New Zealand: The pros and surprising cons of free fruit & vege in public spaces
“I started because I wanted to grow sunflowers in my berm. Kids would come past and want to know what I was doing.”
By Kerri Jackson
Stuff
Jan 09 2022
Excerpt:
The pollution risk is one reason “we would strongly encourage people not to do that,” says Bridie Gibbings, Christchurch City Council’s Team Leader Parks Sector North, of people planting veges and fruit on the roadside.
Road safety and clear footpaths are the city council’s other concern. “You don’t want to be harvesting fruit from trees that are right on the roadway and on pedestrian footpaths, and you don’t want slippery fruit that’s rotten.”
She adds that in Christchurch, planting fruit trees in berms in post-earthquake new subdivisions often isn’t possible as they’re smaller and often tightly packed with below ground infrastructure.
Though it has no specific bylaw banning berm gardens or fruit trees, what Christchurch City Council tries to do instead, Gibbings says, is to work with residents to find other public spaces to plant food. “Most homes [in Christchurch] are within 400 or 500 metres of a local park, so will almost always have a location where people can put the fruit trees and veges within walking distance of their homes.”
