Nature Strips in Gungahlin

“Lawn rage!

Gosh, the pioneers of this country would have been seething because a tiny strip of land that they did not own had not been graded, mulched, fertilised and sown with a suitable (eco friendly) grass seed, and then maintained at public expense.

If nature strips cause you heartburn, you are one of the most privileged people on the planet, not to mention in human history.

Do something about it, shut up and/or get a grip.”

Breda, Breda….. the argument about our pioneers is ridiculous, seriously, it appears I am not the one that needs to get a grip.
Second of all I said absolutely NOTHING about mulching, fertilising, eco friendly anything OR maintaining. My point was the crap they left behind, and the lack of establishment was the issue. I also said I AM HAPPY TO MAINTAIN IT!
For crying out loud, if your going to be rude, at least have the courtesy to read the first comment properly the first time.
BTW, No, I am not privileged, I am a hard working person who was blessed enough to be able to get a house in the ACT, and both I and every other resident is being ordered via this newsletter by the government to clean up land that isn’t mine and was never actually taken care of in the first place. No newsletter… no rant, I would have just continued the application process.

Why are so many people continually accepting of the growing obligation on the population to take care of what the government owns, gets paid for and throws responsibility back onto us for???

This has nothing to do with being lazy. I have no problem (As I said to start with) maintaining a verge… The fact is, I DID landscape the front nature strip with granite and a native garden bed and have ZERO grass on my land as I wanted to be water conscious, therefore I DO NOT have a flipping lawn mower. Not everyone wants lawn.

This recent letter states that I am responsible for the nature strip not only along the front and along my fence all the way up the side of my house (where I have had an application in to granite with TAMS for 1 year now), but I am also apparently responsible for the OTHER side of the path up the saide of my house and THAT is what I object to when NOTHING was established and it is hip high in flaming weeds!!! And when the area is 3m x 16m and I can’t do anything with it or on it!

I wrote to TAMS to say I was happy to landscape that area too though, with ground covers etc as I do not have lawn but that I wanted assistance (since my rates SHOULD cover that) just to help pick up the crap left there after the suburb was established. I have already used round-up on all the weeds, again at my own expense, and I believe they should clear the mound of dirt THE COUNCIL bleeding left there (was there when I moved in and I am the first land holder). Otherwise, quotes to clean it up, have topped $1000, not just an easy mow job with a magical damn mower I don’t have nor want SINCE I LANDSCAPED TO NOT HAVE ONE!

So, before people start calling names and being belligerent, have a damn think about it, some of us are TRYING to do the right thing and are asking for a small helping hand, since the issue bothers them enough to put it in a damn suburb wide newsletter!

Bit of a problem out in Gungahlin – people living in their luxury mctownhouse with an overgrown nature strip although a perfect garden inside the tiny courtyard.

Actually, around Franklin often the garden is also hideously overgrown. There are so many brand-spanking-new massive houses with five-foot-high Patterson’s Curse in the garden. Classy.

Lawn rage!

Gosh, the pioneers of this country would have been seething because a tiny strip of land that they did not own had not been graded, mulched, fertilised and sown with a suitable (eco friendly) grass seed, and then maintained at public expense.

If nature strips cause you heartburn, you are one of the most privileged people on the planet, not to mention in human history.

Do something about it, shut up and/or get a grip.

Used to be you planted your own grass, or you could apply for permission to do something other than grass (as long as it met guidelines with regard to things like pedestrian safety and vehicle visibility). There are more important things I want my rates to pay for than other people’s nature strips. Is the tiny bit of additional land which is technically nature strip and not front garden really too much for some people? Personally I appreciate having the option of planting your own choice of ornamental grasses and groundcovers which enhance your home’s street appeal and avoid the need for mowing. I’m hoping this complaint is a joke.

Back in the day we took matters into our own hand when established our garden in Nicholls and planted a native garden tolerant to drought. Even six years after we left the place is still looking great.

Take a leaf out of vg’s book you lazy so and so, haha.

If my assclown neighbours would stop using my naturestrip as a parking lot when they have their fifteen drunken mates over every second night I too could have a naturestrip to be proud of.

Bit of a problem out in Gungahlin – people living in their luxury mctownhouse with an overgrown nature strip although a perfect garden inside the tiny courtyard.

In the ACT the naturestrip out the front of your house is your responsibility. Get off your lazy butt and do something about it. Dry your eyes princess.

Maintaining the nature strip has been a fact of life in Canberra – since forever. I bought a house with no nature strip, but do have a horrible gum I can not remove.

Over the years, I have realised if I like the nature strip and it is well maintained, then the property owners care and respect there homes as well. It has become an extended part of their houses.

If it is a new estate it is the DEVELOPER not the government that would establish the nature strip and any plants on the nature strip. After that you will find that it is a land lease condition that the lease holder maintains the strip. So if your wasn’t done right then complain to/about the developer not the government.

No one’s going to take as much interest in the nature strip in front of your house as you are I ‘spose. Not a lot of point when it becomes a parking lot for neighbours though – battle axe blocks, woo hoo!

Anyone else have the street sweeper come by and reclaim the washed away scoria (sp?)?

I wouldn’t have said it was ‘disgusting’. Perhaps mildly annoying.

I live there as well. They seeded around our part of Franklin. They kinda spoiled it though. After we carefully tended it and had it looking nice and lawny, they came and mowed it down to about 2mm and nearly killed the lot. Bloody bastards! Wish they’d left it alone! It’s now patchy and brown (even with all the rain!) with weeds starting to grow through. Grrrrr.

As an aside, if you don’t want to mow the grass, you can apply to TAMS to landscape your verge. It seems to be a long process, though. I applied quite some time ago and still haven’t heard back.

As a recently new resident of the ACT I was shocked that there was a requirement for residents to maintain their nature strips. In SA there is no requirement, you just let it grow for 3 months and the local council comes and mows it. Although most people give it a clip every second or third time they do their front lawns.

When I moved to Canberra I chose a nice low maintenance unit because I had very little gardening equipment. 9 months later the property manager tells me that she just realised that the plans of the unit she gave me were incorrect and that it was my responsibility to mow the nature strip as well. I queried the matter and after she asked the body corporate she told me that I had to do it or leave.

So I had to buy a lawnmower just to mow a 120sqm bit of land that I can’t even park my car on to wash it (otherwise I’ll face a $80 fine apparently), can’t plant an edible garden that is actually useful and can’t touch the 2 massive pine trees growing on it. The funny thing is that I back onto a park that has grass growing chest high, so one side of the walkway is mowed and the other is a jungle… the neighbourhood kids like it though 🙂

Bummer. Probably would’ve been easier and cheaper to buy a large container of Round-Up and apply liberally.

wow! what’s the point of paying rates/taxes on everything if the money isn’t used properly

let the medium strip overgrow. gov once again letting people down

As a recently new resident of the ACT I was shocked that there was a requirement for residents to maintain their nature strips. In SA there is no requirement, you just let it grow for 3 months and the local council comes and mows it. Although most people give it a clip every second or third time they do their front lawns.

When I moved to Canberra I chose a nice low maintenance unit because I had very little gardening equipment. 9 months later the property manager tells me that she just realised that the plans of the unit she gave me were incorrect and that it was my responsibility to mow the nature strip as well. I queried the matter and after she asked the body corporate she told me that I had to do it or leave.

So I had to buy a lawnmower just to mow a 120sqm bit of land that I can’t even park my car on to wash it (otherwise I’ll face a $80 fine apparently), can’t plant an edible garden that is actually useful and can’t touch the 2 massive pine trees growing on it. The funny thing is that I back onto a park that has grass growing chest high, so one side of the walkway is mowed and the other is a jungle… the neighbourhood kids like it though 🙂

wow! what’s the point of paying rates/taxes on everything if the money isn’t used properly

let the medium strip overgrow. gov once again letting people down

As a recently new resident of the ACT I was shocked that there was a requirement for residents to maintain their nature strips. In SA there is no requirement, you just let it grow for 3 months and the local council comes and mows it. Although most people give it a clip every second or third time they do their front lawns.

When I moved to Canberra I chose a nice low maintenance unit because I had very little gardening equipment. 9 months later the property manager tells me that she just realised that the plans of the unit she gave me were incorrect and that it was my responsibility to mow the nature strip as well. I queried the matter and after she asked the body corporate she told me that I had to do it or leave.

So I had to buy a lawnmower just to mow a 120sqm bit of land that I can’t even park my car on to wash it (otherwise I’ll face a $80 fine apparently), can’t plant an edible garden that is actually useful and can’t touch the 2 massive pine trees growing on it. The funny thing is that I back onto a park that has grass growing chest high, so one side of the walkway is mowed and the other is a jungle… the neighbourhood kids like it though 🙂

The property manager has pulled an absolute doozy on you. The plans she gave you were incorrect and you got suckered into property maintenance. If the plans she she gave you were incorrect but you agreed to a lease based on those plans then that’s her problem Einstein

I live in Gungahlin and, like most, have a modestly sized nature strip. Why don’t you get off your lazy ass and maintain it for the whole 5 mins per week it does take. Run a mower over it, do some weeding. Have a modicum of self-respect.

Probably helps if you understood any of the conditions the 99 year lease, applicable to your property, has. Nature strips and property maintenance is one of them.

Woe is me, its all too hard, waaaaa…….waaaaaaa.

If you want your nature strip to look (and stay) prsentable take a little bit of responsibility.

“None of them were cleared of excess dirt, weeds and planted with grass seeds”

Bullshit. We had a little thing called a drought and water restrictions, and types like you would have been the first people bitching if they had’ve been watered then

wow! what’s the point of paying rates/taxes on everything if the money isn’t used properly

let the medium strip overgrow. gov once again letting people down

As a recently new resident of the ACT I was shocked that there was a requirement for residents to maintain their nature strips. In SA there is no requirement, you just let it grow for 3 months and the local council comes and mows it. Although most people give it a clip every second or third time they do their front lawns.

When I moved to Canberra I chose a nice low maintenance unit because I had very little gardening equipment. 9 months later the property manager tells me that she just realised that the plans of the unit she gave me were incorrect and that it was my responsibility to mow the nature strip as well. I queried the matter and after she asked the body corporate she told me that I had to do it or leave.

So I had to buy a lawnmower just to mow a 120sqm bit of land that I can’t even park my car on to wash it (otherwise I’ll face a $80 fine apparently), can’t plant an edible garden that is actually useful and can’t touch the 2 massive pine trees growing on it. The funny thing is that I back onto a park that has grass growing chest high, so one side of the walkway is mowed and the other is a jungle… the neighbourhood kids like it though 🙂

HOnestly – this weather is perfect for growing grass. Buy a sack of grass seed (under 10 dollars, will last you for about 10 years), mow the nature strip and throw the grass seed all over it. Do this every time it rains for the next few weeks. Soon you will have grass.

It would have been a collosal waste of money for the govt to try to establish grassy nature strips during the drought.

wow! what’s the point of paying rates/taxes on everything if the money isn’t used properly

let the medium strip overgrow. gov once again letting people down