we have really tried to leave as many trees as possible in place. we had to cut down a few, due to bush fire risk management, which stipulates that depending on how vulnerable a site is (and our house is in a very vulnerable spot) a sufficiently big distance must be kept between trees and shrubs and the house. the distance also grows with the slope, which means that to the south we must keep the trees further from the house to more than 30 meters, while on the north side about 20 meters distance is sufficient.
eucalypts are, after all, highly flammable, and flames like to race uphill. the road marks the edge of the fire management zone, which has the added benefit of keeping the traffic and any resulting dust away from the house. however, we find large grassy areas boring, a view that apart from the wallabies and pademelons most animals seem to share. we therefore decided to plant a few shrubs (we are allowed some isolated low shrubs in the fire management zone), to add a bit of colour, but also hopefully food for insects and birds.
kris & nat went to visit the local plant nursery to pick out a few shrubs. they returned with a selection of waratahs and proteas in a range of different colours. proteas are not native to australia, but we got special approval from kris’ biologist friend & advisor because they do not spread and become a bio invader (unlike the the stupid deer that are roaming the neighbourhood). waratahs are native to tassie, but i believe the local ones need a lot more water than st helens typically gets, so the ones the girls got are hybrids.
we hope they will still look fantastic. we were told that even though these plants will ultimately survive in the dry climate on the north east coast they must be watered regularly for the first two years – hence the automatic irrigation system. nat did a great job connecting all the hoses and misters while i dug the holes and kris planted the shrubs.
i asked for a special little row to mark the edge of the driveway, to trigger the reversing sensors and avoid cars going onto the grass i worked so hard to plant. btw you can already see little shoots coming up, i hope in another few weeks it will start looking presentable. we’ll plant a few more, and different, shrubs around the house int eh coming weeks.