IN TUNE WITH NATURE

We were fed up with the unsightly, weedy nature strip we inherited. It was mostly brown and had to be mowed and watered. So late last year, my partner, Tom, sprayed the weeds, dug up the soil, and installed a gravel path. In September, we started planting carex, native grasses, dianellas, daisies, lilies, creeping groundcovers, native bluebells, brachyscome, trigger plants and small native shrubs, including low-growing saltbush and indigenous edible celery. We added hollow logs from a huge 500-year-old tree on our rural property that had given up the ghost. Now we love to walk out there to admire it, our neighbours are inspired, and it’s attracting birds. It proves that in only a few months you can create a beautiful and waterwise alternative to rubbish grass and weeds.

Linda McInnes

& Tom Baker, Queanbeyan East, NSW