• Simon Thackrah, Steve Baker, Angus Duff, Dianne Cotter, Jasmine Duff, John Carey and Vinnie the Dog ready to pretty up a verge. Photo by Jeremy Dixon

VINCENT city council is hoping to turn its barren verges into lush native gardens through a new adopt-a-verge scheme.

Under the plan the council will do the earthworks and install mulch for interested residents, then cough up for 20 plants at its twice-yearly native plant sale.

Once it’s set up, caretaking is handed over to the residents.

Mayor John Carey, who came up with the plan, says “it’s about greening and beautifying our streets, but it’s also about combating the ‘heat island’ effect [where] bitumen and buildings absorb heat. Greening our streets cools the urban environment—that’s a fact.”

He says while some may expect council to do all the work “there’s so much verge in the City of Vincent that it’s unrealistic to think that council can maintain all of it all the time. This is asking residents to play a role, but we’re also providing an incentive…and we want to make it as easy as possible”.

Simon Thackrah from the Norwood Neighbourhood Association supports the plan. The NNA is in the midst of setting up a community garden at the old Cheriton Street house which was saved from private development in 2011. They’d hoped to use garden mulch from to fix up the verges, and he says this program will be a big help as locals can’t easily get hold of big landscaping equipment.

by DAVID BELL