A new native garden at our Primary School

School kids seem to always be enthusiastic about planting. Last winter we planted a new native garden around some recently built classrooms at our local primary school. Feature pieces were six mature grass trees (Xanthorrea preissi), which were rescued by rePlants from bushland that was being cleared. The bed is about 70m long and between 2 and 3 metres wide.

We planted mostly low shrubs (Acacia lasiocarpa, Ficinia nodulosa, Leucophta brownii, everlastings, westringia spp. Adenanthos cuneiformis) plus some larger bushes and small trees (Eucalyptus foecunda) that could shade the classrooms and also some climbers (Hardenbergia componia, Kennedia spp.) that could cover the railings. About 100 kids helped do the planting - which was pretty frantic! We sourced our plants from APACE, Lullfitz nursery, and were supported by our local Bunnings hardware, City Toyota, Nedlands City Council and Nedlands Primary P & C Association.

Early days June 2011. After a wet winter I visited the school the other day. Most of the plants have at least quadrupled in size. Stay tuned for more up to date images.

Spring is here!

Spring is here and I've finally gotten around to taking some new photos. We've had a wet winter by recent standards and it should be a great flowering season. A good time for a trip to the kwongan heaths to check out the colour. Next time I will post pictures of various styles of groovy native gardens that I've spied around Fremantle, but for now here are some pictures of whats happening on the verge today....

Everlastings (Helipterum roseum). These are planted on the corner that occasionally gets run over by rogue trucks (GRR!)

What it looked like before (in the winter)...

And after!

Another before about 1 day after planting

And after nearly four years. Just a little bit different. Our kids can now climb that spindly tree being supported in the upper photograph.

The tufts are Ficinia nodosa, the silver is Kalbarri carpet (super-easy to grow from a cutting). The KC is intermixed with Calothamnus quadrificus. In the background are Hakea laurina (see the earlier post with flowers) Beaufortuia squarrosa (soon to be covered in scarlet bottlebrush flowers), Acacia lasiocarpa (coastal moses ), Grevillea priessi etc

Acacia lasiocarpa with Kennedia coccinea (coral vine) entwined within it. The Kennedia grows in the dunes at D'entracasteaux National Park near Walpole, so it must be pretty robust.

The sprawling Banksia blechnifolia. The flowers are big but not bright, yet the New Holland honeyeaters know all about them.

And finally, the kangaroo paws are beginnningto flower. Here is an orange cultivar version.

Plants of the day

Two winter-flowering plant on the verge today. In the foreground is the groovy Hakea francisiana, which is now a small tree, and in the background is Acacia shuttleworthii, which is a waist-high shrub with an inverted pyramid shape.

The Acacia came from the Kings Park plant sale, and is supposed to have cream flowers and grow in lateritic soils. Not sure what happened there, but its practically fluorescent with so many flowers.

Verge gardens of note part 1.

Native verge gardens are springing up all around. Here are some before and after shots of Rick and Kiely's verge in Fremantle, which was one year old last weekend. With a bit of help from family & friends it was planted in one day, and one year on it looks great!

Digging in - July 08

Nothing left to do but enjoy it - July 09

Eremophila glabra (Kalbarri carpet) flowering in the foreground.

Plant of the day - the pincusion hakea

This is the time of year when the fewest plants are flowering on the verge - though I can think of at least seven species that are.  This is the pincushion hakea (Hakea laurina).  We have two that were about 30cm high when planted two-three years ago, but are now both over head height.  

There seem to be big differences in growth form between individuals of this species, and also in the number of flowers they have (which are very unusual and eye-catching).  We have one bushy and erect form, which has sparse flowers, and another more open and weeping form that has abundant flowers. 

This is an early morning photo of our verge garden last week.  Because not much is flowering and there is so much foliage its hard to pick out the different plants (there must be more than 50 species).

We think the shade provided by the verge garden as well as its general buffering effect has made a significant difference to the heat load the house receives in the summer.  The garden is on the west side of the house and in summer the morning sun generates a lot of heat on our old solid stone shop wall.  The growing shade provided by the pincusion hakea and the (as yet unknown) Eucalyptus tree mean we must get 1/3 to 1/2 fewer sun-hours on the wall.  Just another practical benefit that has come from planting our native verge garden!

Plant(s) of the day

I think this is Alogyne cuneiformis - the coastal hibiscus. It was an unlabelled tubestock that I bought from the excellent native nursery APACE in North Fremantle.  It has turned out to be one of the most spectacular plants on the verge and thrives on Fremantle's  limestone soils.  In summer it has hundreds of purple flowers like this one.  Each flower only lasts one day.

Here are two varieties of kangaroo paw (Anigozanthus spp.) about 1 year after we began planting the verge. We got the green ones from our block at Walpole where they grow like weeds in disturbed ground.  You couldn't get more different soil or climatic conditions between Fremantle and Walpole but they've thrived. It may be because they're an early succession plant so have wide tolerances.  I think the orange form is a nursery variety and we got it (like many of our plants) from the inspirational Lullfitz nursery.  Thats the Alogyne (coastal hibiscus)  in the backround and the groundcover is Myoporum parvifolium, which covered about 3 square metres in its first year.

Laying the foundations

We started by getting rid of the invasive cooch grass.  For such a big area the only option seemed like a chemical one - glyphosate in a watering can. But it worked well and we have needed hardly any hand follow ups.  The verge is an island surrounded by concrete, so once the cooch is gone its unlikely to re-invade  (not quickly anyway).

We spread a layer of coarse mulch over the entire verge.  This was great stuff and supplied for free by the City of Fremantle as part of its verge beautification program.  Since then we've also used the Mulchnet free mulch and delivery service  and occasionally dug our own mulch from the depot opposite the Claremont Showgrounds .

We planted our first plants in December 2005.  Its not the recommended time of year (!), but all survived the long hot summer - no doubt partly because of the moisture retained by the mulch.