By Kirsten Lawson
As the ACT government considers new rules to allow vegie growing on nature strips, Judy Bamberger and Bram van Oosterhout are exploring just how far a verge garden can go, with a mini-hothouse erected outside their O'Connor home.
The couple first planted cactuses on their nature strip almost 10 years ago, and now have a healthy collection of prickly pear cactuses and others salvaged from a dump in Katoomba.
Bram van Oosterhout and Judy Bamberger with their nature strip garden in O'Connor, including the hoop house which they plan to cover in "repurposed" plastic for tomatoes in winter.Credit: Rohan Thomson
When they began, it was illegal to plant out nature strips without permission - the government is now looking to change the rules - but they went ahead anyway, only running into problems when they started digging out an area for a "hoop house".
The more extensive work sparked a complaint to the government, prompting a visit from rangers, who told them they needed permission. About five years ago, they sought and received permission, and the couple say they have stuck to the plans they submitted, albeit rejecting the government's preference for gravel in favour of bark chips between their garden beds.
A nature strip in O'Connor: Nature strip planting will remain outlawed, with the plan to allow planting falling by the wayside. Credit: Rohan Thomson
The hoop house is a small hot house on the verge, made using foraged materials, the plastic salvaged from the Domaine dumpsters and held together with bull clips. Inside are layers of plastic bottles filled with water, which Ms Bamberger said would heat up in the daytime sun and help keep the hot house warm overnight – hot enough, she hopes, to grow tomatoes and cucumber in a Canberra winter.
Ms Bamberger and Mr van Oosterhout have built their verge garden on "repurposed" materials, salvaged from their own renovations and picked up from building sites, dumpsters and other throwaway materials. It includes a path made of brick roofing tiles. Even the twine holding the hoop house together is reused from bales of mulch. The only purchase is the bolts holding garden beds together.
Even the asparagus was "liberated", as Ms Bamberger puts it, from a neighbour's derelict garden.
There is little in the garden that would comply with the government's proposed new rules, which limit vegetable and shrub heights to 0.5 metres and ban trees. Their cactuses are much higher, for a start, and couple grow corn, tomatoes and beans, with grape vines as a shelter around one garden bed, a fig tree in another garden bed, a pomegranate tree and lower-lying zucchinis and pumpkins.
The prickly pear cactuses in Judy Bamberger's O'Connor nature strip garden.Credit: Rohan Thomson
Ms Bamberger said she had been shocked to hear of the proposed 0.5 metre height restriction, given the popularity of tomato growing in Canberra.
"It's really sad," she said. "You won't be able to plant a sunflower."
The couple use drip irrigation – fed by 13 water tanks – which means connecting the verge garden by hose across the footpath when they water. They were careful to lay the hose straight to avoid creating a trip hazard and said there had been no complaints. Nor had they had problems with cats and dogs in their verge garden, with possums the only troublesome visitors – and they were kept out by shade cloth.
Ms Bamberger said neighbours did occasionally harvest vegetables – and were welcome to do so. But despite the evident opposition to nature strip gardens in comments on the Canberra Times website, the couple had experienced no negativity other than the original complaint about the hoop house. As to verge gardens being messy, she points out that grassed verges can also be left in a mess at times.
And far from a fringe issue, Ms Bamberger said home gardening was crucial. "We really need to all do a little bit more about feeding ourselves locally," she said.