Some of our tree planting partners are quietly racking up whole forests. G.J. Gardner Homes is one of our strongest supporters, having planted 56,000 trees with us over the past 8 years. That impressive number comes as a result of G.J. Gardner planting 15 trees for every home it builds in Tasmania and Victoria. And as a well-established building company with a reputation for quality and reliability, it is a popular choice.
G.J. Gardner prides itself on being a practical, hands-on family affair, and in past years staff have happily got down and dirty and planted their trees themselves. This year, of course, everything is a bit different, and volunteer groups are managing the actual roots-in-ground part of the process with small numbers of their own volunteers. To keep the local connection, all trees are planted near the offices managing the builds, between 200-900 trees for every district. Local Landcare groups work out the best trees for the job – usually indigenous natives – and source the seedlings. The seedlings themselves are often grown by local independent nurseries who have collected seed from the region by hand (with the proper licensing, of course).
These trees have been a great asset to our planting projects. We are aiming to revegetate creek lines to prevent erosion from stock and to improve the habitat for native wildlife. Some of the trees we planted included; Varnish Wattle, Hemp bush, Cassinia Aculeata and Cassinia Trinerva. The trees are aimed at providing some in-fill between the mature eucalypts and Silver wattles, which were all planted some 25 years ago.
The new planting is designed to provide a dense mid-storey cover for the small birds in the area. Whilst planting the new tube stock a tiny fragile nest of a pair of weebills (Australia’s smallest bird) was sighted within the planting area. The planting area is home to wombats, Echidnas and the burrowing crayfish.
Hopefully within a couple of years the local bird life will have expanded to take up this new habitat.
Thank you to Josh and his team at GJG Warragul for their continued support.
Robert East | Secretary | Mt Worth and District Landcare Group
G.J. Gardner’s core business is building homes. Safe, secure places for families to grow and thrive for many years to come. We love that alongside this G.J. Gardner is planting forests, which is very much the same thing – safe, secure places for fauna and flora to grow and thrive for many years to come.
Josh Tyrrell from G.J. Gardner Homes Warragul is a generous supporter of local community groups and their tree planting projects. This year Josh and his team purchased 300 native plants trees for part of a bigger project of at Mount Worth, West Gippsland including 4,000 trees!
If you are also interested in how your business and Fifteen Trees could work together, contact Melinda at <[email protected]> and ask for a no obligation proposal.
Writer – Sarah Hart.
Sarah is an artist whose passions include the stories and experiences of women and narrative driven creative work. Her aim is to delight, to reveal glimpses of everyday beauty, and to celebrate flights of the ordinary. Sarah works across a range of media, with an abiding interest in pen and ink, mixed media and the human form. You can find Sarah here.
