Thriving in the ‘next economy’ requires designing for all of life, and caring for place, within social and ecological systems (Thakara, 2015). The Heart Gardening Project in Melbourne, Australia is one such example of the creation of ground up initiative for a “leave-things-better economy”. Founder, Emma Cutting, discusses how this community-led street gardening initiative has scaled up to its current focus, the Melbourne Pollinator Corridor, an 8km, community-driven, ecology-centred wildlife corridor for native pollinating insects in central Melbourne.

I first experienced the untapped goldmine of opportunity that is street gardening in 2016, creating and maintaining a tiny garden outside my rental. To me, street gardening is its own type of gardening -different to guerrilla, private and government plantings. This is the mindset and approach we use for all types of green public spaces. I define Street gardening as creating and maintaining a public garden (often by a resident outside their home) combining site awareness, observation and immersion with a particularly determined, caring, generous, positive and community-centred mindset.

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