Using native plants

Planting a garden of locally native plants and trees can perform many valuable services. It can be stunningly beautiful, with great diversity of colour and form. Some of our natives are productive food plants, such as lilly-pillies (riberries), macadamia nuts and our native citrus species. There are species that make excellent screens, hedges and trellis plants that are often much easier to maintain than traditional, European species. Many of our natives have adapted to low water levels and are suited to the unique conditions present in our soils. Keeping vegetation cover on the ground as thickly as possible is vital to prevent soil degradation and erosion; using natives to perform this function is much less water intensive than using exotic plants.

A native garden is also a vital resource for the wildlife in your neighbourhood. Using a range of plant types, as well as fallen and decomposing timber, stones and other natural features ensures that a wide variety of species are accommodated. Having native wildlife in your garden not only sounds and looks amazing, it redresses the imbalance in the suburbs. Introduced animals such as noisy mynahs are excluded, small native birds control pest insect populations, our lizards and frogs have a chance to flourish and the natural populations of invertebrates and microorganisms in our soil are maintained.

Our natural systems are complex and perform interactive functions we couldn’t hope to name and replace one by one. It’s always better to establish and maintain an ecosystem as close as possible to its natural state and it will do the amazing things it’s been doing for millennia.