By Spencer Shaw
WHEN it comes to re-establishing native vegetation, we tend to concentrate on the planting of trees and shrubs and, if we’re lucky, maybe a few Lomandra.
But to truly re-establish a diverse ecosystem, we must help establish all the groundcovers too, such as grasses, herbs, small shrubs and ferns.
Groundcover plants are crucial in providing a safe home for ground-based animals such as skinks, frogs, snakes, bush rats, antechinus and, of course, a whole host of insects (don’t say yuk, think of them as Bird Food!)
Groundcover plants are also crucial in providing food resources such as seed, fruit, leaf and tubers to everything from birds, butterflies and beetles, right through to wallabies and kangaroos (if you’ve got a really large backyard).
Groundcover plantings can be very rewarding for you if you love your native fauna because they can be very rich in the resources they provide and, in effect, act like a magnet for native fauna in your area!
The great thing about many groundcovers is they are easy to grow yourself, by either directly transplanting around your garden or establishing in pots to plant later.
Plants such as Native Violets (Viola banksii), Native Mints (Mentha sp.), Creeping Beard Grass (Oplismenus spp.) and Pollia (Pollia crispata) are just a few of our local native groundcovers that you can propagate easily through cuttings & runners. Native Grasses such as Kangaroo Grass (Themeda triandra), Barbed Wire Grass (Cymbopogon refractus), Native Sorghum (Sarga leiocladum) and Poa (Poa labilardieri) are easy to grow from seed or transplant as seedlings.
Even though its winter our place is buzzing (or should that be tweeting) with a huge diversity of small birds.
Within a few years of planting groundcovers and low shrubs in your garden, you too can provide home and food for these little critters and so many more.