Native plants in the front garden.

Yesterday I got chatting with someone about Australian native plants, and they asked me what I had in my garden. I rattled off about a dozen names and they looked a bit impressed, but as I went away I kept turning the names over in my mind and thought of a few others, and then last night, at 11:30pm in bed, I got up again and found pen and paper and wrote out my list, coming up with about twenty-five species. Then I've referred to past posts in this blog and found some more, but I still think there are a few more I've forgotten. I'm going to have to go out there and look and find my little box of labels. My feelings on native plants are these: I think it's very important that we plant these species in our garden. I think, where possible, we should be planting indigenous or provenance species - IE those that are native to our area, not just our country - to provide food and shelter, safe havens, for native animals and plants and to maintain local biodiversity. However, I'm also a realist, and I have a love of many, many plants, an awful lot of which are introduced. I also think it's important to plant lots of food plants so you can eat produce from your own garden. And then, of course, we want to have good looking gardens as well. So many functions our gardens should fill! My own garden is becoming a human food garden, I intend to squeeze in as many food plants as I can. In the gaps, I'm planting native plants, many of which are indigenous. I'm also trying to use native species to provide structure, such as my Lomandra border. I'm trying to have it all! So, apologies for the boring post, but I'm going to use this as a bit of record keeping. All of these plants are in the front garden and most of them are ground covers (* for indigenous species).

So, as at 24-05-2011, this is what I have out there (31 plants in total)

(Wherever possible, I'll pop in a link to information but not to plants for sale, links are a work in progress)

Grasses, rushes, strappy leaved plants etc

1. Anigozanthus flavidus, Kangaroo paw 'firelight'
2. Poa poiformis*, Coastal Tussock Grass
3. Juncus usitatus, Common Rush
4. Lomandra longifolia ‘Chewton Grey
5. Lomandra longifolia, unnamed variety
6. Xanthorrhea quadrangulata*, grass tree/yacca
7. Isolepis nodosa*, Knobby Club Rush
8. Poa australis, Blue Tussock Grass.
9. Dianella sp*, Flax lilies
   
10. Arthropodium strictum*, Chocolate Lily

Small Shrubs and Groundcovers

1. Correa (likely hybrid of Correa reflexa and C. pulchella) 'Dusky Bells'
2. Correa pulchella, ‘Autumn blaze’
3. Hibbertia sp*, Guinea flower, ground cover
4. Swainsona formosa, Sturt's desert pea, ground cover
5. Eremophila glabra 'Rottnest Emu Bush' (Red form).
6. Eremophila maculata compacta (Red form).
7. Melaleuca fulgens 'CF Payne'.

8. Goodenia amplexans*, Clasping Goodenia

9. Goodenia ovata, Prostrate form of the Hop Goodenia.

10. Goodenia albiflora*, White Goodenia

11. Scaevola albida*, Small-fruited Fan Flower

12. Eremophila glabra, 'Kalbarri Carpet'

13. Grevillea lavendulacea* (Victor Harbour form)

14. Kennedia prostrata*, Running Postman

15. Kunzea pomifera, Muntries (edible fruits)

16. Rhagodia sp, Alpine Everlasting Daisy

Trees

1. Dodonea viscosa*, Sticky Hop bush

Climbers

1. Clematis microphylla*, . Old Man's Beard
2. Hardenbergia voliacea*, Native lilac or Happy Wanderer

Others

1. Rubus parvifolis*, native raspberry, small cane plant (edible fruit)
2. Pelagonium australe*, Native stork’s bill

And what's a post without a picture? Instead of showing you a plant or ten, instead I'll show you a picture of the notebook I wrote my list in. Why? Because I bought it some time back, at an infamous, recently bankrupted, multinational bookshore, because I fell in love with the picture on the cover. It's called 'Happy Titta,' from the'Magic Soup' and published by the Pandaisy Corporation. It pretty much sums up how I feel about plants :)

PS. I must apologise also for the font and formatting issues. Blogger is not cooperating today!