In Part 1, Emma Cutting spoke about her journey into Street Gardening which became The Heart Gardening Project – leading into the development of the Melbourne Pollinator Corridor (MPC). Emma is not a horticulturalist, a landscape architect or an ecologist, although through her varied life experiences, has become a natural navigator enabling the gaps between different expertise and specialisations to be addressed in the MPC project. Emma’s guest blog offers inspiration to us all in the enabling of transformational change.

At the beginning of my journey I wasn’t hampered by bureaucracy and politics. With nothing to lose and the strongest belief that I was onto something, I felt perfectly comfortable approaching anyone for advice and support and was able to ask all the questions I needed without worrying whether they were silly or not. I felt that specialists weren’t bogged down by bureaucracy either. Most were more than happy to give me, the “crazy street gardening lady”, some time. Speaking to so many amazing people from various fields of expertise, I was able to put together informed, well-rounded answers to challenging questions.

I was able to naturally gravitate to where knowledge gaps lay – as it turned out the gaps were often between the systems. The inspiring conversations I have had (along with an enormous amount of research and study) have created for myself a strange and wonderful position as a kind of ‘dot-connector’, particularly in regard to the public realm.

I came at the big problems with fresh eyes and enthusiasm and what was also helpful at the beginning of the journey was the naivety I had regarding the enormity of the challenges I was addressing and what I needed to invest (emotionally and financially) to overcome them!

Working from outside conventional systems meant I had no choice but to draw on my own experience, professional and personal. Here are four facets of my life that have (very unexpectedly) helped me create the positive change we have achieved so far at THGP.

1. My experiences with life outside the norm

Growing up, my parents made the decision to homeschool me and I then went to university at the age of 15. Questions were always encouraged and talking to ALL people is just what I did. This mindset has helped me immensely with the design of the Melbourne Pollinator Corridor.

2. My experience with systemic change

In my 20s and 30s, I moved through a 12-year journey with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome where I created systemic change within my own system – my body. I have been constantly amazed at how this journey has driven me to develop the THGP. Indeed, for over a decade, I was one of the vulnerable people I am aiming to support now as I had little to no access to nature (or indeed the human race) and I know what negative effects this had on me. I now use the same approach to systemic change with THGP as I did with my own body – for example, I had a team of professionals from various fields of expertise helping me at different times. Also, I approached overcoming CFS by thinking and acting “glacially”, moving forward slowly, step by step but with extreme strength. This strong visual is incredibly useful to me now when I feel overwhelmed with the hugeness of THGP and MPC.

3. My approach to music teaching

My approach to teaching is to co-design a flexible, realistic, holistic music education with the person sitting in front of me and their family, combining various music methods, my own teaching and playing experience and the student’s expectations. This is not the easiest way to teach but has been by far the most rewarding for everyone involved. It took me a while to realise that I use the same approach regarding the design of the Melbourne Pollinator Corridor e.g. pulling on multiple methods of gardening to tailor an approach that fits within design constraints and THGP values.

4. My approach to keeping my students engaged

It is imperative that each of my students is given the opportunity to engage with their music in their own way at their own pace. I used this approach naturally for both myself and the community when I started street gardening and, by backing off on expectations, demonstrating what can be done, remaining positive, supportive, and encouraging and tailoring reactions according to levels of engagement, we were able to create a wonderful community embracing our projects in their own way and making it theirs. Just like I encourage my students to rename pieces to help them own the music, I love it when people rename the Melbourne Pollinator Corridor and make the MPC their own!

If I have learnt anything climbing this never-ending learning cliff that is The Heart Gardening Project it is this – that you absolutely do not need to limit yourself to your field of expertise to design and create positive change. If you have an idea outside your field, your skills and experiences, however distant they may seem to be, your experiences will be there for you in ways you never imagined. Why? Because those experiences led to you coming up with the idea in the first place!

If you feel strongly enough about an idea, you can create change in any field and succeed.

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Emma Cutting is Founder and Chief Doer of The Heart Gardening Project (THGP), a registered charity that combines community, science and care to joyfully connect humans to humans, humans to nature, and nature to nature through street gardening.