Having done the front, I’m now working on the side.
The impetus was provided when the Council turned up and planted two new trees and replaced an existing tree. Unfortunately, they were not aligned, Chinese Tallow (very different to the established paper bark tree), and in the way of easily being able to denude the verge of anything green.
The Chinese Tallow trees have since been removed, after requesting that they be removed, given that they were mistakenly planted in the first place, and we would prefer paper bark trees just as the native birds do.
On the weekend I edged the verge on the path side, and grubbed out the dead couch and very alive weeds around the street pole. I then worked up the road side of the verge to create a garden bed about the width of the garden broom. This entailed measuring with the broom, cutting with the edging tool and then using the fork to lift out about the sod – literally.
The ultimate goal is to get rid of all the grass and weeds and establish a garden, probably consisting of rosemary, lavender, and santolina.
The short-term goal is to plant Blue-eyed Daisies in a garden bed next to the road and then work on grubbing out the rest of the verge.
Once the side verge is done, we will have successfully removed any lawn (couch or buffalo grass) from our garden and surrounds.
The Council provides parks and open spaces, that are regularly maintained so I don’t feel that we need to waste our precious water on maintaining lawn that only the neighbourhood dogs and their owners utilise.
