Turns out for all my dreams of anarchic planting I’m actually a goody two shoes, front of the permaculture, gold star for following the rules sheep. As such tomorrow is a big day. Tomorrow is the day when the council comes to tell us whether we are allowed to do the nature strip planting that we have already done, (okay so maybe I’m not completely obedient!). I’m really hoping that we get the thumbs up because I think that will lead to more people going ahead with reclaiming their curbs. I’m also really excited to say that the cuts on the silverbeet suggest that people have finally got the message that we will not be sitting on our porch in a rocking chair with a shotgun guarding ‘our greens’ but rather encouraging people to take what they need. That said we are still busy building the sign to explicitly explain what is growing, how, how to get involved and that they should just take what they want!
Anyway, the council visit has made me think about where this all ends. So this is not an explanation of what we’ve done, but more a little dream about what I’d like to do.
Phase 1. The Johnson Strip
This is what we’re working on, the greening of our street. This began a while ago by engaging with our neighbours, having discussions and holding street barbecues to get people out of their houses and into their street. The next part of this was to get people either talking, or doing things that would move towards a more ecological and sustainable street. This is where the boxes come in. There are 58 blocks on our street. We currently have 3 boxes of vegies, 1 olive tree, 1 plum, 1 bay and a lemon tree. We have 5 neighbours who are planning to either go native or get some vegies on their curb and a couple of neglected strips that don’t really belong to anyone (at least anyone who cares).
How will we know when phase 1 is done. Well actually as with most garden type things it’s never going to be done. But I guess I’ll be pretty chuffed when the neighbours are coming together to build or maintain boxes, working out what we need (as a community) to plant in various boxes and when no-one on the street ever has to buy mint, lemons, herbs or greens. Where children can go searching for berries and no one is under any illusion what a truly fresh carrot , tomato or pea tastes like.
Phase 2. The Food Mile
This is where we really start to get speculative. You see about 1 km from our house sits ‘Our Apple Tree’ (check them out on facebook). Just past that is a guerrilla garden that has taken up a vacant block and on the other side of the train line is a formal community garden. I’ve gone and chatted to people in each of them (it turns out that 2 small children can get you in and chatting just about anywhere) but it always makes me think that if there were links between these points of green then they would become not just for those people involves, but for everybody and really provide education, inspiration and an alternative to the supermarket down the road. So phase 2 is the food mile (actually I’ve no idea how long it would be!). This would involve a little more council involvement and planning since the route as you can see takes us next to a train line.
But surely it doesn’t take too much imagination to see that this space could not only have a swath of fruit trees but also productive vegie growing spaces that would turn an ugly bit of partially dead grass into a thing of beauty, with no real downside! Well actually there’s one, you see I’ve come to realise that even with wicking boxes it is the access water that makes the difference and there aint no roof catchment here except for passing trains. But still a line of fruit trees to protect from the afternoon sun, a line of boxes connected in series and filled by a well meaning council, surely it’s at least possible.
Phase 3. The Station Food Forest
If the first was happening, and the second was speculative then I think this bit is just dreaming, but what a dream. I’ve been reading a lot about food forests recently. Food forest are self sustaining plantings where fruit trees and understory plants support each other to make a little productive micro-ecosystem with only minimal input from people.
In the absence of car travel I tend to spend quite a lot of time on train platforms and it was here that I got all inspired.
I don’t know if this is very visible, but it’s a sloping site that just screams “I’d make for some awesome swales” (there’s a discussion about what swales are here http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/permacult/msg0422135913510.html). But the bonus is that there is a building that really does nothing except remind you that there used to be people involved in ticketing and helping you use public transport, not just semi-functional electronic ticketing systems! But this building provides a great opportunity for diverting water to a tank that could then be used for the growth down the hill. Perfectly passive water collection and use and how cool would it be to grab and apple as you stroll for your morning train!
Sadly I’m sure that the reality of this project with OH&S and safety concerns will probably render it impossible. But hey, I’m an optimist so I’m just going to carry on thinking that as we green our street and try to build a food mile we will meet people and learn things that might just make the impossible possible.
A Life of Treading Lightly 
I love the idea of apple trees growing with swales outside your local railway station. If you want a navvy for the project, you can count me in! (Although enthusiasm may exceed skill). I would have thought from the council’s perspective, its all good. It can be chalked up as a community project at pretty much zero cost to them and they would save on the lawn mowing costs. As for OH&S, what sort of a div would you have to be to injure yourself on an apple tree? What happened to the time when you dusted yourself down, said “silly me” and got on with your life?
Your remark about there no longer being someone to sell you tickets at the station really resonates with me. I loathe the automatic ticketing which has errors and issues far too often but more importantly is just plain impersonal. At my station we have Rosa, who doesn’t work for the railways, but uses the old ticket booth to sell newspapers, drinks and sweets and has a little doo-dad to top up my ticket for me when I hand her the cash. She also takes care of lost property (including one day, a dog!) Like the other shop keepers in the strip, she knows me, where I live, what’s going on in my world and we have a nice chat while she tops up my ticket for me (or also when she isn’t). I occassionally bump into her when she’s out walking her dog (she lives near me) and we stop to say hello. How much more rewarding an experience is all that, than interacting with a machine that gives me panic attacks!
You know I had never really thought about the wasted potential of all of those un-used train stations. Just think you could have a network of community tool and seedling libraries and if one of them didn’t have the tool you wanted you could just jump on the train to the next one.
Great to have found your blog. And what a dream! Thornbury is ‘my’ station, and it’s got a huge unused paddock that would be excellent for a food forest too. Imagine if you could link the sttion forests with a strip along the tracks…
In more immediately realistic terms I’m finding your nature strip plantings very exciting to read about. I’m renting, and have just built up a good enough relationship with the landlords to get permission to plant anything i want in the garden – so long as I maintain the lawn and the hedges, sigh. I might get there in a year or two, I guess. I’ll be interested to know what the council thinks of it all.
Yeh the idea of linking all these clearly usable spaces is exciting isn’t it. The renting one is also an interesting question. We had this discussion with a neighbour recently about whether her landlord would like things on the nature strip. Whilst it’s important to keep on good terms with the landlord (relationships being paramount to renting happiness after all) it’s not actually their land but rather the councils who were very happy with what we had done. I’ll be posting a full description (as per councils request) of what we did and the design considerations which might be useful for you should the conversation with the landlord arise.
Interestingly the land around train stations was used for food production during WW2. People could ‘rent’ the space and grow food. Genius! The arrangements were fairly informal and ranged from a nominal amount of cash to exchanging a few vegies to just keeping the place neat. Along the train lines you can still see today across Australia a few rogue fruit trees growing, reminders from another time when we were in control of our food system.
By the way – looking forward to reading your submission for the Reclaim the Curb competition!
Thanks for the comment, I had no idea that was the case. I think that it’s interesting to note the responses during war-time to the necessary responses that will be required to make the transition to a low energy future. It seems that it was one of the few time when people thought more about resilience and ‘the greater good’ than themselves, even if it was for the most destructive of reasons.
The more I think about the advantages of these spaces the more it makes perfect sense to think about how we can develop them. Are they rented spaces or are they public, and which is more productive and provides greater community resilience? How do you plant, and what do you plant to give great yields but also be resilient to a changing climate? Perhaps most importantly how do we engage a greater proportion of the community into making (and keeping) productive areas productive?
Paul.
I’m really enjoying reading your blog each week and am inspired by your family’s actions and your passion to engage the neighbourhood.
Despite the obvious challenges that you point out, I think that neighbourhood food forests can be realised here. I know that Darebin council, with a working group, has earmarked potential sites throughout the locale for food forests and their Food Security and Urban Forest strategies would, at least in theory, support the notions you discuss. I’m sure that negotiations with VicRail (or whomever ‘own’ the land beside the rail tracks) could be supported by council. Maybe I’m just eternally optimistic, but I can definitely imagine a trail through the food forest/s from Croxton to Northcote!
In addition, small green spaces, such as the rail verge, are going to take on greater emphasis as the area becomes increasingly housing-dense (how many residences are planned for the old Horizons site?). We can agitate for beautiful AND edible green spaces for playing, growing and being.
Hi there and thanks for the comment,
The more I think about this the more sense that it makes and the more exciting the possibilities become. I spoke to Darebin Council recently when they came to inspect our vegie boxes and they suggested that there is a disconnect between VicTrack (the owners of the land) and the council. She thought we would have more luck talking to them as citizens. That said, with a bit of planning and some good community engagement I don’t see why we can’t have beautiful and inclusive edible spaces. I’m at a table with Sally from Transitions Darebin next Sunday at the Make, Share, Mend day (http://transitiondarebin.org/). Maybe this could be a transition initiative ?