Plant Books

Woko,
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They are good resources you suggest, aimed at revegetation larger than your average suburban backyard. Awesome for those who are lucky enough to have a farm or property to work on.
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I have "Restoring Natural Areas in Australia" by Robin Buchanan, "Planting for Wildlife" by Munro and Lindenmayer and the excellent "Weeds of the South East" which covers not just exotic weeds, but also non-endemic natives with the potential to become weedy. A great reference book.
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A couple of beautifully presented books (which I also have), aimed more at your average backyard are:
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"Attracting Birds to Your Garden in Australia: Birdscaping Australian Gardens", John Dengate
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"A Guide to Native Plants and the Garden Birds They Attract", George Adams.
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They are not only full of design and plant information, but have details on a large number of common suburban birds as well.

Just read this Timmo and at first I was thinking "he didn't write that " LOL

I was fairly pleased recently to be contacted  by George Adams who asked for permission to use one of my images. I had a look at his website and info on his book and it looks wonderful.

He has a Facebook page for it too and is currently working on an update for Birdscaping.

Cheers

Birdie ( Adrienne)

"name that flower" by Clarke and Lee is a good resource.

Thanks to everyone for their suggested resources. I am always looking for more information.

It has been a couple of years since I commented on the forums, life has thrown me a series of curved balls and I have been busy catching and dodging them ever since!

My husband, Trevor, and I live with my daughter on her five acre property between Penrith and Richmond. Over the last few years I have been planting many indigenous native plants and some exotic natives as well to build habitat for birds and native animals.

Even locally indigenous plants are not always predictable in their growth. Out of 40 native hibiscus only about 20 survived and only half of those could be said to have thrived. I have had similar results with Indigofera Australis. The bursarius is growing really well. Various indigenous grasses are also doing well. Most of the harden bergia is hanging in there with one stand of it in partiular doing very well. The casuarina cuninghammi is only now starting to take off and flowered quie well this year.

In our rear paddock there are 4 grevillea robusta that were planted long before we came here and are now towering something like 15 - 20 metres high along with very old established forest red gum (30) in various places around the property. There is also a stand of indigenous tea tree and another stand of wattle.

It is my hope that in about five years there will be very little lawn and I hope that the understorey planting that I am doing around the forest red gums will continue to grow and spread.

I have just completed the Aussie Backyard Bird Count and counted 49 species in a week on our property. I have had advice from an experienced bird photographer that there are well over 100 species that would visit our yard throughout the year and I am hoping that my gardening efforts pay off and increase the number of species and as well provide habitat for many more of the smaller bird species such as the rufous whistler, eastern spinebill, red-browed finch, superb fairy wrens that alreay live on the property.

I have found a great help and advice from the Hawkesbury City Council Nursery where staff and voluunteers are fabulous sources of information. I was able to obtain from them pamphlets about plants for specific birds and animals. Very helpful indeed.

Some of my plants also came from Muru Mittigar in Penrith a provenance nursery that is an Aboriginal community nursery.

I guess my biggest concern in all of this is seeing my neighbours cutting down trees, removing understorey, and planting european exotics. I have tried to encourage some of them at least to leave existing stands of tea tree or wattle where it is but it is not always welcome suggestions.

I commend anyone who is planting habitat, food, roost and nest trees for our birds because there are so many of them being cut and bulldozed every year there will soon be very little habitat left.

I hope everyone's weekend has been a good one

Woko, that would be a great idea. Though I am not sure if people would take much notice, sadly. I know I would be all over that but there are many people who for some reason think if it naturally grows in Australia there is no point in growing it in the garden.

You are right that people do not understand the circle of life, a principle that I was taught from childhood long before the Lion King usurped that phrase. If you want plants to fruit, native or otherwise then you need in most case a pollinator such as a bird, ant, bat, bee etc so you need to protect the pollinators, ie don't poison, kill or harm, If you like native animals and like to provide them with food then plant native species, if you want to attract native birds then plant lots of native trees, not only is it all a simple thing to understand it makes complete logical sense. However there are a lot of people that do not lend a thought to such issues.

Ahhhhh a little education could go a long way! But you can lead people to information but you can't make them think.

Night Parrot,

You are so right, sadly! And all of those who take no notice of the circle of life will not live to regret it, their great grandchildren might, but they don't think so far ahead.

All we can do is keep doing what we can when we can and offering support to others who are doing likewise. We can offer information when it is welcomed and we can keep planting natives and keep an eye on the birds and other native animals. It will never feel like enough, but it is far better than not doing anything.