The Culture of Plants Alternative Culture Katie Freeth Katie Freeth Earlier this year, I moved house to a small town outside the urban sprawl of the Adelaide suburbs. The front garden is not huge but features a “creek” running along the frontage. Our land title carries a local Council endorsement to the effect that we must keep the creek clear as a drainage channel. Recent rain has revealed the reason for this as the water level rises at least 50cm after every heavy shower! Some days this rise has been more … The front garden that came with the house was a large patch of lawn, in poor condition; at the edge of the lawn closest to the building were eight standard rose bushes. Towards the creek and the outer edge of the garden were a few shrubs – some native - and overgrown, weedy banks ran down either side of the creek. Based on my perceived reputation of being “water-wise” and “environmentally aware”, friends were agog to know the answer to their question to me “are you going to do the right thing and plant a native garden?” That set me thinking. What is a native garden? There are only a very few plants that are ubiquitous over a land mass as large as, for example, Australia. Australian Native plants are, as the name suggests, those plants that occur naturally within Australia. Although the Eucalyptus, Grevillea and Acacia genera are, to many, synonymous with Australia, what is native in one region of this vast continent may be very different to those found in another. Native plants tend to grow in a preferred region of specific microclimate and soil types – i.e. they are indigenous to their region. Imagine if you will native plants from the dry soils of Western Australia and those from the tropical rain forests of Queensland – all Australian natives – but very different plants, with very different growing requirements. Many species will not even grow happily in different parts of one State, let alone a different one! But the negative side of this equation is also true. Some species will grow just as well, if not better, outside their native area and thus become a problem. Acacia baileyana, the Cootamandra Wattle, a native of southwest New South Wales, is an attractive garden plant with silver-grey foliage and the classic, soft balls of golden-yellow flowers; but … it will cause “genetic pollution” outside its natural area, being able to hybridise freely with other indigenous species, and in some cases has put these at risk of extinction. The issue is a significant one and the Nursery and Garden Industry Australia in partnership with the Federal Government publishes a series of regional “Grow Me Instead” booklets to help to reduce the number of problem plants around Australia – both native and exotic.
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