The garden is on the verge in front of our house in Marrickville.
Because of the compost, worm castings and nutrient rich soil as a result of 6 years of gardening, our Bottle Brush street tree which separates the eastern bed from the western bed, has grown very well. As a result we have one shady bed and one sunny bed.
This determines what we plant, eg. the shady bed has Vietnamese mint, common mint, silver beet, kale, rainbow chard, lettuces, chives, shallots, endive, lemon verbena, oregano, mint, basil (in summer), chicory, parsley, chervil and other leafy herbs. The sunny bed has beans, peas, artichoke, broccoli, brussel sprouts, calendula, marigold, beetroot, cauliflower, mustard, basil, mint, parsley, thyme and all manner of sun loving herbs & vegies.
Our verge vegie garden produces more than we can hope to eat and there is always plenty for the neighbourhood. The local children call it the Ladybird garden because there are always lots of ladybirds (and mantids) grazing on the odd fungi and on any aphids.
We never spray and so the beneficial insects do an excellent job of controlling pests and fungi. We hope to set an example to all other people in our neighbourhood and hope that they will follow suit and plant out the grass verges on our quite wide streets, which are otherwise completely unproductive.
Our verge vegie garden has been used by Marrickville Council as an excellent example of verge plantings, both for edible produce and as beautification of the street.
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Story on Science Show — 2008:
https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/scienceshow/guerilla-gardening/3156872
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Bill and Eva have moved on — here is a link to their real estate video showing their verge:
https://eliteagent.com/video-week-15-horton-street-marrickville/
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Added By Emma Daniell
