Why grow local plants
The best reason to grow plants that are native to where you live is that they do best in our backyards and our climatic conditions. Besides the benefits of a plant that is easy on the water and fertiliser, it’s a welcome sight for the local birds and animals.
Land clearing has placed enormous pressure on the native landscape and all the plants and animals that depend on it. With growing community recognition of this problem, councils, concerned groups and individual landholders have become involved in planting varieties that come from their areas.
A lot of genetic variation can occur between populations of the same species that grow in different areas. Over long periods of time, this variation can lead to the evolution of local varieties of species that have adapted to that specific area. As local native plants are adapted to suit local conditions their seed generally results in better long term survival rates.
The selection of plant species and ensuring the seed is local is also important to native animals as food and shelter.
Collecting your own seed and growing your own local native plants is a good option. When collecting seed, ensure that seed is collected from many different individual plants, to encourage genetic diversity and avoid inbreeding. Avoid stripping all the seed of an area as this seed is the food source for some animals and it is the plant’s insurance for future generations.
It can be difficult to source plants but if you came along to the recent Plant Giveaway put on by Hornsby Shire Council, you would have been supplied with plants that where grown by the council’s nursery from local provenance plants. Try contacting your own local council for how to obtain local provenance plants.
Also, see our brochures on Bush-Friendly Gardening and Groundcovers for your Garden or our recent article on Weeds that look like Flowers
