Landscape Architecture Australia
NATURAL GROWTH PARTNERS: STRONG ROOTS FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS
Tree Coach sustainably delivers “faster time to forest,” with design in mind.
Over 30 years, brothers Rob and Tim Buruma have planted close to a million trees through their secondgeneration commercial landscaping practice. But five years ago, on a windswept site in the western suburbs of Melbourne, frustration gave way to innovation.
Realizing that age-old practices needed to change to benefit both trees and the industry, the Burumas sought to develop a new all-in-one system that would enable new tree plantings to reach their full potential. The Burumas recognized that in order to grow strong trees with excellent root development and welldeveloped trunks, flexible staking and controlled water delivery would be key.
Tree Coach, an Australian-made product from the Burumas’ company Natural Growth Partners (NGP), is the result of five years of rigorous design and experimentation. Tree Coach aims to streamline the tree-planting process, while helping trees to grow stronger. This can contribute to higher success rates during tree establishment.
Tree Coach, with its GrowFlex technology™ stakes, is made from recycled Australian kerbside waste and manufactured locally, with the aim of minimizing the product’s carbon footprint. Both the GrowFlex stakes and the Tree Coach watering saucer can be easily reused and recycled.
“Natural Growth Partners is about setting down great roots that will benefit generations to come for hundreds of years,” says Rob Buruma. “We want to establish good, strong trees that don’t topple over, that were planted correctly, and grown and
maintained properly, to become what nature intended them to be.”
Tree Coach aims to condense project cycles by reducing re-plantings and ongoing costly maintenance. It also eradicates the heavy lifting and repetitive mechanical ramming that more traditional methods of treeplanting usually require, while improving the aesthetics of plantings through the symmetry and consistency of its apperance. Overcoming the need for rigid stakes, tight ties and soil berms, Tree Coach enables each tree to be coached naturally by the wind.
Tree Coach is made from recycled kerbside plastics and is available in two sizes, covering both 20 cm to 30 cm pots, and 40 cm to 45-litre containers.
To order a Tree Coach trial, go to naturalgrowthpartners.com
For more information:
E info@naturalgrowthpartners.com
W naturalgrowthpartners.com
P (03) 9111 2440