Plants of the South East garden update

Natural Resources South East (NRSE) and NGT staff recently got together for a lunchtime mini working bee to tackle some garden maintenance. The Plants of the South East display garden, at the NRSE office in Mount Gambier, showcases some of the regions most interesting common and threatened plants, and sees hundreds of passersby every week.

Volunteers enjoyed the chance to get some fresh air and efficiently set about pruning shrubs, removing dead foliage, and weeding all three garden beds.

Cath (NGT) hitting two birds with one stone: removing dead foliage and collecting seed from Pale Flax-lily Dianella longifolia var. grandis

Excitingly, a large number of Common Grass-blue butterflies (Zizina labradus labradus) were noted fluttering about the garden, particularly around a large patch of Running Postman (Kennedia prostrata). The butterflies were presumably laying their eggs as Running Postman is known to be a caterpillar food plant. Clear evidence that growing native plants not only looks great, but supports biodiversity as well!

Two of the many Common Grass-blues spotted making good use of the Plants of the South East garden