An African proverb says it takes a village to raise a child – but I think it takes a community to raise that village.

In today's world, with the internet, Facebook and all the other social media available, many of us are in fact lonelier and more unhappy. We may push a button to 'like' something but often it seems more like voyeurism than social connection. Face-to-face contact is a much more powerful tool for us social animals.

Our family is blessed in the street where we live, as we have fabulous neighbours who have become firm friends. We live in a quiet cul-de-sac so perhaps that has made it easier to get to know each other so well?

On summer evenings it is common for neighbours to gather on someone's verandah or patio for a wine, our kids treat the neighbours' pool as their own, and when my husband lights our outdoor fire the smoke signals bring the neighbourhood to our place for a casual evening meal. It is not uncommon for me to come home and find a neighbour fossicking in the vegetable garden for their dinner.

Perhaps the best time is when we have a bunny bake-off; I present a freshly harvested bunny to several friends and neighbours and the next afternoon we all meet after preparing our best bunny dish to be judged and – of course – eaten by all of us.

Gardening and growing food is a great way of bringing a community together – and let's face it, we all have to eat! So several years ago, we got together and planted some fruit trees along the berm in front of our properties.

Council verges are such a wasted space. As ratepayers we are expected to mow the grass, when this space could provide a great opportunity to grow some edibles.

As a community we all loved the idea of our children walking home from school munching on a sun-ripened apple picked straight from a tree. You do need to act responsibly so we made sure the trees were maintained, didn't interfere with power lines or obscure any views for cars reversing out of driveways. As with any sort of digging, we also checked where underground services were located.

The plan is to graft several varieties of apples on to each tree so we have a good variety of fruit throughout the season. We have chosen disease-resistant heirloom varieties, such as 'Monty's Surprise', 'Hetlina', 'Winter Banana', 'Ballarat' and 'Cox's Orange', which generally do better in an organic system without a rigorous spray programme.

Other low-maintenance productive trees for guerrilla planting include hazelnut, plum, fig, mulberry, feijoa, grapefruit, lemon, quince, medlar and olive. The last three need some processing before they are ready to eat, so might be good choices if you are concerned about people picking all your fruit before they can be divvied out.

These newly planted trees will require a degree of care for at least the first year until they are established: regular watering during dry spells, staking to protect from high winds and some sort of trunk protection from lawn mowers.

I use the leg of an old gumboot cut off and inserted over the tree down the trunk. You can cut it off as the trunk grows.

Imagine if most streets across New Zealand were growing some edibles on their council strip, rather than just grass?

Another idea is to plant your verge in nectar-rich wildflowers. This will naturally beautify the space with an array of colourful flowers from spring through to autumn as well as creating a habitat and food source for important pollinators such as honey bees and butterflies.

Are your neighbours big salad-eaters? Why not plant your verge in mesclun mix salad? I did this last summer and invited the neighbourhood to come and harvest whenever they wanted a fresh salad.

It is a great way to meet your neighbours and the kids sold freshly picked salad from their roadside stall to earn some pocket money. I do recommend, however that you erect a simple wire barrier around your crop to keep the dogs off it!

In another pocket of council verge I planted corn as a summer crop. I grew the sweet honey and pearl variety and it was so popular that no cobs made it into the kitchen. Whenever the neighbourhood kids were playing street cricket they munched on freshly picked, succulent, uncooked corn cobs. After being eaten the cobs where quickly turned into missiles to be thrown at each other!

This act of commandeering a public piece of land is known as guerrilla gardening. It is common in the large cities overseas where bare land, or any growing space for that matter, is in short supply.

Seed bombs are part of the guerrilla gardener's arsenal, and are an easy way to germinate an area with a variety of plants. Seed bombs are small, round, hard, clay balls that have an assortment of seeds encased within them.

After being thrown onto bare soil, they will sit and wait until conditions are right for germination. The clay absorbs moisture but also protects the seeds from birds, heavy rain and frosts. Eventually the seeds will burst out of the bomb and fight it out for world domination in your garden or spare patch of soil. Making seed bombs is a fun project to do with the kids.

Do you have local space – maybe a park, reserve, walkway or stream gully – that is neglected?

Why not plant some low-maintenance edible perennials there for your family and other members of your community to harvest?

Some that can cope with being planted and then left to fend for themselves include kale, horseradish, rhubarb, asparagus, Jerusalem artichokes, globe artichokes, herbs such as parsley, rosemary, thyme and oregano, rocket, miner's lettuce, amaranth, Cape gooseberries, New Zealand cranberry or Chilean guava (Myrtus ugni), garlic and Florence fennel.

It is very important to be responsible and careful not to introduce any plant deemed a noxious weed by your council or any plant that can become invasive.

It's also a good idea to plant these edible resources away from path edges so that they are not removed in over-judicious council weeding programme or sprayed with herbicides.

So why not draft a local army, get out there and start creating gorgeous productive spaces from local neglected urban wasteland?

If you haven't already signed up, Neighbourly is a great way to get to know your neighbours - some streets have even got together to set up a gardening group!