New native planting guide will help gardeners make savvy choices

Home gardeners, landscape architects and those who are passionate about bush regeneration can now jump online and use the new Tweed-Byron Native Species Planting Guide to choose the right plant for the right place.

The online guide, which allows home gardeners and professional landscapers to build native species planting lists for projects ranging from landscape-scale restoration to back garden planting,

It complements the hard-copy My Local Native Garden booklet, which is available for a gold coin donation from Council offices.

Tweed Shire Council’s bushland officer John Turnbull said the interactive resource, which was developed in conjunction with Byron Shire, 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,’ Mr Turnbull said.

While the guide is relatively easy to use and already available online at http://www.tweed.nsw.gov.au/Controls/NativeSpeciesPlanting/Landing.aspx, Tweed Council will hold some short training courses in how to make the most of it.

To register your interest in attending one of these sessions, please contact Mr Turnbull by telephoning Council on 6670 2400.

The Native Species Planting Guide was funded by the NSW Government’s Environmental Trust Education Grant Program of 2015 with the support of Brunswick Valley Landcare Inc., Tweed Landcare Inc., local garden clubs and other support groups.

 

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