Local planting guide to boost biodiversity

21 September 2017

Enhancing biodiversity one garden at a time

A planting guide is now available to help Tweed residents enhance biodiversity through the design and species in their garden.

Council has released the booklet My Local Native Garden: a planting guide to promote biodiversity in Tweed Shire as part of the Tweed Byron Native Species Planting Guide project, funded by a NSW Environmental Trust Education Grant.

Based on a design by Brunswick Valley Landcare, the Tweed, Byron and Lismore councils have produced updated versions for their areas.

The guide contains information on basic garden design, planning and planting, attracting wildlife to gardens and dealing with invasive species of flora and fauna.

“In addition, it divides Tweed Shire into broad geological landscapes to guide residents on plant selections that suit their respective areas,” Council’s Bushland Officer, John Turnbull, said.

“Short species lists identify commonly occurring species.”

More detailed information is available online on the Native Species Planting Guide database, which is in its final testing stage. The database includes images of the plants, their attributes such as height, habit and flower colour and tolerances to environmental factors including sun, frost, salt and wind. It lists ecological relationships, such as key fauna food, butterfly and bird attracting, soil types suited to particular species occurrence and broad landscape locations.

Booklets are available from Council’s offices in Murwillumbah and Tweed Heads for a gold coin donation. Proceeds from donations will be used to reprint the booklets or purchase additional imagery for the online database.

Digital copies of the booklet can be downloaded from www.tweed.nsw.gov.au/NativePlants

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Caption: Council’s Bushland Officer, John Turnbull, with a copy of the the booklet My Local Native Garden: a planting guide to promote biodiversity in Tweed Shire