Browned off

By Elizabeth Lillis
BUSINESSES in Pakenham associated with the garden industry are beginning to be affected financially by the water restrictions imposed during the drought.
Pakenham based turf company Evergreen Turf has a big supply of turf ready for sale – but there are no buyers.
Evergreen Turf chief executive officer Dean Holden said sales of turf to the retail market had fallen away to nothing as a result of the ban on watering lawns.
Under the Stage 3 water restrictions, which came into force on 1 January, no lawns can be watered.
Mr Holden, who is known locally as Evergreen Dean, said the company which waters its turf using recycled water had watched demand fall over the past few months. “Customer inquiries for turf have dropped to zero,’’ he said.
Since 31 December, state water authorities were not granting exemptions for new lawns to be established.
Approximately 80 per cent of the company’s sales were to retail customers establishing lawns at home.
Mr Holden said he did not foresee having to lay off any of his 30 staff at this stage.
“Staff were taking holidays and carrying out maintenance work on the company’s production facility,’’ he said.
Mr Holden said the business had diversified after the last drought and now supplies racecourse turf and has developed a customers base overseas and interstate.
The company had also started to specialise in supply of warm season grasses such as buffalo, kikuyu and couch grasses.
Mr Holden said the diversification put the business in a slightly better position to cope with the drought than some other turf businesses, but the restrictions had seriously affected turnover.
Mr Holden said he believed lawns could survive the summer months if the warm season grasses were planted and recycled water was used.
“I believe there needs to be a balance between the use of potable water and business sustainability” Mr Holden said.
Lawn mowing and garden maintenance contractors are also feeling the pinch as a result of the restrictions.
Jon Game, who owns a Jim’s Mowing franchise for the Beaconsfield area, said his work had slowed considerably since the Stage 2 and three restrictions had come into place. Mr Game, who has customers from Skye through to Pakenham, said his mowing jobs have dropped off considerably, with lawns not growing or dying.
“I’m travelling more some days between jobs as I will take clients whenever they need work done, whereas in the past I have done a number of properties in the same day in an area,’’ he said.
Mr Game, who has been working in the area for three years, said he is recommending customers change to more drought-resistant warm season grasses.
He said recently customers have been asking him to change sprinkler systems to dripper systems in line with the restrictions on garden watering.
Mr Game said if Stage 4 restrictions came into place this work would also dry up.