Landscape Architecture | Garden Design | Ecological Design
Principal Landscape Architect, Melissa Stagg, with the lovely Greater Shepparton City Council gardeners, planting out endangered Sclerolaena napiformis (Turnip Copperburr) plants at the Australian Botanic Gardens Shepparton, early November 2020. Photo by the Shepparton News
The Care For The Rare (CFTR) garden at the Australian Botanic Gardens Shepparton (ABGS) has been one of my favourite projects I've worked on to date. In a nutshell, this garden is part of a much bigger project, spanning Australia and New Zealand. The goal of the Care For the Rare project is to get rare and threatened plants into collections in botanic gardens across the two countries. See page 39-45 of this PDF on the BGANZ website for more info.
Rare plant Viola betonicifolia subsp. novaguineensis (species of native violet) @ CFTR ABGS, October 2020. Photo by Melissa Stagg
Botanically it has been fascinating, but the team that I’ve been working with are the icing on the cake. The FABGS (Friends of Australian Botanic Gardens Shepparton) team, the BGANZ (Botanic Gardens Australia & New Zealand) team, and the RBGV (Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria) Horticulture team have been such a pleasure to work with. A whole lot of good people have come together to pull-off such an important project. It's an honour for our Australian Botanic Gardens Shepparton to be the custodians of such a precious collection of plants. So here is a little bit about what has gone into the project from a design perspective.
My design rationale for the CFTR garden @ ABGS was to basically celebrate the native plants of our own region here in Shepparton. All the plants in the design are indigenous to our region; celebrating the amazing diversity and beauty of our unique flora. I love ABGS, and all the amazing plants from all around Australia that can be found there; but I felt like the plants of our very own region weren't really featured, and needed a bit of a spotlight. Especially the rare and threatened ones. We have so many amazing plants that are at risk of disappearing all together, yet hardly anyone knows about it. As well as being a landscape architect, I also work with the Euroa Arboretum and the Goulburn Broken Indigenous Seedbank (a.k.a GBIS), where we are on the front line of fighting the extinction of these amazing plants. This is why I wanted to offer my help by designing the CFTR garden. These plants are something I'm so passionate about, and there wouldn't be another landscape architect out there who has as intimate knowledge and understanding of the plants from across our region, so it felt like I was meant to help.
I never stop being amazed by the beauty and resilience of our region's flora, and never stop learning about it. I've been like a pig in mud working on the project. I'm loving every minute working on it. It has been such a pleasure working with the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria Horticulture team. I met with them at Cranbourne Gardens last year, where we worked through the list of potential candidates (species), and refined it down to the final few that we thought would be most successful in the harsh conditions of ABGS.
Once I finished the design, I gave the team my plant numbers, and they've been working on growing them for us ever since. We're so lucky! I feel such a great responsibility to be designing with them. Now, I must say here, these aren’t plants that have been tried and tested in a garden context, so it will be a waiting game to see how they go. Some might die, some might thrive, but either way, we’ll learn more about them. The ones that survive will go on to be a ‘living seed bank’; a kind of back up plan for if they do go extinct in the wild.
Rare plant, Podolepis linearifolia (Basalt Podolepis) @ CFTR ABGS, October 2020. Photo by Melissa Stagg
In total there are 22 species of rare and threatened plants planned for the garden. Not all have arrived yet, as we haven't been able to get all the seed (or other plant material) needed to produce some species. I continue to be in touch with RBGV horticulture team on this, and I'm hoping to collect some of the seed we need, during the coming seed collecting season. I'll be out collecting for the GBIS anyway, so hopefully I find some of what we need for the CFTR project.
There are 55 different species planned for the garden overall, including the 22 rare and threatened species, and 33 other non-threatened species. Despite the straight lines of the existing beds, the design style has been worked in a loose, flowing, wild kind of manner. I did this because all the plants in the design can be found growing out in the wild in our very own region. Every plant in the garden is a plant you could see if you set out from Shepparton on a day trip and went for a bush walk. Some are found in woodland areas, some in grasslands, some in floodplains, some in rocky outcrops in the hills, but all are hardy and beautiful. The range of species I chose, support a wide range of native birds, animals and insects, and offer something interesting and beautiful at every time of the year. It will be a garden that is different every day of the year.
We are absolutely spoiled for choice with our indigenous plants, and I hope this garden inspires more people in our region to plant indigenous plants at home. There are indigenous nurseries scattered across our region, where anyone can buy indigenous plants, so there's no reason not to do it!
We planted our first batch of rare and threatened plants on Tuesday, and now I'm totally smitten by Viola betonicifolia subsp. novaguineensis. It's a gorgeous little rare native violet that occurs in forests along the Murray. I use another pretty, indigenous violet, Viola hederacea (Ivy-leaved Violet) in a lot of my designs, as it's in cultivation and readily available. But this rare violet is just another level of pretty. The flowers are bigger, and just have a beautiful vibrant colour to them. Another stunner we planted is Podolepis linearifolia (Basalt Podolepis). It grows on heavy clay soils in grasslands, and has huge, beautiful yellow flowers, that it sends up high on stems to 60cm tall, for everyone to see. I know people have trouble finding things that will happily grow in the heavy clay soils of their home gardens in Shepparton, but mother nature has been doing it since the beginning of time! There are countless indigenous plants that have evolved to grow in our heavy clay soils, and all our local conditions. It seems like a no-brainer to use them in our gardens. So if you're in Shepparton, why not drop by and see some of the beauty our region has to offer.
Article by Melissa Stagg - Principal Landscape Architect
Agapanthus (Agapanthus orientalis)
Yuccas (Yucca species)
Canary Island Date Palm (Phoenix canariensis)
Box Hedges (Buxus species)
Nandina or Sacred Bamboo (Nandina domestica)
Gazania flowers (Gazania rigens)
Dietes or Butterfly Plant (Dietes gradifolia)
Ornamental Pears (Pyrus species)
Diosma (Coleonema species)
Pittosporum hedges or screens (Pittosporum tenuifolium and Pittosporum undulatum)
Left: Environmental weed Agapanthus (Agapanthus orientalis) . Right: Nodding Blue Lily (Stypandra glauca), a great native alternative to Agapanthus. With a clumping habit and loads of big blue flowers like Agapanthus, this hardy plant is a stunner in the garden. Image by Melissa Stagg
In my line of work, I’m often asked to help people update their dated and tired looking gardens. I also get asked about how to attract more birds and wildlife into people’s day-to-day lives. I spend every day looking at gardens and plants, and thinking about what role they play in their landscape. I’m always taking note of which plants are brimming with life, bringing in native birds, pollinators and animals, and which ones support as much life as a block of concrete in a garden.
Another aspect I’m always considering, is which plants are common garden escapees, that become problematic weeds in our native environment. Most people have no idea of the countless people-hours and tax payer dollars that are put into controlling garden escapee weeds in our native environments (bushland, wetlands, creeklines, grasslands etc.) every year. Although some plants seem like great options for your garden, because they are great survivors and just can’t be killed (even by the most gardening illiterate person), these exact survival traits are what makes them such a big problem in our native environment. Once they escape, they overrun our native environments, driving out our indigenous plants, and distorting the balance of the local ecology. They are a biodiversity disaster; creating ecological dead zones that don’t support our precious and unique Australian birds, animals and pollinators. This is also why you shouldn’t dump your garden wast in your local bushland (or creekline etc.), because some of it can survive and grow out of control to become a weed problem. Many of these plants are actually banned from use in gardens, and aren’t supposed to be sold in nurseries. Further information on environmental weeds (in Victoria), and a list of species to avoid can be found here https://www.environment.vic.gov.au/invasive-plants-and-animals/weed-risk-ratings
For every weedy exotic plant you have in your garden, there is a native and ecologically sound alternative that will give your garden an updated and timeless look.
In addition to being ecological disasters, these plants also really date the look of a garden, and can even look quite daggy. Many of them were popular choices for planting in public places in past decades, and often are still hanging around there to this day, looking tired and daggy. Many were commonly used in the 80’s and 90’s for carparks and fast food drive-throughs, and a result they give a garden the daggy look and feel of a KFC drive-through. Now, I don’t know about you, but this isn’t the look I’m going for when designing a garden. So if you have these plants in your garden, why not do our native critters a favour and replace them with some beautiful native alternative species.
The Top 10 and some Native Alternatives:
Agapanthus (Agapanthus orientalis): Nodding Blue Lilies (Stypandra glauca) or Flax-lilies (Dianella species) have a clumping form and masses of blue flowers like Agapanthus.
Yuccas (Yucca species): Grass Trees (Xanthorrhoea species), Cycads (Cycad species) and Cabbage Fan Palms (Livistona australis) are sculptural and hardy like Yuccas.
Canary Island Date-palms (Phoenix canariensis): Cabbage Fan Palms (Livistona australis) are also a good alternative here, but why not consider updating from the ‘tropical look’.
Box Hedges (Buxus species): Correas (Correa species) and Hop-bushes (Dodonaea species) are shrubs that can be pruned and clipped like a Box Hedge. Why not consider looser, more flowing forms, to update the look of a hedge.
Nandina or Sacred Bamboo (Nandina domestica): There are a wide range of Agonis varieties (Agonis species) available in nurseries that are hardy and come in a range of different foliage colours like Nandina.
Gazania flowers (Gazania rigens): A wide range of native wildflowers are hardy and will give you a showy and colourful ground cover like Gazanias do.
Dietes or Butterfly Plant (Dietes gradifolia): Native White Iris or Butterfly Flag (Diplarrena moraea), Lomandra (Lomandra species) and Flax-lilies (Dianalla species) are hardy and will give the same strappy appearance as Dietes.
Ornamental Pears (Pyrus species): These are often chosen for their convenient small size for a home garden. Green Mallees (Eucalyptus viridis) are a small and hardy tree, with a nice form and beautiful delicate green foliage. They also get loaded with flowers in Winter, that will bring in a wide range of native birds, pollinators and animals.
Diosma (Coleonema species): Common Fringe-myrtle (Calytrix tetragona) has a dense form, fine foliage, masses of pink flowers and is hardy, just like Diosma.
Pittosporum hedges or screens (Pittosporum tenuifolium and Pittosporum undulatum): Weeping Pittosporum (Pittosporum angustifolium) is an alternative species of Pittosporum for a hedge or screen. It gets wonderfully eye catching orange seed pods, creating some colour and interest in the garden. Careful when buying this species, as the weedy Sweet Pittosporum (Pittosporum undulatum) is sometimes mislabeled as Pittorsporum angustifolium. This error can even be found on the South Australian government’s weed advise website. An easy way to tell the difference is the foliage. Weeping Pittosporum as long narrow ‘weeping’ leaves, whereas Sweet Pittosporum has broad leaves.
Be sure to remember any plant has the potential to become a weed when planted in the wrong place. Always check with your state or territory’s government advise to find out what the weeds are in your area.
Article by Melissa Stagg - Principal Landscape Architect
A stunning Nodding Blue Lily (Stypandra glauca) flowering in the grounds at the Euroa Arboretum late September 2020. Such a stunning, showy, yet hardy plant, indigenous to the Goulburn Broken region. Photo by Melissa Stagg.
🌼 Well, people love a bit of garden chat 🐞
Following the popularity of my article explaining the difference between a native garden an an indigenous garden, I was invited to have a chat on Shepparton local station One FM 98.5. It was lovely chatting with Terri, and hopefully we’ve helped people make some wiser garden decisions for their patch.
A podcast of the interview can be found on Soundcloud at the link below.
In our chat, Terri and I discuss the Euroa Arboretum and the Goulburn Broken Indigenous Seedbank. To find out more about these two organisations, click the links below.
Euroa Arboretum http://euroaarboretum.com.au/
Goulburn Broken Indigenous Seedbank http://www.gbiseedbank.com.au/
The original full article explaining the difference between native and indigenous gardens and plants, and why I know so much about it, can be found below.
By Melissa Stagg - Principal Landscape Architect
This is a question I get asked a lot in my work, so I thought I’d write a little article to explain the difference.
Wild Hardenbergia violacea (Happy Wanderer) plant in the Strathbogie Forest, VIC. Photo by Melissa Stagg
I’m a landscape architect who specialises in the design and implementation of indigenous gardens; but what does this really mean? In its purest form, an indigenous garden uses only plants that occurred in the local area pre white settlement (to the best of our knowledge anyway). Now, this sounds simple enough, but it’s not so straight forward. It doesn’t just mean species that occur in your local area, but the actual plants that occur in your local area. “Now what does that mean?” I hear you say. Well here’s an example; look at a species like Hardenbergia violacea, commonly known as Happy Wander or Purple Corel-pea. It occurs from southern Tasmania, right through to northern Queensland. Now lets say I’m designing a garden for a property in Euroa (Goulburn Valley, Victoria) and I use Hardenbergia violacea. For that plant to be indigenous, I can’t just buy it from a standard native nursery. I need to buy it from a local indigenous nursery. If I buy the plant from a regular nursery, then the seed the plant was grown from wouldn’t have been collected from a locally occurring wild Hardenbergia violacea plant. “And why does this matter?” I hear you ask. Well, if the seed the plant was grown from was collected from a wild plant in northern Queensland (or the progeny of one), then that plant has evolved and adapted to the conditions in northern Queensland, and might not survive too well in Euroa. The northern Queensland plant will have evolved for conditions of much higher rainfall and humidity, and likely won’t like the extreme dry heat and lower rainfall of Euroa. A plant from the local area on the other hand will have evolved for these conditions. Furthermore, there is so much we don’t yet understand about our complex ecosystems. As far as we know, the plant from northern Queensland might differ from a local one in some way, that makes it less beneficial to the local ecosystem. Maybe it doesn’t support the local pollinators in the same way. The scientific studies just haven’t been done to know all the answers.
Now, the next logical question is “what is an indigenous nursery”? Well, it’s a nursery that grows and sells plants that have been produced from local wild plant material. This can be seeds or cuttings collected from wild plants in the local region. Now, not just any nursery can go out and start doing this. A permit (issued by DELWP) is required to remove native plant material from the environment. Doing this without a permit attracts a hefty fine and possible jail time.
Wild Brunonia australis (Blue Pincushion) plant, Strathbogie Forest, VIC. Photo by Melissa Stagg
Collecting seeds and cuttings from wild populations requires specialist knowledge and protocols. Collectors have to know how to correctly identify indigenous plant species, and have to know where to go looking for them. Countless people-hours of ‘boots on the ground’, out in the bush, is put into collecting seed and cuttings every year. The peak collecting season is in the hottest part of summer, when collectors can go out in 40-45 oC days, for hours on end, to collect the seeds when they are ready. All seed/cuttings collected are catalogued including their provenance. This means records are kept about where exactly the seeds/cuttings were collected from. Some indigenous nurseries take things a step further and establish SPAs, or Seed Production Areas. These are like orchards for producing indigenous plant material, which are planted out with plants grown from locally sourced seeds/cuttings.
OK, I’ll stop here for now. I could go on for hours about indigenous plants and how they’re produced, but I’ll restrain myself. The reason I know so much, and I’m so passionate about all this, is because although I’m a landscape architect, I’m also a collector with an indigenous seed bank, work with an indigenous nursery and I’m in the environmental restoration industry. I get a little too excited about it all, and can talk peoples ears off, but it’s an area that is endlessly fascinating. Being involved in the entire lifecycle of indigenous gardens; from going out hunting for wild plants, collecting their seed, processing and cleaning the seed, rearing them in the nursery, through to choosing the best location for them to go in a new garden (or environmental restoration project, or public landscape etc.), then seeing our local wildlife respond and move in. Seeing how an indigenous garden can support the local environment is endlessly rewarding. There is no other type of garden that can play the same role. Even incorporating a few indigenous plants into your garden can make a difference and support our Australian birds, wildlife and pollinators. All our Aussie fauna have evolved with our indigenous plants, and each has evolved and adapted to the other. The plants are perfectly suited for the wildlife, and the wildlife is perfectly suited for the plants. Local plants are also perfectly suited to the local climate and conditions. You name a niche/condition, there is an indigenous plant for it. Plus they are endlessly beautiful and unique. That’s not to say other plants won’t suit these conditions, but they won’t necessarily suit the birds, wildlife and pollinators in the same way.
Collecting rare Smooth Minuria (Minuria integerrima) seed, Youanmite, VIC. Photo by Andy Adem
So now that you know the difference between a native garden and an indigenous garden, and why it matters, why not explore indigenous plants for your own garden!
Article by Melissa Stagg - Principal Landscape Architect
Stagg Design Landscape Architecture are passionate about our environment and strongly believe in taking action to ensure it will still be here for generations to come. This is why we are closing on Friday 20th September to support our community’s young people in the School Strike 4 Climate in Shepparton. It will kick off at 11am in the Maude Street Mall, and wrap up at 1pm. We encourage anyone who supports our young people in this cause to attend too, even if you only have time to briefly drop by, please do. Our young people need to know they have support from adults in our community.
A beautiful Swift Parrot feeding on winter blooms in Victoria. Photo from Atlas of Living Australia, provided by Birdlife Australia.
As the weather begins to cool off, you might start to miss the blooms of Spring/Summer, but do you have many Autumn/Winter flowering plants in your garden? Providing blooms during the cooler months can be a lifesaver for many of our native birds and bees. In fact, there are parrot species that migrate all the way from Tasmania to our region, to feed on the Autumn/Winter blooms in our woodlands (e.g. Swift Parrot, Orange-bellied Parrot). If you want to introduce cooler weather blooms into your garden, why not try these:
If you have space for a larger tree - Grey Box (Eucalyptus microcarpa), Red Ironbark (Eucalyptus tricarpa), Blackwood (Acacia melanoxylon).
If you have space for a smaller tree - Blue Mallee (Eucalyptus polybractea), Green Mallee (Eucalyptus viridis), Silver Banksia (Banksia marginata).
If you have space for shrubs: Rock Correa (Correa glabra), Common Correa (Correa reflexa), Spreading Wattle (Acacia genistifolia).
Or to extend the flowering season of many of our wildflowers/ground covers: water them a minimum of once a week, continuing into Autumn, and they will keep putting on their beautiful blooms for you. Great species for this are the Hoary Sunray (Leucochrysum albicans), Common Everlasting (Chrysosephalum apiculatum) and Fan Flower (Scaevola aemula). Try these plants in your garden and our native birds and bees will likely show up to thank you.
The prickly Spreading Wattle (Acacia genistifolia) also makes a brilliant hiding place for a little birds (such as the always gorgeous Superb Fairy Wren) to escape predators. Photo by I. Sutton
By Landscape Architect Melissa Stagg, of Stagg Design Landscape Architecture, Shepparton.
Sweet Busaria (Bursaria spinosa) in bloom, attracting all kinds in interesting insects. Photo by J. Hogen
If you live in Southern Australia, you may be seeing a few new faces showing up in your area lately, as many of our amazing migratory birds have started rolling back into your neck of the woods. A couple of standouts you may have seen are Sacred Kingfishers and Dollarbirds; just two of a number of birds species who migrate to northern Australia or beyond over the colder months, only to return south to breed while insects are in abundance during the warmer months. There are so many amazing species to choose from, but I’m going to tell you about the Rainbow Bee-eater.
The Rainbow Bee-eater (Merops ornatus) is hard to miss with it’s striking rainbow colours. A slender, medium sized bird, with a curved bill and a long tail with distinctive tail-streamers; these little gems are such a pleasure to watch as they dart and dive, catching bees and other insects on the wing. To draw these little beauties into your garden, plant large, Spring/Summer flowering indigenous shrubs; particularly ones that produce a lot of nectar. A great one is Sweet Busaria (Bursaria spinosa), which produces loads of white, nectar rich flowers. The most amazing display of Rainbow Bee-eater acrobatics I have ever witnessed, was numerous birds darting, diving and trilling away among a plantation of Sweet Bursaria. The abundance of flowers were humming with bees, and the Bee-eaters were having an absolute feast! To find large, nectar rich indigenous plants for your garden, visit your local indigenous nursery. Planting a range of species is best, as various shrubs flower at different times, extending your bee season.
You can also go one step further and get a ‘bug hotel’ in your garden. Bug hotels are easy to make, and create sheltering and nesting opportunities to support our locally native insects. A great way to collect material for your bug hotel is to explore your local bushlands and wetlands, and collect reeds, rushes, twigs and sticks to fill your hotel with, as these materials should suit your locally native insects. Just make sure not to collect in national parks or protected areas. Add some clay to your bug hotel, and poke little tunnels in it for insects like our gorgeous Blue-banded Bees (Amegilla sp.). Do these things and you should have a whole range of insectivorous birds in your garden in no time.
Rainbow Bee-eater (Merops ornatus) catching a meal on-the-wing. Photo by C. Pearce
