Josh Tyrrell and his team from G.J Gardner Homes Warragul are generous supporters of local community groups, and their tree planting projects. Over this past year, they have purchased 660 native trees for revegetation projects in the Southwest Gippsland district.

G.J. Gardner prides itself on being a practical, hands-on family affair, and in past years staff have happily gone out with their local community to plant their trees themselves. Local Landcare groups determine the best location and species for the site. The seedlings themselves are grown by local independent nurseries who often collect seed from the region by hand. In this case, the trees were sourced from Grand Ridge Propagation at Seaview.

This year, Josh’s trees were planted by the Mt Worth Landcare group in the Baw Baw Shire at a site called Cloverlea. The plants included various indigenous eucalypts, wattle trees, shrubs, grasses and some climbing plants.

At this site, the group were aiming to re-vegetate on the steepest of slopes, not only to provide habitat for the native wildlife, but to also help control erosion. Long term these trees will build up a new ecosystem which will support many forms of flora and fauna.

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.

Writer: Colleen Filippa

With a background in Environmental Science, Colleen is the Founding Director of Fifteen Trees. In 2009, after 20 years in primary, secondary and tertiary education institutions, Colleen left the classroom to start the company. Fifteen Trees is a social enterprise assisting individuals and companies to reduce their carbon footprint by supporting community groups such as Landcare, schools and environmental networks.