Squid, come.
Street eats are famous all over the world.
In Egypt, you've got the fava bean, in Mexico, tacos,
and, of course, a beautiful bowl of pho in Vietnam.
But here in the towns of South Gippsland,
they are taking their street eats to a whole new level.
Street level.
This is dairy country - beautiful rolling green hills
giving way to a rugged coastline.
But it's the small towns of the region, like Foster,
that provide something quite unexpected.
This is what I call street food.
But the council-planted gardens not only offer a heap of colour,
you can also get a free feed.
It's certainly a colourful approach to a street garden.
Yeah.
The guiding hand behind this productive program
is council horticulturist Paul Robinson.
The vegetables and the herbs and... and the annuals, the flowers,
they're very, very, very popular.
People just love it. They just love it.
Not one bad comment in the 10 years I've been here.
Well, it's pretty obvious
that you're showing the entire town
how beautiful vegetables can be.
This chilli is stunning.
Yeah.
As I say, we have three different chillies
we've planted through the town -
mild, hot and extreme -
and this is the extreme.
(LAUGHS) Yeah.
As I say, we don't let people know about how hot these are,
'cause we let 'em find out for themselves.
There's free tastings on the street. There's free tastings. Yeah.
It's such a nice plant, though.
Like, it's... Yeah.
..it's beautiful dark foliage,
gorgeous purple flower
and then a black and red chilli.
It's as beautiful as any ornamental plant.
You could use it...there's no reason
why you couldn't use this in a landscaping job - it just amazes me,
people just don't... don't think about anything
other than landscaping plants
when you could use vegetables through the town.
Paul, this is one heck of a roundabout,
and the first thing people see when they come into town.
Yeah. We...we call this our... this is our unique garden.
We just have all sorts in here. Heaps of vegies, though.
Heaps of vegies. Heaps and heaps of vegies.
And are people allowed to pick? They can.
They can come in and pick what...whatever they wish,
as long as they don't take too much.
And we sort of put limits on it, but we...
..sometimes we just can't get that limit.
Have you been teaching people how to harvest? Come on, Squid.
We have.
Once upon a time, people used to come in
and just pillage the whole lot,
and now we've trained 'em
and now they come in and actually pick the leaves
and not take the plants, yeah.
Not pull the whole thing out of the ground.
No. No. You can just pick some.
And so, when you first started, did peop...
..did people know they were allowed to pick?
No, we used to have a... we used to call it the 4:30 rush.
We'd knock off at 4:00.
And at 4:30, people would come in and just devour the gardens.
It...it was like a... like a plague of locusts.
Because they... It was unbelievable.
..they thought they weren't allowed to harvest, so they waited...
..they waited for you to knock off before they knocked off the plants.
Exactly right, yeah, so it's taken nearly 10 years to educate people
to...to... to come and actually pick...
..more they pick, the less it goes to seed
and the better the plant is, so... I think we're getting there.
We are getting there.
So, what have you got in this display?
Well, we used to have lettuce, but they're all gone.
(LAUGHS) As you...as you can see.
We've got chillies, capsicums, silverbeet,
thyme, oregano, celery, eggplant.
That's your centrepiece planting, are these...
Yes. Yeah. And it's funny, you know.
They're...they're just starting to fruit,
but even the plant itself is really, really handsome.
It is. I was never a big fan of eggplant.
But looks really good in a mass display.
I love this, Paul. Really, really generous display.
But also, great height in the gardens.
Yeah. This is all about landscaping vegetables.
It's pretty much what we do. We put our tall stuff in.
We have the shorter stuff at the front.
And, yeah, we landscape the vegetables.
I can see the corn's well and truly been harvested here.
Yeah, that... that got taken very early.
(BOTH LAUGH) That...taken before it was ripe.
But that...that's one of the hassles we get. But that...that...that's OK.
Well, picking off the street,
do people have to be careful about eating the vegies?
No, no, just...just give 'em a wash.
It's like the veg you get in the supermarket. Just give 'em a wash.
You never know who might have been past. 4-legged friends included.
Yes. (LAUGHS)
I believe you guys are proud owners of your street gardens.
Yeah. Yep. We like it. Yeah.
You do? And do you keep a bit of an eye on it?
Of course. Yeah, we do.
Yeah. Of course. Especially the corn.
You were disappointed you missed out, I hear.
Yeah, it's just... keep telling people,
"It's not ready yet. It's not ready yet. Don't take it!"
But they did anyway. They did anyway.
You're a Foster local? WOMAN: I am.
And what do you think of these garden beds?
Love the garden beds.
And probably the most exciting thing
is watching people visiting the town,
coming along and smelling and looking and touching the plants.
And then you go and tell them, "You can pick some and take it."
And they're, like, "Are you serious?" They love it.
They love it. Absolutely love it.
They don't think they can, do they? No. No. But they love it.
And then they come back, time and time again.
Paul, tell me how much work is involved
in looking after these gardens.
There's a lot of preparation.
There's probably two weeks of preparation,
and there's another week and a half of planting,
then it's just ongoing - it's just constant maintenance.
We're weeding or...you know, once a fortnight, once a month.
Summertime, we're watering.
Believe it not, it doesn't rain here all the time.
We're just full-on maintenance
from the time they go in to the time they come out,
but, in saying that, it's... it's well and truly worth it
for the...for the response we get.
I guess it is...it's unusual. It must draw a lot of interest to the town.
Oh, for sure. Yeah. And I think... it's...it's taking off.
There's no doubt about it. It's...it's definitely a winner.