Natives are good in gardens too – NGT awarded grant to spread the word about native plants in Mt Gambier
We are excited to announce that we have been awarded a grant to promote the use of indigenous plant species in public gardens around Mount Gambier! The project aims to encourage the community to include native plants in their own gardens, by creating demonstration native gardens around Mt Gambier to showcase our beautiful native species. Signage will help people to learn about the native plant species featured. This grant will provide us with the opportunity to plant native species grown in our own NGT Community Nursery, that are not usually found at other nurseries around Mount Gambier.
We are currently growing a range of native grasses, wildflowers, ground-covers, shrubs and a couple of species of trees for the project. These plants will be planted out by staff and volunteers over the next few months. The species we have chosen have high biodiversity values and are vital for fauna in the urban environment, such as native bees, butterflies, birds and other native insects, and also support small mammals in areas where they are present (like our cute native swamp rats and possums). The same species can also be purchased from NGT’s Community Nursery (look out for our annual plant sale in spring, or pop in to the Community Nursery on July 8th).
These before and after photos are from a garden NGT planted at Naracoorte for SA Water. It is a diverse native garden and includes local flax-lilies, grasses, muntries, yaccas and daisies. This garden is low-maintenance, requiring very little water, and provides native flowers during spring-summer, and habitat for small native insects and reptiles.
If you’d like to get involved or have an idea for a great planting place within Mount Gambier Jess would love to hear from you.
And if you want to jump straight in – our NGT Community Nursery is having a snap plant sale on the 8th of July!
The grant has been generously awarded through the Foundation for Rural & Regional Renewal and ANZ’s Seeds of Renewal small grant program.
