Gardening activism has planted the seeds for community movements, with nature-strip garden spaces growing and local council’s attitude evolving.
UNSW Built Environment Professor Linda Corkery says that the rise in planted nature strips is just one example of the growth in the community garden space, adding that what began as activist movement has transformed into a structured and legitimate activity.
“It gone the opposite to the guerrilla approaches, which was activism. Now, its come to be seen as a valuable thing, because suddenly these vacant spaces are being turned into verdant, productive gardens for the community.”
“They are such a great use of unused space, generally tucked away, or on small pockets of land that is very unusable, but not much can fit on.”
Numerous councils have developed guidelines that allow food planting on natures strips in order to meet strategic sustainability goals.
The City of Sydney encourages residents and businesses to transform their nature strips in its 2030 vision for sustainability.
“A lot of local councils, especially around the Inner West, have a community garden policy now and have even allocated land and resources to support them, like community gardening programs which are now a part of sustainability education.”
Professor Corkery says that the beauty of a community garden additional enables residents to connect, making them vital to neighbourhood renewal and community building.
