Nature strips
Taking care of nature strips can make your home look good, maintain access to footpaths and keep our waterways healthy.
Picking up leaves, maintaining a lawn or adding plants are all great ways that many Canberrans are choosing to make the most of their nature strip. It can also protect our waterways.
Making the most of your nature strip
It’s important to keep nature strip soil stable and resilient so it can soak up water. Plants are great for this, whether it's a lawn or a garden bed of low shrubs. Popular tips for nature strip designs and maintenance include:
- planting native grasses and wildflowers suits households who prefer a low maintenance solution. Layering different plants will make different homes for creatures
- creating an edible nature strip is becoming popular. When planting veggies, it’s important to keep them within the height limits and to prevent soil from washing into the gutter
- creating a rain garden will use run-off from a driveway or path. If you have a rain garden, keep it clean and replace any dead plants
- choosing long grasses and low-growing hardy plants will save on mowing and help water to soak into the soil rather than running into the drains
- mowing with a catcher or raking up clippings the same day will keep grass clippings, leaves, bark, twigs and soil out of the gutter
- to protect the waterways, households should only use as much water and fertiliser as the plants need.