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).

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.

Ashley and Sally Heard from G.J. Gardner Homes Ararat are generous supporters of local community groups and their tree planting projects. This year Ashley, Sally and their team purchased 225 native plants trees for Project Platypus Upper Wimmera Landcare Network (PPUWLN) and their project at Old Stathcocon.

On behalf of Project Platypus Upper Wimmera Landcare Network (PPUWLN) I would like to sincerely thank G.J. Gardner Homes Ararat for purchasing 225 trees for our Old Stathconon Project in the Upper Wimmera on Sunday July 26th. The trees have all been planted.

We had the perfect sunny winter’s day with the Pyrenees Ranges as a back-drop for our only public planting event in 2020. It has been a tradition with Project Platypus for over 20 years and it was almost thwarted by COVID-19. Socially distanced smiles were all the rage with a few elbow bumps and plenty of hard work as 20 volunteers and Project Platypus staff planted over 2400 trees on the day.

Andrea Mitchell | Facilitator | Platypus Organisation

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.