Stephanie Haslam has been experimenting with groundcovers in hanging baskets. After just a few weeks the plants have filled them, done their thing and are trying to escape. For those with small gardens, town houses and even balcony gardens, it is important to find out the secrets of pot culture. The bees don't seem to care that they are in pots and are regular visitors.
Urban Wildlife Gardens member Wave O’Connor sent in this letter with images of the work they are doing in their garden following the visit by Michelle. Work so far included removing most of the mock orange, leaving some of it to act as a screen from the street and a bit of shade from the western sun, painting the very old lattice red in lieu of expensive laser cut , rusty metal screens (budget being important!) and planting a whole range of native species. Click through to see some of the images of Wave's hard work to make their garden wildlife friendly.
During September NICA released the second edition of “Weeds of the Sunshine Coast”. The 2013 edition became a bible for bush regenerators and anyone interested in plant ID. The book covers herbs, trees, shrubs, vines and climbers along with aquatics, sedges and grasses. Identification features, biosecurity classification, country of origin and control methods are included for all 272 pressed specimens. The feature that makes this book so valuable for ID purposes is that every plant has a full size scanned image along with a photograph of the flower, fruit or habit.
Spring has sprung and so many local native plants are flowering prolifically in Noosa at the moment. For Stephanie, it's tempting to believe that all the hot air, political nastiness and the horrors of Covid 19 is falling back to earth as a fertilizer. Everything is flowering as if there is no tomorrow, or maybe just trying extra hard to encourage us to look at them and realise how important the natural environment is to the future of our species. Click through to see some of the lovely images of flowers from around the region.
The Urban Wildlife Gardens display at the Noosaville Library received a lot of positive feedback and helped spread the word about the program. We would like to thank all the artists and gardeners whose works have been on display. Click through to read more and to see some images of the display, curated by Stephanie Haslam.
From Tuesday 8th September, photographs and artwork will catch the eye of library-goers at Wallace Park, Noosaville as a new exhibition will focus on the delights of gardening with local native plants and the wildlife that visits them. The theme will be: "Begin with a Birdbath" and in this post, Stephanie Haslam invites UWG to visit the library to have a look, and to help promote the program to the wider community.
The Sunshine Coast Wildflower Walks have attracted many people and 2020 has been a bumper flowering year. Thanks to all concerned for bringing this explosion of colour (not to mention brilliant weather) into this otherwise rather dismal year. In this post, Stephanie provides a link to maps of the walks which are all on public land, so why not take some time to experience this natural bounty for yourself!
The weed of the month for August is Asparagus fern (Asparagus aethiopicus), a ground cover that can be found growing from the dunes to the hinterland. It grows well in most types of soil and can form thick masses out-competing all other vegetation. In this post, Michelle explains how the plant grows from a woody centre that needs to be removed to kill it. Pulling up the whole root system causes soil loss and disturbance that allows more weeds to grow. Click through for more images showing how to remove this weed from your garden.
Urban Wildlife Garden members were treated to a highly informative propagation workshop in the sublime propagation shed of knowledgeable presenter Robert Price in Old Tewantin. In this post, Dalia Mikhail explains how Robert's detailed explanations showed members how to successfully propagate a range of native species, preparing the best soil mix and how to identify and treat differing seed pods of our local region.
Not sure where to go to buy native plants? In this post, Michelle lists a number of nurseries including addresses and phone numbers. So don't delay, get to your nearest nursery today and enjoy the beautiful spring weather in your garden!
