Christine Hobbs has a berm garden in the Auckland suburb of Glendowie and says the council has told her that they will not chase her up about it as they cannot apply their berm policy consistently. Photo: Supplied / Christine Hobbs
Homeowners are calling for consistency over rules for berm gardens after a New Plymouth woman was threatened with a hefty fine if she did not remove fruit trees planted outside her property.
Alana Brough - the daughter of a district councillor - has been told to reinstate the lawn or pay a $1000 fine and a further $50 every day thereafter until the garden is gone.
The New Plymouth District Council said the berm garden breached the Local Government Act.
But Kaiwaka resident Dave Thompson said councils needed to be careful to apply the rules consistently before coming down so heavy-handedly.
He was eventually allowed to keep a hedge planted on his berm in Glenfield before he moved up north.
"There was no boundary between my lawn and the berm and people's dogs were using my lawn as a toilet, so I planted a hedge on the berm to prevent that and somebody complained to Auckland Council."
Thompson asked for a council officer to visit the site, but before they came he scouted other suburbs looking to see if they also had berm plantings.
"I went to some wealthy areas in Takapuna and Devonport took some photos and made notes of a landscaped berms outside these wealthy houses that matched their landscape gardens and noted the addresses."
When the council officer arrived, observed that his hedge was clearly on the berm as per the complaint and said it had to go, Thompson played his trump card.
"I gave him an A4 sheet of paper and he said, 'What's this?' And I said that's 10 addresses of houses in Takapuna and Devonport that have landscaped their berms to match their landscaped gardens.
"And I'm gonna make a formal complaint about these 10 houses every month until you jack in your job."
That had an effect.
"He looked at me a bit stunned and went away, and a couple of days later I got a letter from the council saying that I could keep the hedge, that they wouldn't make me remove it."
Christine Hobbs' berm garden in the Auckland suburb of Glendowie. Photo: Supplied / Christine Hobbs
Thompson said if councils did not want to maintain berms they should not be telling people what to do on them.
"If the council is not interested in tending to them, mowing them, etcetera, and somebody decides to adopt it and and plant whatever they want in it. Fruit trees, vegetables, or even if they're just mowing the grass, they're doing the council a favour and the council should leave them alone.
"And there should be some consistency anyway, you can't just pick on some people and ignore others."
Thompson thought Brough should stick to her guns and keep her berm garden.
Another Auckland berm gardener, Christine Hobbs, was on the same page.
"I have a berm garden in Glendowie. A neighbour complained to Auckland Transport when I first planted my verge, but I've now had a verbal ruling from them that they won't chase me up for compliance with their policy because they can't apply their policy consistently."
Hobbs had three vegetable beds in the berm outside her property complete with trellising for climbing veggies and a sign encouraging passers-by to "please eat".
She reckoned Brough should be allowed to keep her New Plymouth berm garden too.
On its website, Auckland Council said residents were responsible for mowing berms, but should not add plants to them.
The Auckland Transport web page was even clearer berm planting was a no-no.
"Residents are not permitted to plant on berms, in accordance with the Activities in the Road Corridor Bylaw."
It said private planting in the road corridor could impact safety by adversely affecting visibility of pedestrians, street signs and reduce sight lines at intersections and driveways.
It said it could also damage utility services, upset neighbours, blur boundaries between public and private land and cause maintenance issues.
While Auckland and New Plymouth were not keen on planting on berms Palmerston North encourages them and Christchurch was at least open to the idea.
Senior planner at Palmerston North City Council Keegan Aplin-Thane wrote his honours paper on berm gardens.
He said they were an important part of the city's vegetation policy developed in 2016.
"It's a policy document that looks across the entire city in terms of how do we coordinate the protection enhancement and decision-making around how we provide for public vegetation and biodiversity across the city.
"And it basically says that we're supportive in principle of the value of berm gardens and manage those on a case by case basis."
Aplin-Thane said there were guidelines developed for the gardens, the critical one being that they were no-dig gardens to avoid underground infrastructure.
"If they strike a power cable under the ground, you can imagine what happens and I understand that there have been cases like that and other districts."
Instead most berm gardens in Palmerston North involved raised beds with pallet-style walls.
"And then the other thing that is just has to get really well managed is the expectations around who looks after that space or who can touch it and who manages it.
"They need to know that they are the ones that are the kaitiaki of that space and if that space becomes a public nuisance or a health and safety risk through not being managed well enough, we will be knocking on their door, just like, say 'hey, maybe look after that'. Or if they let it go to rack and ruin, then we're going to ask them to remove it."
Aplin-Thane said there were about 30 berm gardens across the city.
In principle berm garden were allowed in Christchurch.
Council transport operations manager Stephen Wright said if a resident wanted to plant a berm garden they could apply to do so.
"They would need to lodge a request with council and because berms sit within the road corridor there are limitations to be considered, including the presence of underground services and health and safety considerations."
The applicant would also need to take responsibility for ongoing maintenance and either ensure the next owners took over that responsibility or that the berm was returned to grass when the property was sold, Wright said.
The same process applied if a resident wanted to replace a berm with artificial grass or to cover it with a material like bark or stones.
And if you were thinking of putting up a badminton net or a slide set on your berm, you were out of luck.
"Christchurch does not permit children's swings or sports equipment to be placed on berms," Wright said.