Street gardening gives city-dwellers a way to reconnect with nature. In Melbourne, it is also helping Australia’s wildlife and makes people feel safer in the street.
Little did Emma Cutting realise when she broke ground in 2016 on a patch of street outside her suburban Australian home, that a tiny garden would start a chain reaction. Today, she is responsible for starting more than 150 public gardens and has set her sights on joining many of them together to create “an Australian-first innovative wildlife corridor”.
Growing up and homeschooled on a secluded farm, our CityChanger spent her early years surrounded by nature but socially isolated. After a short period as a young adult working in various cities around the world, she developed chronic fatigue syndrome and isolation crept back in. It was made worse by the “immense amounts” of sealed urban land which denied her access to nature. “The feeling that the earth couldn’t breathe got stronger as I got older,” she tells us. “It bothered me more and more.”
In South Melbourne where Emma lives with her daughter, there was little greenery save for a few trees dotting the kerbside. Even then, the bases were covered in path topper. “I feel so sorry for these trees. They’re basically put into rubble, the poor things. It’s a miracle any of them survive.”
Small Beginning, Big Feelings
Emma dug a cutout of about 2m2 on a small patch of public land between her rental house and the road. Covering the costs herself, she planted some vegetables and herbs – maybe not the right choice, she admits, but it brought her a lot of joy. “I was doing something that made me feel good. I was getting my hands in the land.”
She did five more plots on the same street and seemed to feel better with each one.
I remember that moment when I realised the power of this work: it hit me like a good sledgehammer on the head!
The Healing Power of Street Gardening
A 2023 survey found that 30% of Australia’s urban population feels persistently lonely – one in six severely. This correlates with a poorer quality of life and a diminished mental and emotional wellbeing that access to safe community spaces is proven to help.
“There’s a connection with a garden that can make you feel less lonely.”
Having founded her grassroots charity, Heartscapes, our CityChanger has added ecological street gardening to her remit, which is “applying the science” to support “what native urban wildlife needs” to thrive in the city. One project the non-profit runs brings people together to make more street gardens – The Heart Gardening Project.
It’s supported by a growing group of volunteers, providing a social connection that has helped dismantle Emma’s isolation – an advantage that others are making the most of too.
Interest in the gardens has helped neighbours reconnect by making opportunities for impromptu social encounters. “I absolutely loved the feeling of connecting to people on the street while doing something healing and useful for myself and the community,” Emma tells us. “As a street gardener, you have a very clear role. It’s a very friendly role and people are happy to come and chat with you. It’s beautiful.”
Most volunteers are women. “It’s probably because we talk about care, love, joy, and kindness; women just ease into that a little bit better.” In an unplanned twist, their presence has improved female residents’ feelings of safety. Indirectly, these street gardens are making Melbourne a more equitable place to be; eyes on the street is proven to reduce gender-based microaggressions and intimidating behaviour, and some women have reported regularly walking places in the neighbourhood which they used to avoid altogether.
Women tell me that, when we’re out, they feel safer. It’s incredibly powerful stuff.
Essential Habitat for Indigenous Species
There are significant ecological benefits too.
By the start of 2026, The Heart Gardening Project had set up 56 small plots, reviving around 1,800m2 of poor quality public land and transforming what was effectively a biodiversity desert into thriving ecosystems.
Specifically, the gardens have a focus on plant species that support indigenous insects, whose survival relies on a delicate and “very specialised relationships” with the country’s unique habitats.
Early on, Emma decided to help honeybees, but this took a turn when she learnt that they were introduced for honey production. Instead, she started looking into how to connect the gardens in a way that would support local flora and fauna, including roughly 2,000 native Australian bee species. That gave rise to Emma’s vision for the Melbourne Pollinator Corridor (MPC).
Image credits: Emma Cutting
The Melbourne Pollinator Corridor
When finished, the MPC will be an 8km-long string of gardens connecting two major green hubs: Westgate Park and the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne. No two sites will be more than 50m apart to enable the smallest pollinators – or “critters” as Emma likes to call them – to “move through the urban matrix” in their search for food, shelter, and a mate.
The MPC is an Australian first. It’s a community driven, ecology centred wildlife corridor for our native pollinating insects like bees, butterflies, moths, wasps, and flies.
After three years of trial and error, she perfected the right mix of plants – as indicated by sightings of blue banded bees in and around the street gardens.
The city benefits majorly from the ecological boost, too. Pollinators fertilise the plants that beautify streets, the crops we eat, and the vegetation that stabilises soil, preventing erosion and reducing the potential for flooding. As an integral part of any ecosystem, pollinators are essential for the vegetation that cools urban environments through evapotranspiration and shade, mitigating the harmful impacts of climate change.
Image credits: Emma Cutting
Challenges of a Street Gardening Policy
Not everyone likes the idea of street gardening.
After the success of her initial plots, Emma approached the municipality with a proposal for the bigger BEE garden. Standing for “Bees, Education, and Environment”, she hoped it would create a thriving habitat for local wildlife and double as a place in the neighbourhood where people could connect with and learn about nature via planned activities like curated talks.
Emma collected around 80 signatures backing the proposal, and the city council approved her request to transform a “very public site” which “hundreds of people walk past” each day.
The wheels came off when a complaint from a member of the public triggered an overreaction from the council in a time when authorities were struggling to know how best to handle the COVID-19 pandemic.
Official justification for the council withdrawing their support was on the grounds of safety. In her attempts to keep the initiative going, Emma drowned in bureaucratic red tape – while the garden dealt with tape of its own, as barriers were put up to prevent access.
However, so many letters of protest came in from the community that the authorities were unable to relent to public demand; all the gardens were allowed to remain and thrive still.
Instead, the council tried to get a hold on street gardening. About a year later, the city approved new guidelines for nature strips, which contained such unobtainable technical requirements that Emma says it effectively made street gardening impossible.
No Cross Words – or Arms
Over the course of a year, Emma kept her nerve and “led a positive campaign” to overturn the policy. During an interview for the local newspaper, a photographer asked Emma to cross her arms in a show of outrage. “I said, ‘No way. We’re not crossing our arms in front of our gardens. We love our gardens.’”
She didn’t fight alone. Support came from a “community groundswell” – including a petition with 6,000 signatures – and pro bono representation from environmental lawyers who suggested how Emma could set out a wish-list of amendments. “That was one of the best pieces of advice I could have been given,” she says.
Championed within the municipality by a single sympathetic councillor, all 13 changes were voted through unanimously. It worked out well in the end: Emma considers the amended version a purposeful guidance document, containing realistic, sensible, and even useful constraints for projects working in the public realm.
Most importantly, it enshrines citizens’ rights to street gardening.
Image credits: Emma Cutting
Advice for Novice Street Gardeners
Members of Heartscapes are looking ahead to the next 144 gardens they need to shape the Melbourne Pollinator Corridor. This is the fun part.
Such an ambitious project took two years to plan and required the cooperation of 30 interdisciplinary specialists. Not being natural colleagues, Emma had to act as “translator” between the likes of scientists, various municipal departments, and public realm specialists, including landscape architects.
From diplomacy to Indigenous flora and fauna to leading campaigns, Emma has learnt a lot in the ten years since she created her first roadside garden.
She has poured a lot of this knowledge into the Melbourne Pollinator Corridor Handbook. It shares a lot about Australia’s native bee species, our CityChanger explains, but is enough of an introduction to street gardening, urban biodiversity, connection, and green corridors to make its application transferable to other regions of the globe.
Emma is also launching an Introduction to Street Gardening online course, which will be “a solid starting point” for keen or potential gardeners nationally and internationally. The funding from both resources goes towards Heartscapes’ activities, along with small grants, donations, and philanthropy.
As a taster, our street gardening expert was kind enough to share some of her top tips.
Getting Started: Motivation Over Knowhow
First, Emma reassures us, anyone can become a successful street gardener: “Over time you can learn the skills. What is most important is that you have a mindset that is generous, community-centred, and determined.”
She is living proof that what’s really important is motivation.
It’s enough to start with a single small plot, and to do it for your own enjoyment. Anything more ambitious should be handled sensibly. “My advice would be dream big but start small.”
Think Long-term
Creating a street garden is only the beginning. “The success is in how you care for it.”
Bringing together a bunch of folks to share the workload is useful, Emma explains, but large initiatives (especially over multiple sites) need a lynchpin – a figurehead who will keep them on track.
It’s not just about getting people out; it’s getting people out and staying out.
No Chance of Failure
The public realm is made up of many types of land, Emma reminds us. Not all are suitable so it’s useful to do a little metaphorical digging before choosing a site.
Consider how much works needs to be done, and how accessible the place is. Emma started with a nature strip outside her home, remember – a place where she could easily fetch the relevant tools and admire the results from her window.
If that’s not possible, “an elderly neighbour might have some land they can’t use,” she suggests. And think of the joy it would bring them to see it come alive with flowers and critters.
Or the motivation can be nature itself. Choose a patch of land that “needs some love”, our CityChanger recommends.
Dry, compacted soil where not even weeds can grow has probably “been degraded over many years” and nothing you do will make it worse. Don’t be afraid to experiment with plant species.
Keep It Natural
Even the act of breaking up soil will help the rain percolate and critters to move through it, improving soil health. But don’t expect to see instant results. “Take it slow. Be very patient. In time, it will heal.”
It may be tempting to apply chemicals, but don’t!
Compost and manure can be used initially to improve soil health. Consequently, adding “worm wee, tea, or seaweed solution” monthly can restore and retain natural goodness that supports plant growth.
Avoiding artificial pesticides altogether is better for the environment too.
The journey can be slower at the start, but in the long run it will be much more rewarding. You connect to the land a lot better.
An Uncertain but Hopeful Future
With the Melbourne Pollinator Corridor just over a quarter complete, Emma sees how street gardening provides “immense positive flow-on effects” in her neighbourhood every single day. And anyone can achieve it.
Street gardening is, she explains, “an invaluable tool… for people to create their own positive change”. This will only become more powerful as cities grow and the connection with nature becomes more strained.
As with many small nonprofits, the longevity of Heartscapes is always precarious. Emma says that when times are at their most challenging, relentless hope and community spirit keep her going. That’s the message she most wants to get across.
“There are times when it’s really hard to keep that mental strength. That’s why I have created the online street gardening course. I poured ten years of experience into something people will find valuable and generous.”
She hopes that her experience will serve as an inspiration for anybody, anywhere to get their hands into the earth. Not necessarily for the sake of nature of neighbours but starting with their own wellbeing.
“If street gardening affects people’s lives even a fraction of how it has affected mine then that will be incredible!”