Urban gardening activities are a valuable form of recreation that contribute to the health and wellbeing of the community and provide a range of environmental, social, economic and educational benefits.
Apply for a street garden permit
- Before applying, you should read the Street Gardens Guidelines below and check your site on the interactive map below. The next step is to contact the City of Melbourne to determine if your site is suitable. You can contact our Street Gardens coordinator on 03 9658 9658 or email street.gardens@melbourne.vic.gov.au.
- If your site is deemed appropriate, a street gardens notification sign (for public display) will be prepared for you.
- Display the notification sign for four weeks to let the nearby community know you are proposing a street garden and give them an opportunity to comment.
- After four weeks, remove the sign and contact the City of Melbourne on 03 9658 9658 to determine if there are any objections.
- Complete and submit the street garden permit application form (DOC 319 KB) and pay the $55 application fee.
- If your application is successful you will be sent an Offer of Terms and Conditions.
- Once the Offer of Terms and Conditions is signed and returned and you have paid the bond of $75 we will issue you with a permit and you can go ahead with your street garden.
Street Garden Guidelines
The Street Garden Guidelines are for gardens on nature strips and median strips.
Find your median or nature strip
See pages 8 to 11 of the Street Garden Guidelines for more details about location criteria.
Frequently asked questions
The bond of $75 is utilised in the case of the street garden being left unkempt or abandoned for a considerable amount of time. The City of Melbourne can then use the bond to remove the street garden and restore the nature strip back to the original state.
Your bond will be released to you once your street garden has been removed.
The Council may use the bond to make good the cost of remedying any breach of the permit by the permit holder. Within 14 days of the end of the permit, the Council will return the unused portion of the bond to the permit holder.
Street garden applicants should generally be owners or tenants of properties in close vicinity to any proposed street garden. The street garden should be in a location that you can regularly observe and maintain.
An appropriate position is one that is well lit. This will increase safety and minimise damage, vandalism and theft.
Street gardens are permitted in nature strips with lawn or mulch surfaces, and are best suited to streets with low levels of vehicle traffic. A nature strip must be at least 3.5 metres wide to enable clearance for street maintenance and safety for the street gardener. This can be reduced to 2.5 metres where the adjacent footpath is greater than 3 metres wide.
Street gardens are also permitted in lawn or mulch central median strips on low traffic streets where there is sufficient width. A central median must be at least 4.6 metres wide to enable adequate clearance for maintenance and safe working space for the street gardener.
You must to be able to see the plot from your front or back gate and the street garden must be in close vicinity to your property. Alternatively, you could work with a household or business nearer to the site you are interested in to apply for the permit.
All street gardens must be installed above the ground in raised planter boxes on nature strips or medians.
The raised planter can be constructed in two sizes:
- square: 1 x 1 x 0.4m high
- rectangle: 1 x 2 x 0.4 m high.
The only acceptable materials for your planter box are treated pine and recycled black plastic. This is for safety reasons and to ensure that there is an aesthetic consistency across the City of Melbourne.
Once you have registered your interest by phone or email with the City of Melbourne and we have deemed your site appropriate, we will post out a notification sign that you should attach to the property nearest to where you plan to set up a street garden. This sign will outline your proposed use of the location and a contact point where the community can provide feedback on your garden. The notification sign needs to be displayed for four weeks.
If your proposed site is directly opposite another dwelling, you will have to gain permission from that household or business to erect your notice on their fence, wall or property. This is a great opportunity to seek their support.
If the proposed site is in a median strip, you will need to erect a sign at the properties on both sides of the street opposite the site.
Please note that it is not acceptable to put this sign on a stake in the ground or nailed to a tree. This may cause obstruction to sightlines for vehicle users or cause damage to trees and irrigation systems.
If the proposed street garden location is on the nature strip directly outside the applicant’s property, you require support from immediate neighbours.
If the proposed street garden location is on the median strip, you need support from neighbours directly opposite and adjacent the proposed location.
Any obvious opposition to a street garden proposal from neighbours will generally see applications for new street gardens not being accepted.
At most hardware stores and nurseries.
For safety reasons, it is important to have a permeable barrier between the existing soil and the soil in the raised planter box. A sheet of weed mat, geo-fabric or shade cloth is suitable for this purpose.
Most hardware stores and nurseries will supply these products.
Natives, shrubs, ornamental plants or a productive garden with herbs and or vegetables. Keep in mind that climbing frames, stakes and netting cannot be used and plants can reach a maximum height of 1 metre.
Planting considerations include:
- plants that require low maintenance and water requirements
- avoiding plants which may be poisonous or hazardous (i.e. thorns)
- avoiding plants that are considered weedy and spread (i.e. via suckers or the germination of seeds).
See Choosing the right plants for more information.
No. Due to contamination risks, soil from one’s own back yard is not permitted. All street gardens must be established with fresh soil or compost, sourced from a reputable supplier and stored in bags. The soil should not be stockpiled on public land.
- Crown land and council reserves
- Roundabouts and street corners
- Boulevards such as St Kilda Road, Royal Parade and Victoria Parade and Flemington Road
- Arterial roads – King Street, Flemington Road
- Government Authority Land
- On non-permeable surfaces, such as bluestone pavers and concrete footpaths.
Your street garden must be at least 4.5 metres from the trunk edge of any tree or outside of the tree canopy line (or whichever is greater) to minimise compaction and damage. In particular cases, the tree protection zone may need to be increased.
Download the Sustainable Gardening in the City of Melbourne booklet (PDF 2.6 MB).
You can also visit Sustainable Gardening AustraliaOpens in new tab for more information on sustainable gardening.
Do you have:
- space to garden in the front or back of your property using containers?
- a balcony, small courtyard or rooftop?
- space to grow indoor herbs or ornamentals?
- wall space where you can develop and maintain a vertical garden?
There are also community gardens within the City of Melbourne:
- Docklands Community Garden - Located on Geographe Street, Docklands
- Urban ReforestationOpens in new tab – end of Merchant Street, Docklands, Victoria Harbour
- East Melbourne Community Garden - East Melbourne Fitzroy Gardens, Sinclair's Cottage
- Kensington Community Garden - Westbourne Road and Cornish Lane, Kensington.
The $52 permit fee includes indemnity insurance taken out on your behalf by the City of Melbourne covering the street garden activity.
