Street Champion Christine.
Project: Verge Gardening
Suburb: Semaphore, South Australia
Christine is a Street Champion who, along with her neighbours, planted out their verges to create a more productive, biodiverse street.
She was living in Semaphore where there is a row of four houses. She started by creating a butterfly verge garden, along with an information sheet for the other households, listing the benefits of a butterfly garden, the plants and where to source them. This inspired two families to organise Ground Swell to create a herb garden and one family to create a butterfly verge garden. It is a great improvement to the verges and strengthened the connections between the families.
“It was wonderful to take a very tatty looking verge and together create something that is now not only eye catching but productive.”
Christine, what’s your best piece of advice for anyone embarking on an ‘In Our Street’ project?
“I chose to do my own butterfly verge then encourage the other three homes to create their verge garden.
By working on my verge it created opportunities to chat with the neighbours and encourage them to add to the row of verges.
Creating a flyer describing the benefits of a butterfly verge and the plants and where to source them seemed to encourage discussion and action.
The verges were developed over a year or so.”
What has this project meant to you?
“I was renting at the time, and this activity enabled me to get to know the neighbours. It was wonderful to take a very tatty looking verge and together create something that is now not only eye catching but productive. We share from the verge herb garden.”
