Verge planting in Unley

by Anne Wilson
Russ weeded his verge recently, and was so taken with its good, friable soil that he wondered if it would make a good community patch. He brought the idea to our latest meeting, and our ‘gardening kits’ group, an amalgam of the two Unley groups, took to it with enthusiasm.

Planting was easy, thanks to Russ’s prior preparation. Equipped in various ways, five of us descended on his small piece of soil. Anne & Pat take credit for all the planting of rainbow chard, lemon balm, parsley, sage, rosemary, (thyme yet to come), mint, oregano, amaranth, warrigal greens and marigold. Sounds a lot for a small space, but they’re only tiny, and should make an attractive, plant-filled verge. Now to see what happens. Russ wants it to be a community enterprise, where people feel free to take a little for their own use, so we think herbs are best to begin with, rather than vegies (rainbow chard being the exception, as it’s more easily and inexpensively replaced). And as far as verge-planting goes, I can’t see anyone objecting to a well-tended patch when there are masses of weeds growing on so many verges.

But it didn’t stop there. Fired up with enthusiasm, Waldo, Pat and Anne started on the weeds (actually clumps of grass from a lawn that didn’t succeed) in the front garden and cleared it nicely, adding the weeds to a bag of horse manure which will be left in the sun to compost. Russ rewarded us with his now legendary good coffee. His verge, and also his garden, are taking a new turn! I wonder what’s next?