When Lex and Jenny Van Der Stoep left their large home and garden in Bracken Ridge for a simply lifechanging move to Living Gems Toowoomba, the one thing they were determined not to leave behind was a beautiful native garden.
Over the past nine months they’ve worked to create a beautiful bird-attracting garden featuring mostly native plants with a smattering of exotics for variety.
“Lex and I will be away travelling for the next two-and-a-half months,” says Jenny. “We love the great outdoors, heading west to the bush and away from the big cities.
“It was important for us to have a garden that was self-sustaining, which this one is. It requires only minimal watering and for that we have an automatic system or one of our lovely Living Gems neighbours comes in and waters for us.”
Forget the out-of-date notion that native plants are finnicky and difficult to grow, the secret is in the preparation.
“We spent a bit of time laying out the garden and giving it a natural feel with logs and a dry riverbed effect,” said Jenny. “We put the focus on bird attracting plants and we’ve included a bird bath too.”
“It looks lovely now, but we are looking forward to spring when everything comes into flower.”
The Van Der Stoeps won’t be the only ones. Prominent in this native garden are four beautiful species of grevillea that will attract plenty of birds for its sweet nectar.
Grevillea ‘Canterbury Gold’
A dense low spreading shrub with soft grey-green leaves, and bunches of gold flowers most of the year.
Grevillea ‘Canberra Gem’
Medium-sized evergreen shrub with an abundance of small pink to red spider-like flowers during spring.
Grevillea ‘Rosy’s Baby’
Well suited to Toowoomba’s temperate climate, this grevillea features little strawberries-and-cream flowers perfect for small nectar-feeding birds to get their beaks into. This flowers from winter through to early summer.
Grevillea ‘Honey Gem’
This large, orange flowered grevillea is one of the most popular varieties to grow and makes a great screening plant.
In addition to the grevilleas, Jenny has introduced the Hardenbergia Mini Haha. It’s a native climber with long, dark green, leathery leaves and masses of little purple flowers which bees and butterflies love.
Rounding out the garden are strappy ornamental grasses – the Carex Dusky Fountain which has cinnamon-red colours foliage and the Evergreen Giant Liriope which offers bell-shaped purple-blue flowers in spring and summer.
Among the birds the Van Der Stoeps are likely to see are Red-browed Finches, Brown Honeyeater, Striated Pardalote, Willie Wagtails, Superb Fairy-wrens Pale-headed Rosellas and King Parrots – all of which are native to the Toowoomba area.
Including native plants in your garden is an important way you can support the environment in a sustainable way, while providing a natural habitat for native birds.
Not sure how to include native plants in your garden? The Australian Native Plant Society has great information and resources:
anpsa.org.au.
