This is a once weedy small patch of garden where I've used minimum disturbance bush care to encourage the regeneration of native grasses & herbs. There are at least six native plant species in this photo, none of which I've planted. Today, Ms Woko sighted four Red-browed Finches foraging for seeds among the native plants. Success!
Well done Woko's. Those red browed finches are great to watch. I must admit that if I'd seen those plants in my garden, I would have dug them out as weeds.
Oh, no!, Night Parrot. Shame, oh shame! If you're not sure if a plant species is native the golden rule is to always get an identification before pulling it out. Removing a plant while unsure of its identity may mean you've weeded out the last remaining individual of a species thus causing its extinction. Unlikely but possible.
The species in the photo are Windmill Grass Chloris truncata, Wallaby Grass Austrodanthonia sp., Crumb Weed Dysphania pumilio, Caustic Weed Euphorbia drummondi, TomThumb Dichondra repens & Native Oxalis Oxalis perennans. These are all species of which there were remnants around our house & which I've been able to restore as important elements in our garden & on our property. In fact, Native Oxalis provides habitat for the rare & beautiful Chequered Copper butterfly which has been seen about a kilometre from where I live on the s.e. slopes of the Mt Lofty Ranges SA.
Indeed shame on me Woko.
But I am sure there are many like me who see any kind of grass or weed in the garden as an alien. Weeding is an arduous chore to many people, who, like me, being intent on finishing the job as quickly as possible, are not likely to stop work to get identifications. I don't know what the answer is; perhaps everyone should follow your good example Woko and keep a "weed patch" that they can study at leisure and allow the identified natives to flourish. Another way might be to encourage people to plant native grasses on their verges, or nature strips as some call them. I have heard that in some localities homeowners are prevented (by councils?) from planting out their verges. If that's the case, councils could hardly stipulate to the extent that only certain types of grasses must be planted. So there's a good opportunity to plant native grasses. Some education of the community is needed here. And some good example. Seed merchants/nurseries, and councils, could also play a part.
Excellent array of ideas, Night Parrot.
Keeping a patch of weeds, identifying the natives then removing the weeds is a great idea & similar to my encouraging councils to use roundabouts, street verges & roadsides as places to plant native understorey plants. Such areas can then become nurseries for native seeds which can then be used in other areas.
Councils in SA, at least, could significantly reduce bush fire risk by planting native grasses on roadsides in place of the annual exotic grasses which dry off in summer & present a wonderful, thick fuel load.
Education of the community is certainly needed but I often think that if individuals proceed on their own initiative to plant indigenous natives & gently publicise the effects others are likely to do likewise. Most Australians, I would venture to suggest, have no idea that native grasses provide habitat for a variety of bird, butterfly & insect species - that's if they've ever heard of native grasses.
In fact i've tried to reason with people who reckon all grass is native (!)...
And what do they say to your reasoning, zosterops?
I'm sick and tired of seeing councils plant up nature strips with either plants that aren't native at all, or plants that are native, but not to the area. They could do such an incredible amount for the diversity and abundance of suburban birdlife if they just planted locally native plants instead. I'm sure it doesn't cost more than planting anything else. I personally can't wait until I own a house that I can create a native garden in, I did a small amount in my parent's garden which has attracted native butterflies, wasps, and birds. Your garden patch looks great :D
Birding Blog: Close Encounters of the Bird Kind
Good for you Rebecca and I like your blog.
Yes the "nature" strips in many suburbs aren't very natural at all. Councils have a large part to play in providing native bird habitat on verges but also in small scattered areas that are planted with lawn, supposedly for ease of maintenance. In most suburbs these areas can be counted in their hundreds, or even thousands. Maybe what is needed is a volunteer suburban organisation run like Neighbourhood Watch or a suburban based landcare where residents in a vicinity can band together to pressure councils to plant out small local areas or alternatively do it themselves, perhaps with the council supplying tubestock and the neighbours planting and maintaining them. This kind of initiative seems to have had some success in some inner suburbs, but it needs enthusiastic and driven people to start and maintain a scheme. Such work is rewarding not only in terms of the wealth of the environment but also the wealth of the residents themselves. Put pragmatically, leafiness and native birds raise property prices.
Thanks, Rebecca. The Red-browed Finches were in there again yesterday. I have a number of other patches like this & they're expanding so that some of them are beginning to link up.
I've been trying to get my council for years to plant nature strips, traffic roundabouts & rural roadsides with native plants but so far with limited response. Their contractor even neatly trims roadside weeds such as Golden Wreath Wattle Acacia saligna rather than replace them with local wattles. The feral plant brigade is very much in control at the moment.
Night Parrot, it's great to get community involvement but it often falls to the individual conservationist to become a phantom indigenous plant planter & regenerator. I've planted indigenous vegetation, cared for native grasses & broadcast indigenous seeds along my rural roadside so that council saves many dollars in herbicide because weeds are suppressed. Unfortunately, council is unable to see the relationship between roadside native vegetation & saving money, nor can it see that bushfire risk is reduced because perennial native grasses are replacing annual weeds. Lastly, it doesn't seem to be aware of the importance to us all of a rich biodiversity. Oh, well, soldier on.
It has taken me ten years to finally get my husband to understand that what he was taught were weeds, are in fact not weeds when you are planting a native garden.
I do not know all the plants and 'weeds' by name, but have certainly left lots of them in our yard.
This year my husband finally agreed to not mow the front yard in Spring but rather to let the native grasses go to seed for the birds and for regeneration purposes as well as to provide cover for the family of Australian Wood Ducks that live there.
He has also left a long curved strip of ground in the back paddock unmown and the native tea tree is growing well and in another few years will provide even more cover for the birds.
Happy Birding!
https://www.flickr.com/photos/138588528@N02/
Way to go, Wollemi.