Gardeners tell Council: Greenfingers are good

Community gardening advocates have defended their actions after Waverley Council’s attempt to shut down a community garden in Bondi.

Nicolette Boaz’s Simpson Street community garden came to public attention after she refused to follow Council orders to remove the plot of vegetables, fruits and herbs being cultivated on her neighbour’s nature strip.

Ms Boaz’s defiance was defended by Russ Grayson of the Australian Community Farms and Gardens Network.

Having undertaken research on behalf of Leichhardt Council to investigate the benefits of community gardens, Mr Grayson identified three key advantages for residents: greater access to free food, increased sociability between neighbours and the promotion of practical and social skills.

Mr Grayson said the “re-greening” of suburbs meant otherwise wasted space could be utilised.

“It turns what’s often underused or sometimes completely unused urban land into productive use,” he said.

“It turns the city from a big consuming organism to a producing organism. Community gardens are a means of making places out of spaces.”

Co-owner of the Stent Garden in Clovelly, George Stent praised shared gardens for their ability to foster community interaction. Mr Stent’s open front yard is adorned with a variety of plants as well as recycled boulders, wharf timber and weatherboards taken from locally demolished houses. The garden is open for public viewing on Saturday.

“Bobbie [Stent] and I have always had the sense that fences disturb the community,” he said.

“Our garden represents a challenge to the conventional structural garden, extending from the footpath onto the verge … It’s quite a powerful statement about reaching out to the  community and it really has engaged a lot of people with us.”

Mr Stent’s sentiments have been echoed by Waverley Greens Councillor Dominic Kanak, who forwarded a motion at last Tuesday’s Council meeting to defend the Simpson St garden. The motion presented an injunction aimed at stopping the garden being removed while forcing the council to survey public opinion and respond to petitions when making decisions about community and verge gardens.

“[Community Gardens] are an item of civic pride,” Mr Kanak said.

“Now the Council is talking about putting the whole public space policy under review at the moment so it’s timely this issue has arisen.”

However, Mayor Sally Betts rejected any inferences that Waverley Council is not doing enough to help support community gardening. According to Ms Betts, the Simpson St garden only faces removal because of Ms Boaz’s failure to register it with the Council and follow the proper application and registration processes.

“We support verge gardening [and] we promote community gardens. We just ask that people apply to do that … We also support common courtesy,” Ms Betts said.

Ms Betts maintained Ms Boaz could end the standoff by submitting a formal application.

Designer of the Stent Garden, landscaper Andrew O’Sullivan defended the role of gardeners in the local area.

“Have a look at all the verges around the Waverley area, there’s a lot of planting beds, garden beds, rockeries out on the nature strips,” he said.

“As far as I’m concerned, we do the maintenance on the nature strip [so] we will be maintaining gardens on the nature strip. We are beautifying the area … we are putting trees in, we are making habitat for local wildlife. I can’t see a reason that we are making any problem in that area.”