Save water by gardening with indigenous plants
Use indigenous (native) plants to make your garden drought tolerant and fit in with Moreland’s natural environment.
Why use indigenous plants
A garden with indigenous plants:
- uses less water
- attracts native birds and wildlife
- celebrates the character of the local environment in Moreland
- conserves other native plants in the area, and
- connects with the cultural history of the land and its traditional owners, the Wurundjeri people.
Where to use indigenous plants in the garden
Indigenous plants can be used to create formal and informal settings in gardens. Use indigenous plants as:
- hedges
- shady trees
- sweet smelling shrubs
- a lawn, for example Weeping Grass and Wallaby Grasses
- indoor plants in pots, and
- a nature strip.
Popular indigenous grasses
- Pale flax lily: Sword-shaped leaves with pale blue flowers in spring.
- Kangaroo grass: Leaves change colour with the seasons, and tall flowers in spring.
- Tufted bluebell: Bright green herb with small narrow leaves.
Small plants
- Common everlasting: Sprawling herb with small groups of golden daisies in summer.
- Basalt daisy: Slender herb with upright stems and small white daisies in spring and summer.
Small and medium shrubs
- Turkey bush: Very robust small rounded shrub with many glossy green leaves.
- River bottlebrush: Light green, narrow leaves with cream bottlebrush flowers in summer.
- Sweet Bursaria: A straight-standing shrub with small green leaves. Tiny, sweetly-scented white flowers in summer.
Large shrubs
- Kangaroo apple: A very fast growing shrub with dense, dark green, glossy leaves.
- Woolly tea-tree: A large sprawling shrub with many silvery blue leaves. White flowers in winter and wooly coated fruit in spring.
Garden designs and indigenous plant list
The Gardening with Indigenous Plants booklet (PDF 972Kb) has full landscape designs for a courtyard garden, a formal garden, a cottage garden and a bush garden. It also has detailed information of 44 indigenous plants, grasses, shrubs and trees to grow in Moreland.
Files
If you can't download or use PDF documents please contact Council.
