A Perth gardener is devastated after a neighbour's complaints campaign ended in the bulldozing of her elaborate, expensive and eco-friendly garden – for a second time.
Sue Jefferies and her husband worked to create their Wembley home's verge in keeping with council policy, but say their neighbour's volley of complaints led the council to throw the book at them, destroying 13 years of love and labour.
The 250-square-metre verge once contained more than 3000 plants and represented more than $50,000 in costs over the 13 years, including materials and the labour of a gardener who planted, weeded and tidied for three to six hours per week.
The council bulldozed about $12,000 worth of reticulation three years ago, leaving a "dustbowl", and three years of rehabilitation work in consultation with councillors was this week razed again.
A dream garden
The couple chose their corner block 13 years ago inspired by the possibilities the huge verge represented.
They checked Town of Cambridge verge guidelines and drove the suburban streets to make sure they were interpreting them in the same way other were before they established their dream waterwise garden.
The garden as it was before the first bulldozing. Photo: Sue Jefferies
"The footpath was covered in frogs at night – it was that healthy," Mrs Jefferies said.
"There were masses of birds coming after lizards ... people often stopped their cars and got out and said, 'My God, what a garden'. People would change their evening walk to come past and have a look."
Toil... then trouble
Then a new neighbour moved in.
"He explained to us very clearly that he didn't like native plants and that we must remove them," Mrs Jefferies said.
We explained it was our verge and he was entitled to do what he wished with his.
"At that time we did not realise how determined this man was."
Letters from the council followed and the couple sought legal advice. Eventually, a council ranger told the lawyer someone would come around with a whipper-snipper to 'trim' the garden, despite it already being trimmed once a week by a professional gardener to keep it off the footpaths and road.
The next morning, a bulldozer turned up.
The same verge - after the council ensured its 'compliance' with guidelines. Photo: Sue Jefferies
An extensive reticulation system worth $12,000, and the brick path through the garden, were destroyed, with pipes and tree roots left exposed and broken bricks strewn about. So much topsoil was removed that pedestrians were at risk of turning an ankle and stumbling into the "dustbowl", Mrs Jefferies said.
After six months of fighting, the council provided a pile of seedlings and a small load of mulch for them to put on their verge at the stat of summer. But the seedlings died, despite their best efforts, because the reticulation was gone, the weather hot and the topsoil ruined.
"They told us that if we had any community spirit we would hand-water the verge ourselves with buckets," she said.
A cautious new beginning
For the next three years the couple worked on rehabilitating the soil and creating a composting system to create moisture without reticulation. They chose desert plants that could cope with the system, the centrepiece being spiky-looking but soft agave succulents. Mature specimens, they cost $220 apiece.
This is what the Jefferies' verge garden looked like a few days ago. Photo: Sue Jefferies
Councillors they consulted reassured them they were within council guidelines, Mrs Jefferies said.
But complaints continued. Finally, this year, a council instruction came to 'tidy' the garden, though when the couple wrote and asked for clarification, it never came.
Instead came bulldozers, trucks and a group of council workers.
She said they savagely pruned two acacia trees whose branches were not leaning over the road and removed five other mature trees, uprooting and mulching them on the spot.
"They removed our shade and the home for birds in the middle of summer," she said.
"They hacked the plants so much they will die. Plants do not like having their heads chopped off on a 42-degree day. The agaves ... they cut the heads off those and left the stumps sticking up and told us they would grow back within six months. Those plants were 35 years old. We asked if they would leave us the heads to give to other gardeners to do something with. They refused.
The verge today. Photo: Sue Jefferies
"They have cut plants in such a way it now looks much, much worse than it did before. It is basically a verge full of stumps and plants crushed and broken. It looks disgusting. We are fully expecting the next complaint to come through to say the verge is full of dead plants it needs to be bulldozed."
The aftermath
The couple have advertised on a gardening website to that other gardeners who wish to can salvage what is left before this happens.
"We will return it to dust. Presumably that is what they want," Mrs Jefferies said.
"I doubt we will be able to afford to do anything else."
Mrs Jefferies said she and her husband had considered moving house but this was not realistic.
"You are looking at $100,000 of costs and stamp duty – and inside the fence, we have poured 15 years of love into the garden. We are too old to start again," she said.
The couple has invited other gardeners to salvage what they can. Photo: Sue Jefferies
But she hopes to spark community debate.
"We do want to be positive and say, let us have a conversation about our verges, because as infill increases that land is so precious," she said.
"We have worked overseas and it is normal for people to grow food on their verge. Nobody complains about the stakes for the runner beans. They just come past and take some beans," she said.
"We lived in Melbourne as well and even though the verges are teeny, people jam all they can into it and they are out on Saturdays chatting to their neighbours and swapping vegetables.
"When we moved back to Perth, we just thought it was a barren wasteland, nobody is about, there is no food for native animals. We think it looks awful.
"But we understand a lot of people think lawn looks beautiful and it is OK for them to have lawn. We don't complain about the fertiliser flowing into the waterways, the drinkable water being poured on to pavements, or the sound of mowers and edgers."
The council's response
Town of Cambridge acting chief executive Jason Lyon said the verge was a long-standing matter, with extensive history including numerous complaints over many years, though he refused to explain whether the complaints were from many residents or from one.
"The Town supports beautification of verges and water wise initiatives however, in this case, due to ongoing complaints and for safety reasons, the Town had no option but to act," he said.
"A minimalist approach was taken in removing items to make the verge safe, and we believe the outcome is a compromise situation which should be acceptable to the resident, whilst protecting the safety of the public."
He denied workers had removed trees and said the acacia branches were removed because they were hazardous.
56 comments
New User? Sign up