Designed off the back of Upper Murrumbidgee’s new ‘Monaro Tree Start Growers Network: Growing the next generation of plants for the Monaro and beyond’ - a project kindly funded by a NSW Government Environmental Trust grant - USLC hope to collaborate with their neighboring Landcarers to support a broader network of growers across the Queanbeyan-Palerang region.  

Back in 2021, USLC received a Bushfire Recovery Nurseries Grant from the Foundation for National Parks & Wildlife to develop a community-run native nursery for the district. After failing to secure a suitable site over the last three years, the group have now changed tack and hope to support local volunteers to grow native tubestock from home.

The goal is to grow 10,000 canopy species to contribute to local revegetation projects by May 2025. USLC are calling for any volunteers who might be interested in taking home 200 seedlings (4 boxes of 50 tubestock) to care for until autumn. 

The idea is to grow local plant species, in local conditions, to produce seedlings best adapted to our challenging environment. As a volunteer grower in the Landcare network, you could raise native seedlings from seed in your own backyard. 

The growing period begins in November and growers will care for the seedlings until the end of autumn, when they are hopefully ready for distribution to sites for planting. The seedlings produced can be used for Landcare revegetation projects, or other projects that are creating habitat, revegetating bushfire affected areas and building healthier landscapes.

Landcare aims to support volunteer growers throughout the growing process by providing a growing kit, which includes the boxes, soil, planting tubes and growers handbook. The network is also supported by local experts and Wagtail Natives Nursery near Cooma to help troubleshoot any growing issues.

If you’re interested in growing plants and joining the Southern Tablelands Tree Start Growers Network please scan the QR code to take the growers survey, or follow the link to send in your expression of interest <https://forms.gle/C4rNr1QsSeswWLeX7>. You can also contact the Upper Shoalhaven Landcare Coordinator Erin Brinkley at upper.shoalhaven@gmail.com or 0473 407 079 for more information.