Native Species Planting Guide
Native Species Planting Guide
Choosing the right plants for the right place.
Taking Action -
LLCI033-016
The issue
Landcare and local councils often gets asked for help in choosing native species for specific plantings. Creating these can be time consuming and some species are not easily available from nurseries. A spreadsheet with information on local species and availability had been created under the Bush Futures joint project between Byron and Tweed Shire Council but it was difficult to use for the general public.
The solution
Brunswick Valley Landcare partnered with Tweed Shire Council, Byron Shire Council and Tweed Landcare to apply for Environmental Trust Education grant and were successful in securing funding to not only produce an online resource but also to update the highly successful My Local Native Garden booklet and create a version for Tweed Shire.
The impact
The Byron My Local Native Garden booklet was updated and a new version for Tweed Shire was developed. An online guide has been developed that makes it easy for home gardeners, landscape architects and those who are passionate about bush regeneration to build native species planting lists for projects ranging from landscape-scale restoration to back garden planting.
The online guide allows the user to view a colour photograph of each plant and explore its characteristic features to improve the chances of a successful planting in any setting. We have included more than 1550 locally occurring native species in the online guide including their physical attributes (height, habit and flower colour), environmental tolerances (sun, frost, salt and wind hardiness), ecological relationships (key fauna food, butterfly and bird attracting), soil types where they occur and broad landscape locations. Species are also assigned to vegetation mapping types and have a nursery ‘availability’ score.
Both the Tweed and Byron versions of the guide is easy to use and available online at http://www.tweed.nsw.gov.au/NativeSpeciesPlantingGuide/.
Key facts
- Online resource developed
- My Local Native Garden Booklet updated and new version produced for Tweed Shire
- Strengthened connections between neighbouring local councils and landcare groups.