Nature strips without lawns

One of the reasons we chose to put a large single-storey house on a relatively small block was to seriously reduce garden maintenance. I love gardening, and put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into our old garden, but these days simply do not have the time to spare. And then there's the lack of water....

So our landscaping plans for the new place do not include a single blade of grass. Lawn is way too high maintenance for our liking and a huge waste of precious water. Our kids are mostly past the age of needing lots of play space, and if they do, there's plenty of parkland nearby.

I'd really like to continue our "no lawn" policy through to the nature strip, so we can retire the old Rover mower completely, but will have to look into it. There are developer design guidelines to consider, and also council by-laws.

Call me cynical, but as far as I can tell, the main issue the council has with anything other than grass on nature strips is the risk of someone tripping over a shrub or groundcover on what is legally their property, and sueing them. I know they were quick off the mark to issue a notice if we allowed a 5cm tendril of some plant to creep onto the footpath at our old place....

Anyway, I wonder how these nature strip plantings, installed by a developer around public spaces, get past the council's paranoia?





I'd love to do something like this out the front of our place.

That looks great.
I love it

I'm wondering if it's because there is still walkway. So if you park your car next to the naturestrip you can still get out without standing on plants and there is walkway to get through, so no major tripping hazard. It look's great, better than a lot of the dead naturestrips at the moment are mainly made up of weeds. Although, I am guessing one of the big issues with this type of naturestrip is maintenance and having some kind of standard in place. It's easier to mow the naturestrip than to be out there weeding and keep the plantings to an acceptable height and variety. I'm sure there would be plenty of residents who would not be willing to put in the work.

It does surprise me unless there is some agreement in place for the developer to maintain it. I'm not sure how these development estates work, wouldn't they hand over to Council at some stage. If I'm seeing correctly the naturstrips across the road are all lawn, so maybe this has been allowed as a special feature.

I thought the gravel walkways might have something to do with getting past council regulations too. Also maybe the bollards and steel cables, acting as a barrier to people cutting through the plantings....although in the dark, those could be another tripping hazard.

The council has strict requirements for new estates here. Developers must provide a set percentage of landscaped public space, with everything being sustainable and submitted to council for approval. They also have to do the maintenance for (I think) two years after the last lots are sold. After that, responsibilty passes back to council. And they're usually pretty good with maintaining public spaces around here.

I agree that most people definitely would think it easier to mow a scrappy strip of grass than to maintain plantings. Although honestly, from personal experience, there'd be less work in the non-lawn alternative, once the plants were established. Still, people get very attached to their traditional lawns, and I'm sure many wouldn't like this sort of alternative. I prefer it to artificial grass.

The one with the little nut things in the ends of the leaves is Ficinia nodosa. thes grow anywhere.

I am racking my brain as to the name of the orangey coloured grass. I remember a grower here in WA did them and they were a tremendous flop on the retail market. I thought they were a good plant. just can't remember the bloody name.

acaia limelight is the low green thing in the first pic nearest the road. the one behind looks like poa grass or a carax of somesort.

...an oragnge accorus? gee whizz I just don't remember na it had some other name

Fu, I think it is bronze or orange carex testacea. Whistlepipe nursery has it, I just got the orange variety on Monday . Great grass, from one baby plant bought two years ago in Bunnings I have 8 bronze ones now, two in pots for multiplication and 6 in the garden beds. I think it is not popular as it looks dead to some people but... it looks great as an offset to other coloured grasses like on these pics or as a contrast to the same colour but different form (big leaves) plants. I love grasses and they are so low maintanace, just a trim in spring.

Maggie

I know nothing about the reason for this post but just wanted to say that the two houses in the background of the 2nd pic (one showing garage only) are the two Cremorne's I've watched go up in your Estate, they are both occupied now


Slightly OT! Sorry Kek, good luck for tomorrow

I am not sure it is Maggie. It has leaves that look a little too wide for carax testacea. carax petriei is also another candidate for the colour. However both varieties weep more. The colour is right.

i am glad you are onto the carax testacea. they look great in the right landscape and are growing in popularity now.

I'll see if I can pin it down next time I'm at the nursery - I'm sure I saw it a couple of weeks ago when I was researching plants for my front garden. There are lots of reds, but few grasses in that yellow shade, and I'm thinking I might get some for a nice contrast.



Both started months after ours, and do you think we're happy that PD have managed to complete a couple of double storeys before our single storey...?

Kek, please if you look at these grasses could you also pay attention to the names. I think Fu is correct it is not carex, but what is it??? It is so lovely, orangey looking but growing up.

Maggie

I don't want to say it Kek but........they are Lifestyle (same house as we are building) and the houses that seem to take the longest with problems attached seem to be Prestige........sorry.

Very happy you got handover today! Congratulations, hope the move goes well and that you enjoy your new home with all those fantastic colours

Maggie, I'll try to get to the nursery this week....I'm almost ready to send in my landscaping request (we get free front landscaping as part of our land deal) so I need to make some decisions on plants.

Toni, I have to agree with you - but I'm watching three or four Prestige homes nearby very closely...... I'm interested to see how fast they get finished.

Have you noticed how slow the B/vale a few doors down from the house in the above pic (showing the car) has been? But there is also a B'vale further up and around to the right and that seems to be going up quickly. Our neighbours are building a Windsor and that is moving quite quickly too

I think this is the same plant - although now that I see the photos together, the colour looks less orange, more yellow. Maybe it's just different lighting conditions, and also I used my phone to take this one at the nursery today, not my camera.



Anyway, this is Libertia "Goldfinger". Nice.

Toni, I'm going to go check out those Brookvales this weekend. I've been too busy to go for my usual walks lately and haven't kept up with the progress of the neighbouring houses.

Hmm...or perhaps the one in the nature strip planting is a different Libertia variety?

That's IT! Wow I haven't seen them in WA for years! that was exactly the one I was thinking of One nursery tried it and bugger all sold retail. That grower sold up

anyway it's definitely a libertia Thankyou

There are heaps of them at our local nursery. I'm adding these to my plant list for a nice contrast in the front garden. Everyone here seems to go for the reds (NZ Flax, Cordylines) as colour contrasts, which are nice, but I like to be different.

I thought the grass with the nutty things was Isolepis nodosa?
Not contradicting you, just wanting to clear it up for my own memory banks!


themax

No way! we were talking about that today whoa!
Isolepis nodosa. It's the same plant
(a lot of plant tags these day include Isolepis nodosa as a synonym)

Like Leucaphyta Brownii used to be known as Calocephalus.
Or the Dipeldenias like "Red Riding Hood" are now classified as Mandivilla not Dipeldenia. (although most plant tags still carry the Dip name)
Or Citisus (the rock rose) is now "Halimum"

This web page is a gold mine of ideas and really is where our landscapes should be at.
Take the plunge and forget using lawns, make something interesting instead with a wonderful habitat for local species to live
http://www.sustainableoutdoors.com.au/l ... e-gardens/





Great stuff, in fact, I'm making this thread a sticky to encourage more of these nature strips and verges being done this way