Anytime I am gardening, whether I’m at home or work, I am always paying attention to what’s going on around me. What I see every day is the ability of nature to get on with doing what it does best-regenerating itself through plants sending out their seed and those seeds germinating and growing nut plants. While in a gardening context, these are weeds, even when the plants I see are native to the country but are growing in the ‘wrong place’. This is where I often get the hump with people and the industry I work in.
A lot of what I have learnt and read, and continue to do so, and the things I’ve hear on the radio and TV about how the world, and more specifically the natural world, is falling apart and we need to sort it out has a simple solution. It is to let nature do her thing, and to help by gardening wisely.
From the wattle happily spreading around at home to the lemon scented gums popping up all over at work, this should be encouraged in certain areas. I am not saying that you should let plants run wild all over the place at all, but in every garden, and especially in landscaped areas, the native plants of that area should be allowed to get on with life how they would naturally.
In council parks, as an example, this can and should be managed by qualified staff who know what they are doing, along with those same people managing the traditional gardens within those parks too. The mowing and herding can be managed by those who are either interested (I am far from interested, haven’t been for a while), or those that are unwilling to do any more technical garden tasks, or unable to do them. I have worked with people like that and they do good work because they are happy mowing or hedging and don’t feel a need to do more. These good people should be able to do what they are good at and let people like me do the same. It can, and does, work well when allowed to by competent managers (of which there are few).
By managed, I mean taking out plants that aren’t native-like non-native grasses and any ornamental plants turning a bit naughty and spreading beyond where they should to keep native plant areas native and ornamental areas ornamental. It can be done, if you have good people working with you.