Street Champions Sue & Bronwyn.
Project: Verge Gardening
Suburb: West Lakes Shore, South Australia
Sue and Bronwyn are Street Champions who have been beautifying a walkway between their two properties after council removal of 3 melaleucas. They took the opportunity to do something with a blank slate. Council contributed by re-aligning the walkway.
Bronwyn and Sue had already planted a few things on one side of the land/walkway. They focused on colourful, quick-growing, low-maintenance plants. The walkway was soon a mass of colour and started to get overgrown, so by December 2022 it was time for a change.
They decided with the next planting (December 2022) to increase the amount of natives, including locally indigenous plants. They added eremophilas and numerous lower growing shrubs, retaining the bones of some larger srhubs. They hope that these will be attractive to native bees and small birds. They’ve also installed drip irrigation to make maintenance easy. Their local council – Charles Sturt – have supported them with the provision of indigenous plants and mulch.
Like all gardens, it will change and evolve with time.
“It has been lovely to have many positive comments from locals who use the walkway, so it has not only enhanced the environment for us, but others too.”
Sue and Bronwyn, what’s your best piece of advice for anyone embarking on an ‘In Our Street’ project?
“Communicate with each other.”
What has this project meant to you?
“We got to know each other better. And people walking through have stopped to tell us how much they love what we have done.
It has been lovely to have many positive comments from locals who use the walkway, so it has not only enhanced the environment for us, but others too.”
