The NATIVE Garden ISLAND G SNEDRA

It is no surprise that native gardens are Australia's most popular style of garden, attracting local wildlife (especially birds), creating a thriving mini ecosystem that ensures pollination of plants and a healthy environment. Another wonderful advantage is that you'll be adorning the surrounds of your home with hardy, drought-tolerant plants that require little maintenance. Less work. Yay!

From ground covers and flowering grasses, right through to shrubs and trees, there are more than 8000 native plant varieties readily available for purchase across south-east Queensland. This means you can aim for whatever 'look' you desire. Yes, native gardens can be surprisingly soft in appearance, flowing, and with a variety of attractive foliage, plus a vast array of colourful flowers year-round ... and, as an add-on, you might even attract native bees.

Thank you to Jenny - one of our readers, who explained how she'd created her native garden slowly over the course of a year. Labour cost was zero because spreading the work out meant she could do just an hour or two every week or so (plus she got a little help from her grandson with the heavier plants). Taking her time meant Jenny was able to choose plants that were in flower every time she went to nurseries, ending up with the all-year round colour mentioned above.

To get started- note how much sun and shade the garden is receiving. This will help greatly in choosing the right plants. If you want plants that like shade, a good tree on the western side of the garden will help. Easily-available favourites that don't grow too tall, include the Australian Daintree Pine, the Coastal Banksia (shorter varieties), the aptly-named 'Flowering Eucalyptus', and the Tuckeroo (Beach Tamarind).

Secondly, consider the soil. Bribie's sandy soils are great for growing natives but you might need to add a little acidic fertiliser. If you have clay-like soil, you could add gypsum to help break it up a little.

Now, here comes the fun part ~ plants! :-D

Unable to list thousands of varieties here, I've decided to concentrate on colourful flowers. Bunnings nailed it on their website with the following advice.

"Everlasting daisies, callistemons, grevilleas, banksias and correas flower for months on end and generally come in warm shades of red, pink, yellow and orange. For cool tones, try scaevolas, native daisies, dianellas and wahlenbergias. Foliage can provide fresh interest, too. The palette of native grey foliage is extremely diverse and it contrasts so beautifully with green foliage. Highlight your planting scheme with the silvery notes of conostylis, westringia, woolly bush or the silver-leaved mountain gum." For advice specific to our region, be sure to visit our friendly local nurseries and markets. There are some absolutely beautiful native plants available all around our region.

I look forward to returning in on Issue 199 on 8th September, where our younger readers can enjoy learning all about fairy gardens. Wishing you a wonderful transition into Spring. Thanks for reading.