For groups who want a shared activity to raise awareness about nature, biodiversity, walkability, or many other related issues, a verge garden project offers a flexible and doable activity that connects your members as they work together to plant and promote.
Through the group activities, you will gain practical experience in advocacy, strategy and leverage, and in building networks and alliances.
To get the most out of this, at least three of your core members should understand the content of the free basics course and put it into practice converting a verge and posting a story into the directory. Skipping this step risks your project being derailed by conflict with neighbours and councils.
Why Verge Gardens?
Verges are the ideal place for advocacy and change-making because they are:
a) public so people see it (not hidden in the backyard)
b) part of people’s daily life (not hidden away like bushcare)
c) a place of equal access – nobody’s territory and everyone has a right to be there.
Requirements
Group and activity leaders should be familiar with the free course Verge Garden Basics – Understanding the Space and ideally have converted at least some of their verge (or helped someone else do theirs) so they have personal experience.
Group leaders have responsibility to:
- understand the strategies and communicate them to members
- ensure that members create council-compliant verge gardens
- encourage the leveraging strategies to get most benefit from this activity
Getting Started
Please ensure that at least three of your core members understand the content of the free basics course and put it into practice converting a verge and posting a story into the directory. If you can’t do this, you could find it better to join with another group project.
- Upgrade to paid membership of the Shady Lanes Substack so you have full access to resources for group projects
- Encourage your members to sign up and read the Basics course on this website, and the free membership on Substack.