FAQS – Landscaping your Verge

Keeping your verge neat and well-maintained not only enhances your home’s street appeal — it helps keep the entire Miravale community looking great.

If you’ve ever wondered “What exactly is a verge?”, “Who owns it?”, or “What can I actually plant there?” — you’re not alone. We’ve put together a simple guide to answer the most common verge questions, including what’s permitted, who maintains what, and how to get started.

Let’s work together to keep Miravale beautiful, one verge at a time.

Your road verge is the area of road reserve between the edge of a street or kerb and the boundary of your property. This area can include a footpath, landscaping, bus stops, signage, trees or street furniture including lamp posts.

Your verge adjoins your allotment, and is classified as council land. The Local Government Act states that a “road” extends from property boundary to property boundary and includes the carriageway, footpaths and verge.

As per the Urban Design Guidelines it is your responsibility to maintain the verge at the front and side of your allotment. Council will maintain the street tree only.

The City of Playford has a set of guidelines for landscaping on verges.

Permitted treatments include:

• Low plants (maximum 600mm height at full maturity)
• Turf (irrigated and unirrigated)
• Compacted rubble (10mm or less)
• Groundcover (lawn substitute)
• Organic mulch materials (must not be large and become a tripping hazard or easily blown/kicked onto paths and into the storm water road network)
• Pebbles (12mm or less)

The following verge treatments are not permitted:

Fully-impervious materials such as paving and concrete, except for crossover and footpath. This includes impervious membranes under mulch, or other materials, such as black plastic

• Rough, coarse or irregular mulch materials which are uncomfortable or difficult to walk on
• Large-sized mulch such as river pebbles must not be used
• Hard landscaping structures such as moss rocks, sleepers, edging, letterboxes and metal stakes
• Vegetation that is prickly, poisonous or thorny
• Chemical soil sterilising treatments
• Vegetables, fruit trees and/or herbs
• Artificial turf is not recommended and will not be permitted if the following currently presents on the verge:
  • Upgrade of underground services
  • Street tree placement

Every residence has an allocation for a minimum one council street tree consistent with Council’s Street tree policy. The indicative location of your designated tree will appear on the Building Envelope Plan however the location is subject to underground services location and may change. If you need it moved from this location you will need to contact Lanser or Council to arrange and you will need to pay the cost of relocation if the tree is already planted. The street tree in the verge is Council’s responsibility and only Council can prune, plant or remove the tree.

All verge treats require the approval of the Council as per the Urban Design Guidelines. You can apply for approval using a form on Council’s website here.