Territories and Municipal Services Minister Shane Rattenbury said after consultation on the guidelines in the coming months, he wanted new rules in place this year.

"We've got vast tracts of land in Canberra that are put to no productive use and mostly either TAMs or the householder just has to mow them," he said.

Growing food on nature strips was good environmentally and gave people a better connection with food, he said. "They understand where it comes from, they've got an appreciation of the effort that goes into it, they're less likely to be wasteful."

Detailing his agenda for the final nine months of the parliamentary term before October's election, Mr Rattenbury also said the government would call for tenders for a company to offer car-sharing in the first three months of the year.

The government would contribute parking spaces in the town centres. Car-sharing services, such as Go Get, work by people paying a monthly fee to belong, giving them access to cars to hire by the hour or day. Car-sharing was one of the agreements in the power-sharing deal struck by the Greens and Labor after the 2012 election.

As the sole Green this term, Mr Rattenbury said holding the balance of power alone was a hefty job, with "a weight to it that is quite significant".

"I have this almost triple role as the person who holds balance of power, as a minister and also the sole representative of the Greens party. And each of those carries a different set of expectations."

While he can make demands of the government – and wielded that power twice in 2015 to overturn the decisions on $50 notes in poker machines and the Telopea Park school land swap – he said he must use the power "deftly".

"It's a matter of exercising that in a way that produces good outcomes on each case but also a good working relationship and a stable government," he said.

When Mr Rattenbury joined Labor's ministerial team after the 2012 election, he signed an agreement with then chief minister Katy Gallagher. But she has left parliament, Andrew Barr has become chief minister, Meegan Fitzharris has taken Ms Gallagher's seat, and now Mary Porter and Simon Corbell are set to go at the next election, with the future of Joy Burch also in doubt. The loss of Ms Gallagher and Mr Corbell means the loss of two leading left-wingers.

But Mr Rattenbury takes the upheaval in his stride, saying Labor had been "a good partner".

"Andrew is a different character and he has different priorities to Katy but we have been able to develop a good working relationship," he said.

"... One of the lines the Liberal Party will run is this is a government that's been around for a long time, but I think it's fair to say the Labor Party has gone through a renewal in terms of having a new chief minister and they will be bringing new faces next term inevitably.

"But also the partnership with us keeps them fresh, it creates a dynamism in government."

Also on the to-do list for 2016, Mr Rattenbury hopes to have agreement by August on a needle exchange scheme in the prison.

He hopes a single conservation agency will be in place during the year.

A single transport agency, covering ACTION buses and Capital Metro also begins in 2016, and Mr Rattenbury has a number of projects on the go to improve the buses. Workshop hours will be increased to get buses back on the road more quickly, the back doors of buses will be useable at more stops, off-peak services will be improved, he said, characterising ACTION as "a long-term project".

"It's proved to be harder than I anticipated," he said of his time in charge of the buses.

"We have an industrial arrangement that limits flexibility and we have a city that is spread out ... Part of me does feel that some of this inflexibility has been allowed to build up over time and people have not tackled it as thoroughly as they might."

Canberra's grassy verges may soon yield more than just a headache for those who have to mow them, but not everyone's mouths are watering as a result of new guidelines announced recently on planting vegetables in nature strips.

The garden city could become the edible garden city once planning regulations around nature strips are relaxed, but community council representatives say there are some issues that need to be ironed out first.

Nature strips or verges are the section of land between an urban property and road edge which allow safe access for the public. Currently, growing anything but grass on them requires a development application, but the property owner usually bears responsibility for maintenance.

Weston Creek Community Council deputy chair Pat McGinn has been part of a working party run by Territory and Municipal Services to investigate better verge management.

She is a proponent of opening up the spaces for growing food, but says access for pedestrians and services could be an issue.

"There wasn't a lot of consensus [in the group] but it attracted a lot of comment," she said. "A lot of people in Canberra, Weston Creek included, wouldn't mind people growing vegies there but a lot of areas don't have footpaths and it might force people to walk on the roads if the nature strip is full of vegetables.

"Also if something goes wrong with the services [such as water or electricity], people have to realise their vegetables will have to be dug up."

One issue she's not worried about is how the patches will be watered.

"I can't see it causing a problem unless water runs out onto the road. A lot of people don't have hoses out the front but they can use water cans or a long hose from around the side of the house. Plus the people who are growing them aren't usually the ones to be wasting water."

Belconnen Community Council acting chair Damien Haas says that as long as people are sensible about planting it shouldn't cause any issues for pedestrians or neighbours, and it's one small way Canberra is changing for the better.

"It's another example of the relaxing of government around Canberra," Mr Haas said. "Canberra has been a very rule-focused city since its inception by virtue of its population, but there's been a new approach in the 21st century.

"The government seems willing to take chances. It's one of those simple things where the government says, 'Hey, we're not going to prosecute you for growing cucumbers in your front yard.'"

And though vandalism and poachers are a big worry for some, it could be a community-building exercise, Mr Haas said.

"It's hard to vandal-proof the world although you sometimes have to be cautious. You're not going to cause a vandalism crime wave by having tomatoes in your front yard.

"If you put on gumboots and get a hoe and go into the street, you're going to meet people. So many people don't know their neighbours these days."

But the Inner South Community Council's acting chair, Anne Forrest, believes it would be a mistake to impose blanket guidelines across both "old and new Canberra".

"The problem with the territory plan is that it's one size fits all," she said. "The needs in newer areas are different to the needs in older areas. Conversation needs to start at a grassroots level with the communities in question before the new rules are introduced.

"But I'd rather people plant vegetables than park their cars on the verges."