Community mindedness in pavement gardens
Walking through the suburbs one day recently I came across a great pavement garden – home grown veges with signs encouraging passersby to help themselves but ‘to leave some for your brother’.
This sure beats lollipop trees, invasive ivy and aggressively brut hunks of stone. One of my bugbears about suburban Joburg is anti-social pavements which have been transformed into dangerous obstacle courses, often forcing pedestrians, dog-walkers and child minders and families to walk in the road itself – dangerous and unnecessary.
Follow the Prime Media’s Lead SA initiative and start with returning pavements to what they should be – accessible and congenial public spaces. No access is blocked by this innovative vegetable planting as pedestrians have use of the pathway flanking the pavement garden. Plus the public-spiritedness of this little patch embodies the spirit of Ubuntu – we can all make a difference.
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