Street Planting Program

Watch this video below:

Our City is getting hotter from the impacts of climate change and the urban heat island effect. Trees provide shade and cooling benefits, reduce heat-related illness, reflect heat, and actively cool and clean the air. People need trees for their health and mental well-being. Trees are valued for their inherent beauty and for the associated aesthetic benefits they provide to homes, streets, and suburbs, and are critical for urban biodiversity. We are planting trees to invest in the future of our city and the health of our residents. The mature trees we enjoy today and benefit from today were planted by past generations, many decades ago.

The short answer is, yes. The verge is public land that is owned and/or managed by us and which plays a vital role in servicing the community. If we have marked your verge for a tree in our planting plans, we intend to plant a tree there once we confirm the verge is suitable. Under our Tree and Vegetation Policy, there is no option to ‘Opt Out’ of having a tree in the public verge. If you have a unique circumstance, personal condition, or request to share with us for special consideration, please be sure to contact us by the feedback deadline published in the planting flyer you will have received to your letterbox.

As the verge is land owned by Council our qualified staff determine the most suitable tree to be planted in the street environment. While we appreciate local help to water and clean up leaf fall or tree mess in your private yard, we are responsible for the establishment, health and ongoing maintenance of a street tree. There are many different elements we must consider before we select a tree like safety, space, growing conditions and nearby infrastructure, as well as local amenity and mess. More information about this is available in the FAQ below.

While you can’t request the tree species to be planted, we do consult with selected streets on species options when there is no existing dominant tree species and where we’re removing most of the existing trees to replace them with a new tree type. Residents and property owners of these streets are invited to vote on one of two trees species options for planting in their street. The majority-preferred tree type is selected for planting in that street. Some residents who request a tree for their verge are also offered a choice of tree species from two or more options where there isn’t a dominant species.

For all other streets, we continue to plant the existing dominant tree type within the street. If there is not a clear dominant species, qualified staff will select the best tree type of the street to continue planting.

We generally only remove existing trees from a street environment where trees are dead, dying, diseased, are of poor health or growth, or pose a safety risk. Other reasons that we may remove trees, or a particular species of tree include if we identify that they are not performing well, are adversely impacting our infrastructure, they are not reasonably contributing to tree canopy cover, or for strategic purposes. In most cases, we replace any trees that are removed as soon as possible.

Yes, you can.

Before you request a tree in front of property (called ‘reactive’ tree planting), here’s what you should you know:

• Requests are only accepted from the residing tenant or owner-occupier of the requesting property address.
• Requests must be received by the end of August each year.
• Approved planting requests will be completed between May and September each year.
• You will be supplied with a bucket, gloves, information sheet and liquid fertiliser to help you look after the tree.
• We offer this service for free, however we ask you to agree to water the tree for a minimum of the first 3 years, to assist in the establishment of the tree (once a week in Summer or extreme heat weather twice a week).

You can also request for your whole street to be considered for planting, and staff will note your request for future consideration, although we do prioritise planting by suburb, in the hotter and least treed areas of our city. If your street is quite small, we may be able to complete this under our reactive planting program.

To request street tree planting, please visit our Customer Portal. Officers will receive your request and assess your verge or street for suitability and for street planting, city-wide priority.

When deciding on tree species options or the dominant tree type for all our streets, staff consider and balance several factors such as:

• Plant characteristics, including a tree’s tolerance in paved surfaces, pest and disease resistance, life span, root growth characteristics and potential tree litter
• Available growing space in your street’s verge, eg verge width.
• Street growing conditions (i.e. soil type, aspect, locality etc)
• Minimising interference to underground and overhead services
• Nursery stock and availability of species for
• Character of the neighbourhood and surrounding landscape
• Contribution to tree canopy cover and biodiversity across the City.

We’re sorry to hear this. All properties within the streets selected for tree planting receive an A5 notification flyer in their letterbox.  If you moved into your property in the last month or two, you might have missed the flyer. We also install temporary tree planting signs in main thoroughfare streets within the suburb a month or so before planting begins in case the flyers were missed, and as a reminder to residents.

If you are a non-occupier property owner, we have posted information to your registered postal address (eg where you get your rates notice).

If you believe you didn’t receive notification, please contact us at council@charlessturt.sa.gov.au or 8408 1111 and we can investigate this further and/or provide you with the relevant information.

We recognise that trees need a little extra care when newly planted to help them establish in their new conditions. We provide this extra care to trees during their first 3 years in your verge. This includes formative pruning and shaping, with watering weekly in year 1, fortnightly in year 2 and monthly in year 3. After 3 years, we no longer provide watering services, and the tree is pruned under our 3-year Whole Street Pruning Program.

We only ask that if you are willing and able to, you help to water the tree in the warmer months – a regular bucket of water should do it. We also recommend hand removing any weeds and grasses from the base of the tree to avoid competition. If you have a neighbour who can’t do this themselves, it would be great if you could help them out. We specifically ask that you do not use any poison to reduce weed competition near the tree, and that you don’t prune the tree. You can leave this to our qualified tree officers.

No. Only we can plant trees on public land, including in our verges. This is because several factors must be considered before planting a new tree in the street environment, including impact on any existing services and biodiversity. You can request a new tree adjacent to your property and officers will assess your suitability for a tree (refer to the quick links below). We do support residents to establish and maintain their own verge with irrigation and plantings that will grow to a maximum 600mm or less, however you should first read the Community Verge/Nature Strip Development Guidelines and then request a Community Verge Development Permit.