Myrtle Street

The street along from where I live is called Myrtle Street. In Myrtle Street, encroaching on the pavements, is a Community Garden, a simple but lovely idea: a group of volunteers have planted (and continue to tend) salad leaves, herbs and fruit trees (lemons, limes and passionfruit) for everyone in the neighbourhood to pick and share. There's a communal compost bin which I've been enjoying adding to, and a panoply of herbs: mint, comfrey, parsley, lemongrass, chillies, bay leaves, sorrel and chives, as well as wild strawberries and native raspberries. The volunteers are led by Michael Mobbs, who lives in the Sustainable House at Number 58 (pictured). In the street, picking comfrey, parsley and nasturtiums for salad, I met Steph, a naturopath who lives at the end of the street, and who kindly consented to be photographed. She said the volunteers had planted 30 fruit trees; someone came along in the night with a truck, dug them up and disappeared. Such crass, mean-spirited behaviour hasn't deterred the volunteers. I'm happy to discover that in the heart of the city people are trying to do something for their neighbours.