Goya Dmytryshchak
People are being invited on a tour of four Hobsons Bay nature strip gardens as part of the Sustainable Living Festival.
The local nature strip tour, happening in Altona, Williamstown, Spotswood and Newport, includes nature strips featuring food plants, native and indigenous plants and ornamentals.
Altona’s Adeline Barham is among gardeners on the tour who will talk about their plantings.
“I enjoy a bit of nature strip gardening as it’s a healthy way to enrich urban biodiversity and it creates a beautiful habitat for birds, bees and butterflies using low-care plants,” she said.
“It’s a good way to talk to neighbours, and kids love visiting and picking flowers on their way to school.
“I am using the space that the nature strip provides to plant a variety of edibles such as purple sweet potatoes (the leaves are also edible), rhubarb, zucchinis and some herbs like parsley, thyme, sage, oregano, rosemary, rocket and chamomile, which can be shared in the neighbourhood.
“I also grow tough perennials like salvias, which flower for months, and native daisies, wildflowers and native grasses, calendulas, catmint that the bees love and a pretty butterfly bush.”
The tour is on Saturday, February 13, from 10am-3pm, and people may visit all four locations or just one or two.
A nature strip gardening information session is on Monday, February 22, from 7-8pm.
Registration is required via Eventbrite.
Details: www.hobsonsbay.vic.gov.au/sustainabilityevents
