Harmony at home
How to get started with native plants - without giving up the veggies.

Narelle Happ is a garden designer and horticulturist who specialises in native gardens and permaculture design. She has over twenty years of experience and is passionate about creating ‘living’ spaces that are nurturing, productive and sustainable. Her garden styles range from natural bushland, rainforest to cottage or formal. Permaculture designs include garden layouts for food production and sustainability. Designs extend to engage and educate communities and schools by creating kitchen gardens and living classrooms. Find Narelle online at A garden for Life.

Projected Climate Change impacts on your Blue Mountains garden – what do we need to consider?

Bill Dixon has a broad background in natural resource management and conservation and a long association with the Blue Mountains region as a resident, environmental campaigner and environmental manager. He has worked extensively with NPWS, BMCC, local Aboriginal groups and community networks including Bushcare.

Gardening for the birds

‍For 15 years Carole ran a bird tour guiding business based in the Blue Mountains/Capertee Valley region and is now contributing her considerable knowledge to other projects. Carol has a special interest in lyrebirds and the spectacle of the honeyeater migration. Each autumn, with Blue Mountains Bird Observers, Carole co-ordinates a citizen science project to monitor honeyeaters as they fly through our area. But it’s not just birds. Carol believes that for a true understanding of birdlife you also need to be a botanist, entomologist, ecologist and all-round naturalist. To think like a scientist and wonder like a child. See Carol’s blog Lyreades.

Masterclass: What Wattle Where?

Presenter, Richard Johnstone, now volunteers with Wildplant Rescue Nursery after a long career at Mt Annan Botanic Gardens where he worked as a Plant Records Officer and Seed Bank Officer.

Richard will give an overview of the dominant species in different areas of the mountains from lower to higher altitudes, what to consider when planting wattles in your garden and how to maintain them for best effect.

Planting a shady damp spot? Think FERNS

An overview of native ferns and how to plant and care for them for best effect in the garden.

David Sonter owns and runs Sonters Fern Nurseries in Winmalee. The family business has operated for over 50 years. The nursery grows over 1.5 million fern plugs each year across more than 60 different types including supplies for our native nurseries. A major bushfire in Winmalee on October 17, 2013, destroyed the nursery and its spore bank. David rebuilt the business with help from his staff, loyal customers, and the local community. Workers saved leftover spores, fixed the greenhouse roofs, and put in new water pipes to get the farm growing again.

Our mighty native pollinators – supporting native bees in your garden

After beginning a career in nursing, Megan Halcroft discovered a fascination for native bees which led her to the completion of her PhD in 2013. Megan’s message in seminars and workshops is that native bees have co-evolved with our unique native flora and are the best pollinators for those plants. Native bees drive biodiversity and are essential ecosystem service providers. She founded Bees Business in 2009, a website business providing free information about Australian native bees including her research papers and information such as planting guides, booklets and links to other sources of information. Megan founded Australian Pollinator Week in 2015, with the hope of reaching more communities, and spreading the ideas of how important our insect pollinators are for ecosystem health and food security.

Masterclass: Native Grasses

Roger Lembit is a consulting plant ecologist and conservationist after nearly four decades as the Principal Ecologist at Gingra Ecological Surveys. He has long specialised in the botanical ecology of the greater Blue Mountains and the Cumberland Plain, contributing significantly to conservation campaigns and scientific fieldwork. He is known for multi-decade ecological studies, including extensive research into the fire ecology of the Newnes Plateau and the world heritage values of New South Wales eucalypt forests. 

Liam Ramage studied geology at Macquarie University and has a vast interest in all areas of natural sciences. He works in bush regeneration and threatened species management, volunteers at the Blue Mountains Conservation Society's native plant nursery and is the Society’s Threatened Species Officer.

The Importance of Soil in Native Gardening

Soil and nutrients are an important part of success in native gardening. The native flora of the Blue Mountains are highly adapted to acidic infertile sandy soils, so keeping the soils of your garden as close to natural and undisturbed as possible will have the best outcome. There are also ways to deal with gardens that have changed soils from introduced materials/plants and fertilizer. There are some exceptions to this depending on the location, such as basalt, shale and granite derived soils. 

How to grow natives safely to reduce risks from bushfire

You could say Rob has more than a bit of knowledge on fire management in the Mountains. For over 20 years he has worked in the field of bushfire management with Blue Mountains City Council. He has had key responsibilities in the planning and delivery of a range of works that aim to reduce the threats associated with bushfires. This includes creation and maintenance of asset protection zones, fuel management burning, fire trails maintenance and renewal. Rob’s enduring challenge is to balance bushfire risk management with conservation values of the area.

Masterclass: Propagation

Tanya has a Bachelor of Environmental Science Majoring in Biodiversity and a Masters of Environmental Law. She has worked at Blue Mountains Wildplant Rescue Service for over 20 years. Here she has developed an extensive knowledge of plant rescues, propagation, vegetation community restoration and management, and keeping the plant stock healthy.

Masterclass: Propagation

Frances’ interest in botany began with looking for ground orchids in the bush for her botanist mother to photograph for her book. After 40 years teaching music, Frances volunteered at the Hornseby Community Nursery where she was trained in plant propagation before moving to the Blue Mountains in 2012. Here she joined Blue Mountains Wildplant Rescue Service where her main interest is in increasing the diversity of endemic plants available to gardeners and land managers.