I have finally updated the page that shows our beautiful waterfall, and the results of three years worth of revegetation planting I have been doing, near our home.
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| The 11.5m high waterfall |
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| Pizza oven action |
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| The planting around the pizza oven |
I see so many clients that are hesitant about planting large areas with native trees. They don't know where to start, and it can all be a bit overwhelming. I have been lucky enough to have had parents that created a forest on what was bare clay paddock, over a number of years. They would bring home forest litter (the decaying leaves on the forest floor), to see what seedlings would pop up. And splitting flax plants, saving tree seeds and nurturing those seedlings until they were big enough to plant etc. So I was shown how to get plants for free, only buying certain trees or special plants that would then be divided each year until you had many plants from the original bought specimen. Now that original clay paddock has got mature trees, with seedling ferns, and all sorts of goodies popping up that the birds bring in (and poop the seeds out), or that have just been lying dormant under the soil until the conditions became suitable.
They have been my inspiration.
If you would like some inspiration yourself, pop on over to the 'Our Waterfall' page on the column on the right, and simply click on it. Even if it gets one person planting, that will make my day!
Wow, so impressive, especially your waterfall! The Mr is the gardener in our family, and he loves planting natives. Our garden has quite a few, now I'm trying to encourage him to plant more flowers for some colour. x
ReplyDeleteHa! It is funny, Vic, but out of my clients, it is almost always the men that are wanting colour, whereas the women are more into coordinated schemes etc. There are lots of things your Mr could plant that tie in with the native 'look', without being too flowery. I love things like Camellias (Yuletide, Takanini, Setsugekka), Rhododendrons, Viburnums (carleisii, trilobum etc), Dietes grandiflora, Solomons seal, cyclamen, primulas etc for a burst of colour in amongst native shrubs. And coloured foliage of trees like Maple Bloodgood, Setsugekka etc. It is so nice to have some seasonal variation, especially in the middle of our grey winters.
Deletegood gracious...that is where you live??? it's unbelievably beautiful.
ReplyDeleteYay to the natives...love your parent's idea of letting nature sort out what shall survive and what shall grow. If the last 2 centuries were about mixing plants up from all over the world, i often wonder if the next century will be about localising plant types...i would like to think so. x
We don't live at the waterfall itself (1.5km away), but it is where we have developed pizza oven etc and hang out over summer. And, thanks, we think it is beautiful, too!!
DeleteI so agree about the local plants. We are both the same, Australia and NZ, both going to be facing water shortages, extreme weather events etc, so it makes sense to plant exactly what has adapted to the local conditions over thousands of years, so they don;t need special treatment. I think there is a resurgence of respect for the native species, too. And blending houses etc with the natural landscape. Especially rural properties. Is all good if it means survival of flora and fauna. Rx