A Good Neighbor

One of my friends, who lives in inner-city Melbourne recently took on a community-minded project in her street, of her own volition. She and her husband worked over three weekends to convert small patches of weed-filled, compacted dirt between car-parking spaces into lovely little mini-gardens, planted with Australian native plants. The spaces contained large gum-trees, which are beautiful, but the areas around the trees were just weeds.

She said she and her husband “dug out 15 green bins of weeds and rock hard soil over three weeks on a Sunday,  and chatted to everyone on the street who passed.  They were very pleased we were doing the work!” I bet they were!  It was hard work as the ground was so hard-packed my friend and her husband had to use a pick axe to break it up

As well as doing the work, my friends also paid the cost of the plants and the mulch. Of course they obtained permission from the neighbors concerned. And here is the result. Isn’t it pretty? The taller plants are Kangaroo Paws and the smaller ones are everlasting daisies, which will spread and fill up the gaps. Both are drought tolerant and survive in poor soils. Everlastings are so-called because the flowers are crisp and papery and can be used in dried arrangements. And the bees will love them too.
Isn’t that a brilliant thing to do?