbourne Pollinator Corridor Handbook?
Only on this website. Buy Here!
My local council’s nature strip guidelines won’t let me create a street garden- what can I do?
This is frustrating for sure!
It is a rare (and completely ancient) council that won’t let you garden at all on your nature strip- but they do exist.
First up, in these instances petitions, letters to councillors, general public pressure and precedents from other councils (of which there will be many) will be needed.
At the same time, focus on what positive change you can do in your area (rather than always focussing on trying to get permission for what you can’t do). So where can you garden in the meantime? Front yards! Idea—-get your neighbourhood to join their front yards together into a wildlife corridor with loads of small bird habitat/pollinator friendly plants. Then you can take this amazing community initiative to council and propose to extend it into the nature strip.
My local council has nature strip guidelines that restrict me from gardening the way I want to on the nature strip. I don’t like it- what can I do?
Best thing to do? Focus on what you can do rather than what you can’t do otherwise you are going to be one unhappy chappy! I am not saying that you need to take every decision council makes lying down but I am saying that for our environment to be improved we need to get on with action and find ways to do this!
Here are some tips…
Read your nature strip guidelines carefully (though they can be hard to find and harder to read!), see what you can do then do it!
Go and chat to locals who have street gardens going already in your area.
If you have to take out your garden? Remove it, wait a bit then try again OR Find another suitable site (in fact, better still, find another 10 suitable places for 10 gardens!).
If you need to remove your hard edging? Take it out and build the health of the soil going down as best you can (I have used a pick axe many times for this!).
If you get told to stop works on your garden? Go and work with a neighbour to get another garden going- that’s how The Heart Gardening Project started!!!!
In other words, find another way —because there is always one!
Is street gardening the same as guerrilla gardening?
Though there are definite huge similarities, the big difference between street gardening and guerrilla gardening is that guerrilla gardening is defined as gardening done without permission on land which is not your own and street gardening is, more or less, working out what can be done with permission in public spaces (and then doing as much of it as possible, therefore creating positive change, increasing community support and awareness and pressuring authorities to change faster). However, because the ‘lines’ can be blurred sometimes, there may be elements of guerrilla gardening in street gardening!
Also, the name guerrilla indicates warfare and this kind of thinking around gardening, though it may sound exciting, doesn’t work positively with many people. I absolutely see street gardening as activism for sure- but positive non-violent activism not associated with warfare at all! Street gardening is working with people not against them!
Can I talk to someone directly?
We understand it is really important that you have someone real to talk to and we are getting a direct line soon. Really soon. In the meantime you can email us here and, though we are a little overwhelmed at present with interest, we will try our very very hardest to get back to you as soon as possible!
Can I book Emma to talk at my meeting/function?
Get in touch with us here and let us know the details. Currently there is an overwhelming amount of interest in The Heart Gardening Project so you might have to be patient for a reply and give Emma some lead time. When there are more support staff in place things will move much smoother in this area. We’re getting there!
Can The Heart Gardening Project create a garden for me for free?
Unfortunately no. We are a community initiative and, though we love to give our time, energy and positivity to as many of our wonderful locals as possible, we also need to make ends meet. Also, we’d love to grow and become a sustainable initiative and for that to happen we need (amongst many things) $!
Needless to say, we are always looking for ways we can help the community through discounts and subsidies of plants etc. Also, we don’t want anyone being left behind so THGP is creating a Give-A-Garden program, where people can donate the amount of a garden (approx. $500) to another member of the community who might be unwell or lacking in funding. Watch this space for more info!
If you are stuck for bucks, keen and local to the South Melbourne area, here are some things you can do that don’t require any money at all…
You can talk and discuss street gardens with your neighbours and clear your patch yourself.
You can join the Facebook group Street Gardeners of South Melbourne- there are awesome street gardeners ready to help and people are often ready to give cuttings away
You can collect free mulch from the City of Port Phillip Resource Recovery Centre
You can check out gumtree for free things/plants/edging etc
