From vacant to verdant

By Megan BackhouseFeb. 15, 2014, 3 a.m.

Kate Dundas describes how she - a one-time 'party animal' - turned into a gardener in Yorkshire.

Landscape architect and urban designer Kate Dundas describes how she - a one-time ''party animal in Glasgow'' - turned into a gardener in Yorkshire. It is a story about what happens when a thesis-writing university student in Leeds decides to apply what she has learnt about creating healthy cities to an allotment in an industrial estate in a rough part of town.

What happens is she gets a plot in the allotment immediately, there being no waiting list, on account of the suburb's reputation. Then she starts spending time away from the ''usual crew of students'' and engaging with people of different ages, backgrounds and skill levels. And then - no matter her ''neglectful'' gardening ways - she harvests sweetcorn she has grown from seed, watercress and a bounty of other vegetables.

For Dundas, who grew up in Scotland eating deep-fried potato in buttered white bread rolls, it was a revelation.

When Dundas moved to Melbourne two years ago, she tried to get a local plot. But, as anyone who has tried to secure a space in a community garden here could have told her, it was going to be a long wait. She began growing food in the garden of the terrace house she rents in Fitzroy instead and then, late last year, helped establish 3000acres, an outfit that aims to unlock unused urban, suburban and rural spaces for food gardens.

Inspired by 596 Acres, an online set-up established in New York in 2011 that maps vacant public land and connects potential gardeners through social networking, 3000acres has today launched a website of its own. The site (3000acres.org) publishes interactive maps of Melbourne on which users can plot unused sites and observe whether other people are also interested in trying to get access to them.

Some pieces of land - along railways, for example - could potentially be gardened long-term, while other sites - such as those owned by developers awaiting planning permits - could be cultivated for a finite period.

Such is the situation with 3000acre's first community project, a privately owned site in Fitzroy that is to be developed into apartments within the next year but in the meantime is being opened (from today) to local communities for gardening. Twelve specially deposited industrial plastic containers will operate as wicking beds with a reservoir of water held in the bottom that is then drawn up (through capillary action) into the growing medium.

The garden, on a site owned by Neometro Developments, will host a series of talks this afternoon for the Sustainable Living Festival and is just one of a string of productive gardens open to the public this weekend.

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From vacant to verdant