Why Native Plants Are A Great Option For Your Illawarra Garden
Luke Of Native Grace Landscapes Shares Tips On Which, How + Why Natives Are Such A Winner In The Garden
Local landscape designer, Luke Maitland is pretty darn passionate about native plants.
In fact, he’s such a fan he and partner, Catheryn, opened a landscape design business and garden centre, Native Grace, specialising in and dedicated to these hardy and environmentally friendly plants!
That’s dedication, right?
We chatted to Luke to get some expert tips on why natives are such a great option for our Illawarra gardens, and what species really work
1 :: Okay Luke, let’s start with you. Where did your love of native plants come from?
I’ve always been interested in and worked with native plants after doing my initial training at a native specialty nursery. From then on, I just wanted to learn as much as I could about them.
Native plants fit in with my passion for the environment. Given everything that’s gone on in recent years around habitat loss and the impact we’re having on the environment, it just makes sense to me to create gardens that work with the environment.
2 :: So, tell us about the benefits of having native plants in your garden?
There’s quite a few but the first thing that comes to mind is native plants provide healthy habitats for birds. The bushfires destroyed so much of the natural habitat for birds, so if locals can provide an alternative option while the bush regenerates, that’s awesome.
There’s also the low maintenance element. Good plant selection can see your garden need very little input, so less water and less fertiliser, which is really important in times of drought.
I’ve had a few customers who couldn’t afford to bring water in [if they were on land in the drought] just to water the garden or didn’t have enough bore water or were just tired of paying high water bills to keep the garden alive. They ended up swapping out their existing plants with native plants to get around that.
3 :: What are some examples of varieties that work well in the Illawarra?
There’s a huge choice of native varieties that thrive here because the Illawarra doesn’t get the frosts that other regions do.
From warmer climate grevilleas to west Australian cultivars and more local native plants such as grevilleas, banksias and correas that provide a range of colour all year round.
Banksias are great and Native Daphnes colour through winter, which is important for providing birds and bees with winter food. Bees especially love Native Daphnes.
Actually, that’s another benefit of planting natives – you can have colour in your garden all year round. You don’t have to wait for spring for it all to bud or flower.
4 :: What are your favourites?
The Native Daphne for sure. Bees love it, it’s tough and frost doesn’t worry it. It’s a super tough plant if placed in the right spot, and you get masses of flowers.
Banksia Birdsong is another favourite. It’s a small growing banksia that gets to about 1.5 metres high and they have nice, big, golden banksia flowers. It’s another one that flowers in the winter and the birds love it when in flower. And it’s not a huge plant so won’t take over your garden.
I also like the Lamandra Frosty Top. It’s like a grey grass with grey blue foliage which provides a nice contrast to the more traditional native plants. It gets to about 50-60cm tall and 30cm wide, doesn’t brown off and smaller birds love it.
5 :: You specialise in native plant landscape design. Tell us about a particularly memorable project you’ve worked on.
The one we’re working on at the moment which has been challenging but great to do, is a new build on a tough and exposed site. The brief was to provide privacy, wind protection, encourage habitat for birds and bees, and provide colour all year round.
So, we’ve used natives to provide layered gardens and hit the colour year-round part of the brief by selecting a mix of species.
The design has been created to maximise the view from the house and create a nice aesthetic around the entertaining area. The garden is beautiful but most importantly, it blends in and connects with the landscape that surrounds the house.
We also planted some White Cedars, which are deciduous native trees that are hardy and gets a mauve flower. King parrots love white cedars too. They get into the seeds, and you’ll often see plenty of King Parrots in the one tree going crazy.
There’s no supplementary watering required, everything is designed to be low maintenance because it’s such a challenging and exposed site to get water to.
6 :: What would be your advice to someone wanting to add native plants to their garden?
Play around with species. You don’t have to have a garden entirely of native plants. They blend well with exotic plants.
And try to vary the types of native plants you use – a good range of bush tucker plants, bottle brush, grevilleas, lilly pilly’s, kangaroo grass and correas should cover it. But you can also pop into Native Grace if you’re unsure. We have 400 plants and over 400 varieties in stock.
You’ll definitely find something to suit your garden here!!
Native Grace Landscapes provides landscaping design and maintenance services specialising in native plants. Headquarters is at their garden centre in Robertson where you’ll find a huge range of species and plants and expertise to help you add natives to your garden. Their onsite store is also a treat selling homewares, gardening accessories, bush tucker food, seeds, books and more. Pop in to see Luke and Catheryn or give them a call on 4858 0368 – they’re ALWAYS happy to answer questions, chat about landscaping projects and help you out.
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