Browse Forums Landscape & Garden Design Re: Nature strips without lawns 22Dec 03, 2009 10:20 pm Fu, You how can you play cricket on that, play with the grand kids etc, LAWN is not a dirty word. Everything in moderation. Re: Nature strips without lawns 23Dec 04, 2009 12:35 am Good call grasshopper. However it is the new direction of urban landscapes due to necessity. The city of Freo is doing some good work on native verges, I just wish they'd do some good photos of reclaimed verges for others to see on their web site. It is a growth area in landscaping. Retroscapaing (is that a word? I just made it one ) nature strips. More and more new urban developments are using no or far less turf and are instead planting natives by employing designers with good sound native knowledge and working closely with local councils to create inspirational native landscapes. Nurseries and TV shows are IMO not where plant buyers are getting ideas from any longer. It is internet and the biggest influence is urban landscapes. They sell more ideas and plants than any of the other traditional sources. People want what is done well around them. Shopping centres, park lands, even well landscaped road sides and intersections get people ideas for what they want to buy for their garden. Yanchep/Two rocks is an excellent example of well planned landscapes and urban design. You'd be doing well to see a dark roof on any new home. Lawn is only used for practical use, not for aesthetics. sports grounds etc. Excellent standards of irrigation and better than normal soil prep. The whole community drives through and past there everyday and they are getting ideas. Re: Nature strips without lawns 24Dec 05, 2009 10:39 pm http://www.zanthorrea.com/info/Verge_Planting.pdf this might be helpful for WA people. Zanthorrea is one of the BEST places to learn about natives and what to do with them! My tac-home-ter: Been in 8 months! Re: Nature strips without lawns 25Dec 06, 2009 12:35 pm I love this thread.. it reminds me of Brazil Soz Fu helo from Germany ! Re: Nature strips without lawns 27Jan 10, 2010 11:00 am This pdf will be a huge help and comes from one of Australia's leading experts in Australian plants and sustainable gardening. Verge planting http://www.zanthorrea.com/info/Verge_Planting.pdf Re: Nature strips without lawns 28Jan 14, 2010 11:40 pm There is a fairly new plant available in nurseries around Australia called "Cousin it" It is a prostrate or ground cover version of a She Oak. Grows a few centimetres high and about a metre or so wide. Dark green all the time, very low and extremely tough and waterwise. in fact you'd grow this in a xerophytic nature strip no worries but you'd need some hand watering to establish It would near on looking like a lawn with little to no effort what so ever Re: Nature strips without lawns 30Jan 31, 2010 11:28 pm Here is a good shot of a garden verge with no lawn. http://www.gardenjot.com/garden/view/1283/Bens-Garden Re: Nature strips without lawns 31Feb 11, 2010 11:23 pm Guys for those unfortunate enough not to live in wonderful WA ( ) where access to this sort of info is easy please have a squiz at the work of Phillip Johnson (I bet his mates are allowed to call him Phill ) This is an exceptional standard of what our landscapes will have to become through necessity in years to come. The ultimate landscape design is one that enhances the natural world. The finest landscapes achieve this concept. The Chinese and Japanese were thousands of years ahead of the western world when it comes to this Landscaping concept. In Australia it is only logical to enhance the sorts of natural landscapes we encounter. Please take inspiration from his work http://www.phillipjohnson.com.au/ In particular have a squiz at this one http://www.phillipjohnson.com.au/canterbury.php Re: Nature strips without lawns 34Feb 13, 2010 12:21 pm Interesting vids. I like how Chris says "try not to kill the postie" in the "The Verge" video It's considerations like this that are important in planning a verge. My tac-home-ter: Been in 8 months! Re: Nature strips without lawns 35Mar 01, 2010 6:14 pm I also want to replace the grass and the weed in the nature strip with some ground covers suggested in the link. I'm unsure of the steps and have some qs. -pull away the weeds, dug the grass in the strip, remove the top dirt -Need to fill some new soil to the strip ? Otherwise, the strip will be indented( the same soil for garden bed) - plant - Do I need to add mulch when the ground cover covers the strip ? Am I right? We don't want to put crushed rock and my husband wants sth grows very near to the ground only-- his point is this doesn't accumulate rubbish. I've thinking of myoporum Parvifolium or the cousin in as Fu suggested in the last few posts. However, I haven't seen the latter yet. Re: Nature strips without lawns 36Mar 02, 2010 12:44 am I made a mistake of adding new soils in and put way to much in. When I placed mulch on it was getting high. A similar garden in the next street is set lower than the concrete. Its working well and holds water in heavy rain, mine doesn't. He used no mulch and no added soils. I guess somewhere in between is good. Re: Nature strips without lawns 37Mar 02, 2010 7:28 pm Redman, don't worry, that soil level will drop. He is getting ok results like that, just imagine what you will get Re: Nature strips without lawns 39Mar 02, 2010 10:22 pm Hasn't that garden been posted here before? There is like an old shop on the corner over the road. Looks a bit like an area of Cot here in WA.? Fantastic example of a great verge garden Re: Nature strips without lawns 40Mar 02, 2010 10:24 pm I can only have a guess at the Euc from that picture. victrix or torquata? This certainly doesn't look good. I would be engaging with an independent inspector to have a look at this. As for the unscheduled site visits, most builders are quite… 1 28320 Elvis has left the building... The site supervisor quit after 2 month on the project. I guess he was just instructed to bark at people, but didn't like when he was… 26 20902 |