A new park, which uses recycled concrete to grow plants in, has popped up in Albion.
The Hamel Street park, created by Brimbank council in conjunction with Melbourne University, is trialling recycled concrete as a media for growing plants, as part of a Woody Meadow feature of the garden.
The Woody Meadow project replaces typical low-maintenance plantings in city landscapes with diverse shrub plantings that are more resilient and cost effective.
These plants are maintained through coppicing — a hard-pruning technique that encourages flowering and dense canopy growth to reduce weeds.
Associate Professor Claire Farrell from the University of Melbourne leads the Woody Meadow project and said the concrete trial was “exciting.”
“One of the problems with concrete is that it’s very alkaline so that’s quite challenging for plants,” she said.
Concrete has a typical pH level of around 12 whereas plants grow in soil pH levels of approximately six to seven.
“To use the crushed concrete, we’re taking that from demolition waste and then we grow plants in it,” said Associate Professor Farrell.
The research comes from Claire Kennefick, one of Associate Professor Farrell’s PhD students.
Ms Kennefick is investigating the potential of recycled construction and demolition mineral materials used to grow Australian shrubs as part of the Woody Meadow project.
Associate Professor Farrell, whose research focuses on working with plants to make cities more liveable, said parks with native Australian plants, such as the one in Albion, benefits locals greatly.
“…having local and Australian plants in such a beautiful way, in a pocket park, is really engaging,” she said.
