Altona residents are growing fruit and vegetables on their nature strips and looking to start the suburb’s first communal garden.
A new group called Altona Community Gardens (ACG) is putting together a financial and business plan to present to Hobsons Bay council in a bid to start a garden on public land.
Altona resident and ACG president Aleisha Rasheed has been growing tomatoes, strawberries and other edible plants on her nature strip.
“My backyard is all decking and sandstone tiles,” she said. “We don’t really have any land. My nature strip is massive; it’s the biggest piece of grass I have.”
ACG committee member Peter Weaver said the proliferation of townhouses meant a lack of garden space.
“A lot of people, like Aleisha, want their kids to experience that gardening aspect and where food comes from,” he said. “I’ve done a plot the same size as [Aleisha’s] at my place and that’s prompted us to form our own group.
“There’s so much arable land around Altona that’s under-utilised.”
Mr Weaver said he hoped to start an orchard at Truganina Explosives Reserve in Altona Meadows and get businesses involved in community gardening.
ACG vice-president Adeline Barham, who grows fruit and vegetables in her front yard, said a community garden was about bringing the community together.
“There’s that feeling that people have lost their sense of belonging and community and togetherness and growing, sharing,” she said.
Hobsons Bay and Maribrynong councils have no policy on vegetable gardens on nature strips, but neither allows plants higher than 50 centimetres on nature strips.
