If only half of Bairnsdale homes had a 20 square metre verge (nature-strip) garden, it would create 18 acres of new East Gippsland habitat.
That’s according to Judy Clarke, the passionate founder of the East Gippsland Verge Gardens group, a community-based volunteer group promoting the planting of verge gardens throughout the East Gippsland Shire.
Judy is encouraging local residents to plant-out their nature strips with native, edible or ornamental plants, which she says will “beautify our streets, provide shade for people and wildlife, and reduce environmentally-unfriendly mowing and edging”.
“Perhaps most importantly, it will also create habitat for local fauna and flora, support pollinators, and provide food for birds and wildlife,” Judy said.
“Verge gardens can also help to control and reduce water run-off after rainfall, assisting with flood mitigation, and reducing waterway pollution.
“We need these gardens for so many reasons, from simply adding interest and beauty to our streets, to being at the front line of re-establishing habitat in our environment – on the scale we need to avert a climate-change disaster.
“This is a positive, practical action we can take in our own front verges to build connected corridors of habitat, relieve urban heat stress, and beautify our streets.”
Judy said that East Gippsland Shire Council is generally supportive of verge gardens, however there are certain considerations and guidelines to be met around insurances, pedestrian access, line-of-sight visibility, and sub-ground utility services.
“Even though are are no written council policies – and the guidelines around verge gardens in East Gippsland definitely need to be more clearly defined – so far we’ve found the Council to be quite supportive of those gardeners who have applied for permission to plant out their nature strips,” Judy said.
“One of the goals of our group is to work with the council to develop ways to make it easier for local residents to apply for a verge garden permission.”
To help people learn more about verge gardening, the East Gippsland Verge Gardens group is having a show, chat and learn session in Paynesville on Friday, April 19, from 12.30pm-3pm, starting with a friendly coffee meet-up under the big, shady trees on the foreshore, followed by visits to a local verge garden and the Riviera Nursery, where owner Anne-Marie Higgins will talk further about the benefits of nature-strip planting, and the most suitable plants for this purpose.
To book for this free meet-up or find out more, contact Judy (details available at the Advertiser office).
