My $5M Herb Garden

     My favorite park in Columbus, Whetstone, has a wonderfully large rose garden and an herb garden within it.  I liked walking through the rose garden in June and September when the roses were in bloom.  I loved walking the circular herb garden to check its progress and admire the great variety of mints, botanical remedy plants and common cooking herbs. Before certain members of the general public would ...too enthusiastically...help themselves to some of the greens (although no one actually harvested an entire plant with its roots) I would pick a few leaves or strands, immediately tape them to a card and mail them to my mother.  It was a little game we played: Identify the Plant. I don't know of another public park that has such a garden.

Ham, er, gull, in "Urban Orchard"

     Perth is taking a stab at it. Late in August, the city unveiled a public space that had been made into a "Urban Orchard". Raised beds of herbs, lettuces and citrus trees have been set up next to the WA Art Gallery in the Cultural District.  A nice sitting space at lunch for downtown workers and shoppers. Probably a pit stop for partiers in nearby Northbridge at night.  It is meant to complement a nearby water fountain that has had some dirt and mulch tossed into it to form a living swampland for birds and such.

Sandwich and salad greens. Yum!

Now, you might guess that garden would benefit taxpayers in a small way.  You know, a leaf of lettuce for your sandwich or an orange for dessert.  A little something, just like at Whetstone.  After all, the City paid five million dollars [$5,000,000] for that silverbeet and lemon tree plotted area. No dice.  Signs are up hailing the beauty, forwarding thinking and greening of public spaces along with admonishments not to pick anything. "They" (whoever "they" are) will harvest the produce for appropriate use. Yeah, whatever that means. Good luck with that plan. I can only see Australians being even more...enthusiastic...about getting a share of the public plot. Especially when it is so handy. Peter Rabbit Lives!