Gunnedah’s tree champion
Janet Hathway went from being Forests NSW Gunnedah nursery’s best customer to being manager, all because of her passion for trees.
It is not something new to her.
“My mother said I have been gardening since the time I could walk,” says Janet. “Give me a tree and I will plant it.”
Plant them she has. The forest of 5000 ironbarks she and her father planted more than 30 years ago has been the subject of study by Forests NSW scientists.
The efforts in her three hectare garden have not gone unnoticed. She has more than a few champion and best native garden awards.
She and husband Jim have been so successful in creating their dry-tolerant garden that they were chosen as ABC Open Garden candidates last year.
Janet has overseen the improvement of Forests NSW nursery from a site out of town to a plot in town that has more than tripled the tube stock she sells each year.
“People are catching on that they can’t grow exotics in these areas. They and conifers over the past three years have just died,” Janet said.
“The soil temperature here during the drought has been 35 to 36 degrees Celsius and everyone is conscious of saving water.”
The top choices Janet recommends for the Gunnedah area are bimblebox (Eucalyptus populnea), which is appropriate as koalas love it and Gunnedah is the ‘koala capital of the world’, Blakely’s red gum (Eucalyptus blakelyi) and emu bush (Eremophila sp.), all of which Janet grows at home.
She has given in to the realities of little water, on what she describes as a “shocking, once-impoverished dairy farm” with lots of sandstone, and has replaced lawns with gravel paths and pavers close to the house.