In article ,
Trish Brown wrote:

I'm asking on behalf of friends of mine. They're hoping to establish a medium
density housing village on the outskirts of N'cle. The aim is to make it an
eco-friendly place which makes the best attempt possible at planting native
plant species and providing small habitat pockets for frogs, wetland birds
(backs onto wetland areas), native reptiles and so on.
snip
Now, while the overall desire to use indigenous-to-Newcastle species is
strong, I can see a problem in that the end result is not going to be 'pretty'
enough to make it attractive to a lot of people. Sooooo... my first
question is: does anyone have any good ideas of ways to start a native
garden and which species can really add that 'zing' to make people
say 'Oh, that's noice, that's different, that's unusual, I loike that!'

I'd be hiring a garden designer with a good reputation for using native
species, rather than attempting it myself. It's not usually the plants, but
the arrangement, that is important, and for a (we hope) profitable
development, you want a professional handling that, not an amateur.

Secondly, *how* do I find out exactly *which* plant species are native to a
very narrow habitat area on the banks of the Hunter River?

Contact the local council, Landcare, and any local environmental groups you
can find. That sort of information will only be found locally, and may not
even be in published form. Check with the local library, too, and the
historical society.

--
Chookie -- Sydney, Australia
(Replace "foulspambegone" with "optushome" to reply)

"Life is like a cigarette -- smoke it to the butt." -- Harvie Krumpet