native landscape design
This bog garden by Lorelle and Rhonda Mercer wasnt professionally designed. It's an example of a naturalistic approach.
Natural water features instead of pools are an emerging trend. Photo "The new native garden (Urquhart)"
Bring back nature
Why native?
There are many different reasons why people grow native plants, including;
The best environmental outcome for native landscaping is naturalistic habitat for biodiversity and site repair. Dense plantings including thick mulch and ground covers have higher initial costs but more quickly reach a state of minimal maintenance.
Where landscaping interacts with the built environment, compromises are made considering space, access to sun and cooling summer breezes.
Naturalistic design
Local conditions:
Where possible we plant an estimate of what we think the original vegetation was. Much of the local area (Bellinger valley) is ex rainforest soil. In this case we prefer rainforest plants or wildflowers tolerant of wetter conditions. The mature original canopy vegetation may be inappropriately tall or bushfire prone for nearby dwellings. In this case we restrict plant selection to the original understorey species or substitute eucalypts with lower growing rainforest species.
Diverse:
Nature has a diversity of shapes, sizes, flowering times and thus a complex range of habitat. We reproduce this diversity - a suburban back yard might have 50 plant species.
Local plant communities:
Local biodiversity is best supported by locally sourced seed. Most commonly available natives are horticulturally bred hybrids, which don't benefit the local seed bank. The exaggerated flowering behaviour of hybrids can distort local ecology towards dominating birds. Ecologies are based on plant communities, so to conserve biodiversity we like to approximate the combinations of plants as they occur naturally. Nick has a disputed theory that replicating communities also looks more naturalistic.
Ecolivings "3 D's" guide to native planting for biodiversity
Dense: Give the small things a place to hide.
Diverse: Offer a wide range of food.
Do nothing: Leave the fallen logs and random mess. Things live there.
