Putting Nature Back Into The Nature Strip

What a fantastic day we had bringing life to our nature strip with the help of our wonderful neighbours! Like most other nature strips around, ours was just a strip of grass between the road and our front fence. But in just one day we transformed it into a beautiful space that welcomes people to our home, provides a great space for people to walk through, and will continue to grow as valuable habitat for local wildlife. And it will never need mowing! All we did was:

• Spread some gypsum to break up the clay
• Sheet mulch the area with newspaper to keep the grass out
• Create a wide wood chip mulch path for passers by and the postwoman
• Plant 50 native plants - mainly locally native grasses, shrubs and a few low growing trees that won’t hinder the powerlines (we got the plants cheap from Wollongong City Councils Greenplan nursery, on a sale day)

 

So many people have commented on how great it looks, and have said that they would love to do the same. So we’re looking forward to helping our neighbours through ‘nature strip working bees.’ Thanks again to our neighbours for helping us! Let’s bring life and beauty to all nature strips!

---

Comments

[karan]

You guys have been very busy! It looks great and how fantastic that you have attracted the attention of your neighbors. Hopefully others will get involved as well.

[Abundantly]

Looks great but is it stroller friendly? (My first thought as a mum). It's hard enough without a footpath but this looks even more difficult to negotiate. Is it OK for the postie on a motorbike?

[HappyEarth]

Thanks for raising this point! It's really important to consider people with stollers, on bikes, electric scooters, wheelchairs etc in designing spaces like the nature strip. We really want all people to enjoy passing through!

We have made the path quite wide (more than 80cm), and straight, and ensured that the mulch is spread out really flat and evenly. We've planted mainly grasses and groundcovers near the path, with a few shrubs and small trees further back, so the path should be clear to walk through when things mature.

We created a wide space out the front of the letter box for the postwoman to easily pull up and drive off down the path. Kids have been riding their bikes, and little motor bikes, along the path, with no problems. If you have any other suggestions of how we could make the path more user friendly, please let us know :)

[Darren]

Do you have any more recent photos? I'd love to see how your nature strip has grown!

[HappyEarth]

The nature strip is looking great at the moment with all the indigoferas flowering pink. check out this photo we took of the nature strip back in March:

http://www.happyearth.com.au/picture-gallery/flourishing-food-forest/1089957

[MareeSchurmann]

Congrats! Looks fantastic!

[bodile]

Hello,
See mulching of France ...forum :

http://andre.emmanuel.free.fr/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=898

[RolFlora]

COUNCIL/SHIRE : My Council pulled all my 100m2 of mulched newspaper,grasses,alfalfa and shrubas and trees