Read the draft guidelines and share your feedback by midnight Wednesday 15 December 2021.

Recent lockdowns in Melbourne over the past year has seen an increase in residents gardening on nature strips across Port Phillip.

Council is reviewing its existing Nature Strip Guidelines, which were developed in 2013, to support this growing community interest. We’ve spent time developing new draft Nature Strip Guidelines that aim to provide clear directions on how residents and businesses can safely garden on our nature strips.

The new draft guidelines provide the community with information on nature strips, including:

  • ways to maintain safety and accessibility
  • how raised planter boxes can be used
  • the inclusion of safe, edible gardens
  • maintaining healthy street trees
  • protection of public assets
  • the impact of public works on nature strips.

Share your feedback by midnight Wednesday 15 December 2021.

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The new draft guidelines include requirements for planting such as:

  • distances from intersections
  • distance from pedestrian crossings
  • distances from kerbs
  • distances from service pits
  • distances from trees and tree trunks
  • plant heights
  • planting below street trees
  • maintaining the existing ground level
  • where planter boxes can be installed.

These requirements are included to ensure the safety of pedestrians, people gardening and people working on infrastructure as well as good long-term health of trees in the City of Port Phillip.

The new draft guidelines don’t include centre median strips and laneways:

  • Centre median strips are maintained by Council and residents are not permitted to plant in this area for safety reasons.
  • Laneways must remain clear and accessible at all times. Garden beds and planter boxes are considered obstructions.

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If you would like to ask a question or need more information about the project, you can submit a question below. Council officers will be joining the conversation at set times listed below to answer your questions. Any questions posted outside of this time we'll do our best to answer as quickly as we can, please allow up to two business days for a response.

You can also search and review previous questions and answers.

This space is for you to post questions to Council officers, not for comments or feedback. Please provide any comments or feedback through the online form, so we can keep a record of all feedback received.

Join the live chat

Council officers will be jumping online to answer any questions posted in the Q&A Chat at the following times:

Tuesday 7 December 2021 12:00 pm – 01:00 pm

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Thursday 9 December 2021 07:00 pm – 08:00 pm

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Jennifer Witheridge

Urban Forest Planner

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