Imagine picking fresh fruit and veg from the nature strip

THE seed of the idea to replace lawns with fruit and veg beside council roads was planted several years ago but never quite germinated.

GROWING MOVEMENT: Max Burgess (centre) with her son Juno and neighbour Kahula Dangerfirld at the Little Keen St community garden.

IMAGINE picking lettuce from a road blister or oranges from your nature strip.

The seed of the idea to replace lawn with fruit and veg alongside council roads was planted several years ago but never quite germinated.

At next week's council meeting Cr Vanessa Ekins intends to put the Edible Streetscapes Plan back on the agenda. She will move that council present to a workshop the draft Edible Streetscapes Plan and prepare the plan for public exhibition and adoption by council.

A newly elected Lismore City Council, formed after the September election, will decide on the plan.

Vanessa Ekins said, "There is so much positive comments in social media on the practicalities of enabling edible streetscapes," she said.

"Council's Sustainable Environment Panel recommended adoption of the draft edible streetscapes plan prepared by our environmental strategies staff several years ago. It is time this plan was progressed,"

"Having a policy in place sends a message that council is committed to sustainability," she said.

Cr Ekins said one of her visions for an edible streetstcape plan included the planting of citrus tree, for example, on council verges.

With the guerilla gardening and edible community garden movements gaining traction worldwide, Cr Ekins said council gets requests from residents to plant gardens on council land but there wasn't a plan in place to address this.

Lismore City Council's Manager Integrated Planning commented on the notice of motion:

"Staff will need to research the Edible Streetscapes Plan due to the age of the document. Review and any necessary amendments would be made prior to providing a briefing to Council. It should be noted that a briefing would be provided to the next Council after the Local Government Elections on 10 September 2016 due to the briefing schedule for this term of Council coming to an end on 19 July 2016."

Edible streetscape plans from other councils

Recognising that citizens want to beautify their neighbourhoods and to turn poorly used land, such as the grassy strips along the footpath to productive use, a number of councils have written the opportunity for street verge gardening into policy.

Where a number of households on a street is involved, the City of Sydney covers verge gardening within its Community Garden Policy. In 2011, the City incorporated the Myrtle Street, Chippendale, street verge gardens into its Sustainable Streets Demonstration Project when it decided to support a trial of verge gardening and community composting.

Other councils have a verge garden approval process that requires gardeners to submit a plan for their garden and levies a charge for considering the proposal.

Please Pick Project in New York

Please Pick Project is a small example of how we can revolutionise our relationship with food and address many of the health and hunger problems that plague communities around the country and around the world.

Benefits of edible gardens

Opportunities in neigbourhood beautification

Increasing biodiversity

Food security

Urban regreening

Visual amenity

Global warming amelioration through carbon sequestration in garden soils

Reduction of the urban heat island effect that raises air temperature in cities

Developing social capital and civic engagement.