Natural street garden in Anglesea with some quirks (entrance to Sunnymeade)
Street Gardeners: Peter and Simone Shaw
Owners of Ocean Road Landscaping - Peter is the author of Soulscape: Connecting Gardens to Landscape
Instagram: @oceanroadlandscaping
Date of interview: 6th February 2026
Images: Peter Shaw, Clare Takacs and Emma Cutting
When did you move to your block?
We moved to the block in 2001. It is 200m away from the Anglesea Heath, which is part of the Great Otway National Park. There was no house and the nature strip was full of endemic plants. There were a lot of trees on the nature strip and we wanted to keep them so we snuck the driveway down the side. We respected the land because it was quite untouched but definitely considered the nature strip to be a continuation of the garden.
What do you think is the most important consideration when planting out a nature strip?
Care. Care is a huge part of avoiding complaints which then gets council involved - but if circumstances get to this, it’s good to remember that council just have a job to do.
How would you choose plants on a nature strip?
This is the plant choice hierarchy I would go by:
1- Make sure it is not weedy (so no agapanthus).
2- Make sure it is something that is going to survive .
3- Try to get Indigenous plants.
4- If you can’t, make it native.
What is some advice you might give people wanting to start their street gardening journey?
-The land isn’t not yours, it’s actually a shared space. You have to look at the context of your site - look right and left to see what is going on around you. It’s a good idea to fit into the community eg provide a space for people to walk through.
-Each site will have its path of least resistance to create the best option. It might be low native grasses. It might be having lawn as a path then mulch backing onto a planting.
-Gradually gradually can be a good idea for the community as well as your street garden. When you do push the boundaries fast you can upset people. If you go gently you might be able to achieve more over time eg you might have 6 lomandra then add a few more every spring to eventually have 12 - and no one will have notice!d
-Avoid structures - it is much easier to beg forgiveness with a few plants than with structures.
-You must consider utilities. Underneath the nature strip is a carriage way so you can’t do major digging - there is a particular service here in Anglesea - a pressurised sewerage system - and you don’t want to be digging into that! We have a hydrant nearby which we keep clear (there was a house fire over the road a few years back and this was a very good reminder to us). It’s good to remember that it’s not a free-for-all and is being used for so many things that we need as a community….but why not use the soil as well?
“Proceeding gradually gradually can be a good idea for the community as well as your street garden”
Do you design nature strips for your clients? And if so, how do you go about it?
As a design firm, and within our team specifically, we almost always include the nature strip in the design brief by default. It’s such an integrated part of our process that we rarely need to ask the client whether they want it included. Unless the project is very suburban and the nature strip is intended to remain simple lawn, we naturally design all the way to the road.
Often the nature strip becomes a great opportunity for incidental parking or a gravel pull‑in space softened with tussock grasses or groundcovers. I suggest to pull down the front fence or at least put in a lightweight fence - we need less lines in the world. Then we hope the garden can be a pollinator-friendly/wildlife-friendly garden.
So when you asked whether we design nature strips: yes, we do, pretty much every day. We see the nature strip as both an extension of the garden and a key part of the broader landscape character of the area.
In our region, that’s easy to read, eucalypts, native grasses, and the surrounding natural landscape all provide cues. In other places, the nature strip becomes a link to the existing streetscape, whether that’s calm and pretty or more formal. For us, it tends to lean naturally toward a softer, more organic feel.
The nature strip is often the first hint of what lies beyond, much like our own gate and fence with their random, changing elements. It’s intentionally not too serious: a bit of fun, a bit of quirkiness, always evolving as materials weather, disappear, or get replaced.
In terms of process, we design nature strips in line with guidelines and apply for permits when required, though we avoid that step unless necessary. It’s simply part of our natural workflow, and we include it on the plan without needing to ask the client as a separate choice. Plants and materials then gently transition out to the street, and fencing, if any, is kept minimal and low‑key.
“There is an unspoken value in gardening- the act of gardening is a human act of care. It’s a beautiful thing to do. People aren’t forced to say hello but they normally respond. I think people can’t help but respond.”
What is one of the challenges you have faced and how did you move through it?
Gardening is an extension of yourself and street gardens are places where you can be personal and add your quirkiness. So when something happens to the street garden it can feel like an invasion of care and it can hurt.
Every few years, there is a crew that comes through and cuts back our trees on the nature strip. Sometimes we leave out a note asking them to be careful, other times we don’t get around to it.Mostly they are alright but last year, they cut back the trees on the nature strip a lot as well as the ones from our garden overhanging the nature strip. The crew were also dropping branches on the garden which caused some damage.
Yes it hurt. But it was also a reminder that it isn’t our land in the first place, even though this particular crew may not have cared as much as others in the past.
Also, though it was brutal, they do it for a good reason. The reason they are cutting back the trees is to protect us from fires and this year was the first year we have had unpacking and repacking in fire season. We are grateful for their work.
What is good is that the trees have actually recovered really well.
One of the greatest joys in street gardening is…?
talking to people.
You don’t jump in front them and shake their hand, you just smile with a hello. Over time these people might change and the interactions might change and that’s when you have won them over - you “get them”!
There was one young lady who moved in pretty recently and she didn’t say hello at the start but I felt she was just shy. We kept saying "good morning" to her and things went from a little hello to a small "good morning" to more eye contact to getting to chatting. Now I know her name and she might even remember my name!
Why do you think people respond so positively to street gardeners?
There is an unspoken value in gardening - the act of gardening is a human act of care. It’s a beautiful thing to do. They aren’t forced to say hello but they normally respond. I think people can’t help but respond. Hopefully it’s contagious.
What hasn’t worked for you?
For a little while the nature strip was a place for plants to die. We invested in some plants that we liked but just weren’t suitable. If we didn’t get a decent spring things would die - it is a harsh environment here. Now we have more suitable plants and have also installed a few irrigation pipes under the mulch to give the strip a little extra water.
“Street gardening is a great opportunity to contribute the gardening world, to the community...it is a symbol of who we are.”
How has the street garden changed since you started?
The nature strip has developed with the garden over time. We aimed to keep it natural but really, it is a bit more gardened now. We are trying to create some layers between the trees and the shrubs below so we have let some soft grasses come out and we prune the correas.
At Christmas we pulled a heap of river pebbles out from another part of our garden. They were so hard to remove! The plan was to put them back but, seeing as they are so quick to use and take so long to remove, we thought it was a better idea to mulch that area instead. So we added the pebbles to a swale in our nature strip for a more finished look and extra water retention.
Peter: “I see our fence as a landing place for random places. I like the fence to trigger interest and to say that we don’t take anything too seriously - which is perhaps the opposite to the house. I love the fact that there is something my 13-year-old made hanging on the fence (he is now 26). He spent hours on it. When I see it, it reminds me of him, his creativity and this particular day when I was proud he pushed through his boredom."
What has your street garden given you?
Street gardening is a great opportunity to contribute to the gardening world and to the community. It’s a symbol of who we are. It’s not expensive and flashy but interesting and personal. There’s no big gate, concrete columns with blocked off edges and a code to get in. In the near future, we are planning to also adopt a little triangle of public land nearby. We want to bring a bit of balance into the plants there and remove a few plants that have taken over from nearby gardens.
Below: Shows before the “brutal” cut back and was also before the river stones were used. See image below the video to see how well the trees have grown back in just a few months!
Peter takes you on a walk through the street garden in early February 2026- what a treat!
