Charlie Albone: The best native groundcover plants to use in Australian gardens
When adding plants to a garden it's easy to think about the trees, shrubs, and perennials.
Often overlooked, however, is the wonderful array of groundcover plants. These low-dwellers help add interest to the ground plane, bind the soil with their roots and suppress weed growth. They also supply shelter and food to many small animals and insects in the garden. There is a huge amount of Australian native groundcovers that will work well in your garden.
Here are my favourites.
One of the most cost-effective groundcovers to plant are the native violets (Viola hederacea).
This plant grows in shady spots as well as sunny ones and easily takes off if supplied with enough water. I have planted just one of these in a garden and it seems to be everywhere!
As such, make sure you like this variety before planting, or it could take over and overpower other low-growing plants.
Ajuga Australis is a cracking groundcover for shaded or semi-shaded spots.
Its deep-green leaves look almost purple, especially when the mauve flower spikes come out in summer.
This is a great plant for that tricky spot under a tree where nothing else seems to grow as its will handle the light conditions and dry soil once established.
If you are after an eye-catching groundcover with striking foliage look no further than Banksia blechnifolia.
This plant has serrated blue-green foliage that can handle light frosts and thrives in well-drained soil.
Each plant can spread to about one metre, so space 800mm apart when planting to ensure a dense carpet of foliage.
Like all Banksia the groundcover version gets a typical flower spike that sits up looking like some sort of small mammal once the flower has aged. It's best grown in full sun.
Another native groundcover with a showy flower is Carpobrotus virescens, commonly known as Pig Face.
This succulent groundcover will spread to 3m, is easy to propagate and handles drought very well if the ground is free-draining.
The flowers are almost fluorescent in colour with pinks and purples that demand attention. This plant loves coastal conditions and is an excellent way to bind sandy soil and prevent soil erosion.
Coastal Rosemary is common plant in a lot of our gardens however one of the newest varieties, Westringia 'Low Horizon' is a real ground-hugger, growing to only 20cm in height.
It has very close internodes between the leaves making it incredibly dense and sprawling so its perfect for mass displays or boarding a garden bed.
It can also be clipped to form a low bun shape, making it very versatile in the garden or simply left to do its own thing.
If mass planting is what you're after, Casuarina 'Cousin It' makes for a beautiful display. It has a mop of foliage that seems to float out above the ground and in time the plant develops a small trunk in the centre, only about 20cm high, which gives wonderful spikes to the display, only adding to the drama!
The trick to success with this plant is to water it well for the first three months of its life until the roots are out into the soil because it can turn very quickly without moisture.
With all plants it is important to mulch around your groundcovers to suppress weeds and maintain soil moisture.
Be careful about the depth of your mulch around low-dwelling plants — too much too close can cause them to rot — and be sure to leave space for airflow around each individual plant.
Another issue with deep mulch is creating 'false soil' that plants root into.
This becomes problematic in periods of drought as mulch cannot hold water like soil can.
Over time the plants require more nutrients that the mulch can give them. The answer to all these issues is to mulch to a depth of 25mm-50mm around groundcover plants rather than the standard 75mm.
This will naturally compost down quicker (which is a good thing for your soil) so it's important to keep topping it up so it doesn't disappear too quickly.
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The Advertiser
a day ago
- The Advertiser
Cows versus koalas: land clearers dobbed in as 90,000ha of bush bulldozed
Up to 105 cases of land clearing, mainly for farming, could soon be under investigation by authorities after a citizen science project uncovered 90,000 hectares of bush bulldozed over the past five years. The mature native forest, some housing koalas, rock wallabies, glossy black and pink cockatoos, quolls, and gliders, was cleared across 176 properties around Australia. Most of the habitat was ripped up for farming - especially beef - a new report from the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) has found. The environment group said it would refer more than half the cases - 105 - to federal and state investigators because the clearing was potentially illegal. The largest area cleared on a single property was 7000 hectares, but the average was about 500 hectares. "The habitat destruction is as varied as the Australian landscape is," ACF nature campaigner Nathaniel Pelle said. "We have seen everything from mallee - what people would see as desert-looking - scrub or forest from south-west NSW ... [to] incredibly rich, jungle-like rainforests." Mr Pelle said he visited one of the cleared northern NSW sites identified in the report. "If you walk through them, they are towering forests with trees in excess of 40 and 50 metres high," he said. "You would be in the rainforest, you would hear the call of whip birds around you." Just next door was a different story. "You can be standing in that forest and, across the fence, you can see piles of timber on fire and areas of pasture that would once have looked exactly like the rainforest ... before the bulldozers moved in." The environment group enlisted the help of 675 citizen scientists who pored over satellite images from 2023 and 2024 of four million hectares of Australia identified as likely to be cleared. "The vast majority of cases discovered were on agricultural properties (150 out of the 176) and the biggest driver of deforestation is livestock farming (at least 143 of 176 cases)," the report found. More than half the total area cleared was on beef farms. All the vegetation lost included trees older than 15 years, which was more likely to provide homes and habitat for wildlife like koalas, pink cockatoos and greater gliders, the report said. "Some of these examples of bulldozing could even have knocked down habitat for critically endangered species like the swift parrot, regent honeyeater, and bulloak jewel butterfly, as well as several critically endangered ecological communities," it said. Beef farmer Glenn Morris, from the NSW New England region, said farmers were not rewarded for looking after the land. "They've got a million things on every day ... they're incredibly hard working," he said. "Most farmers have got a good conscience and they'll look after forests and they'll look after trees." "Then there's the ones, they're just chasing that little extra bit of pasture." The outspoken climate activist said people working on the land should be at the forefront of conversations about how to better protect forest and water. "The forest is like a lake in the landscape," Mr Morris said. "So when we clear we're actually taking that water supply out of the landscape." Nathaniel Pelle from ACF said most farmers wanted to do the right thing, but national laws governing land clearing under the the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act were letting nature and threatened species down. "Only 2.5 per cent of all of the referrals ever made to the [federal] environment department have come on agricultural land, even though somewhere between 80 and 90 per cent of the clearing occurs on agricultural land," he said. "It's really the regulators that need to do a better job of making it clear to farmers that they need to obtain a federal approval." The report, Bulldozing the bush, was expected to be released on June 19. Up to 105 cases of land clearing, mainly for farming, could soon be under investigation by authorities after a citizen science project uncovered 90,000 hectares of bush bulldozed over the past five years. The mature native forest, some housing koalas, rock wallabies, glossy black and pink cockatoos, quolls, and gliders, was cleared across 176 properties around Australia. Most of the habitat was ripped up for farming - especially beef - a new report from the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) has found. The environment group said it would refer more than half the cases - 105 - to federal and state investigators because the clearing was potentially illegal. The largest area cleared on a single property was 7000 hectares, but the average was about 500 hectares. "The habitat destruction is as varied as the Australian landscape is," ACF nature campaigner Nathaniel Pelle said. "We have seen everything from mallee - what people would see as desert-looking - scrub or forest from south-west NSW ... [to] incredibly rich, jungle-like rainforests." Mr Pelle said he visited one of the cleared northern NSW sites identified in the report. "If you walk through them, they are towering forests with trees in excess of 40 and 50 metres high," he said. "You would be in the rainforest, you would hear the call of whip birds around you." Just next door was a different story. "You can be standing in that forest and, across the fence, you can see piles of timber on fire and areas of pasture that would once have looked exactly like the rainforest ... before the bulldozers moved in." The environment group enlisted the help of 675 citizen scientists who pored over satellite images from 2023 and 2024 of four million hectares of Australia identified as likely to be cleared. "The vast majority of cases discovered were on agricultural properties (150 out of the 176) and the biggest driver of deforestation is livestock farming (at least 143 of 176 cases)," the report found. More than half the total area cleared was on beef farms. All the vegetation lost included trees older than 15 years, which was more likely to provide homes and habitat for wildlife like koalas, pink cockatoos and greater gliders, the report said. "Some of these examples of bulldozing could even have knocked down habitat for critically endangered species like the swift parrot, regent honeyeater, and bulloak jewel butterfly, as well as several critically endangered ecological communities," it said. Beef farmer Glenn Morris, from the NSW New England region, said farmers were not rewarded for looking after the land. "They've got a million things on every day ... they're incredibly hard working," he said. "Most farmers have got a good conscience and they'll look after forests and they'll look after trees." "Then there's the ones, they're just chasing that little extra bit of pasture." The outspoken climate activist said people working on the land should be at the forefront of conversations about how to better protect forest and water. "The forest is like a lake in the landscape," Mr Morris said. "So when we clear we're actually taking that water supply out of the landscape." Nathaniel Pelle from ACF said most farmers wanted to do the right thing, but national laws governing land clearing under the the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act were letting nature and threatened species down. "Only 2.5 per cent of all of the referrals ever made to the [federal] environment department have come on agricultural land, even though somewhere between 80 and 90 per cent of the clearing occurs on agricultural land," he said. "It's really the regulators that need to do a better job of making it clear to farmers that they need to obtain a federal approval." The report, Bulldozing the bush, was expected to be released on June 19. Up to 105 cases of land clearing, mainly for farming, could soon be under investigation by authorities after a citizen science project uncovered 90,000 hectares of bush bulldozed over the past five years. The mature native forest, some housing koalas, rock wallabies, glossy black and pink cockatoos, quolls, and gliders, was cleared across 176 properties around Australia. Most of the habitat was ripped up for farming - especially beef - a new report from the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) has found. The environment group said it would refer more than half the cases - 105 - to federal and state investigators because the clearing was potentially illegal. The largest area cleared on a single property was 7000 hectares, but the average was about 500 hectares. "The habitat destruction is as varied as the Australian landscape is," ACF nature campaigner Nathaniel Pelle said. "We have seen everything from mallee - what people would see as desert-looking - scrub or forest from south-west NSW ... [to] incredibly rich, jungle-like rainforests." Mr Pelle said he visited one of the cleared northern NSW sites identified in the report. "If you walk through them, they are towering forests with trees in excess of 40 and 50 metres high," he said. "You would be in the rainforest, you would hear the call of whip birds around you." Just next door was a different story. "You can be standing in that forest and, across the fence, you can see piles of timber on fire and areas of pasture that would once have looked exactly like the rainforest ... before the bulldozers moved in." The environment group enlisted the help of 675 citizen scientists who pored over satellite images from 2023 and 2024 of four million hectares of Australia identified as likely to be cleared. "The vast majority of cases discovered were on agricultural properties (150 out of the 176) and the biggest driver of deforestation is livestock farming (at least 143 of 176 cases)," the report found. More than half the total area cleared was on beef farms. All the vegetation lost included trees older than 15 years, which was more likely to provide homes and habitat for wildlife like koalas, pink cockatoos and greater gliders, the report said. "Some of these examples of bulldozing could even have knocked down habitat for critically endangered species like the swift parrot, regent honeyeater, and bulloak jewel butterfly, as well as several critically endangered ecological communities," it said. Beef farmer Glenn Morris, from the NSW New England region, said farmers were not rewarded for looking after the land. "They've got a million things on every day ... they're incredibly hard working," he said. "Most farmers have got a good conscience and they'll look after forests and they'll look after trees." "Then there's the ones, they're just chasing that little extra bit of pasture." The outspoken climate activist said people working on the land should be at the forefront of conversations about how to better protect forest and water. "The forest is like a lake in the landscape," Mr Morris said. "So when we clear we're actually taking that water supply out of the landscape." Nathaniel Pelle from ACF said most farmers wanted to do the right thing, but national laws governing land clearing under the the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act were letting nature and threatened species down. "Only 2.5 per cent of all of the referrals ever made to the [federal] environment department have come on agricultural land, even though somewhere between 80 and 90 per cent of the clearing occurs on agricultural land," he said. "It's really the regulators that need to do a better job of making it clear to farmers that they need to obtain a federal approval." The report, Bulldozing the bush, was expected to be released on June 19. Up to 105 cases of land clearing, mainly for farming, could soon be under investigation by authorities after a citizen science project uncovered 90,000 hectares of bush bulldozed over the past five years. The mature native forest, some housing koalas, rock wallabies, glossy black and pink cockatoos, quolls, and gliders, was cleared across 176 properties around Australia. Most of the habitat was ripped up for farming - especially beef - a new report from the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) has found. The environment group said it would refer more than half the cases - 105 - to federal and state investigators because the clearing was potentially illegal. The largest area cleared on a single property was 7000 hectares, but the average was about 500 hectares. "The habitat destruction is as varied as the Australian landscape is," ACF nature campaigner Nathaniel Pelle said. "We have seen everything from mallee - what people would see as desert-looking - scrub or forest from south-west NSW ... [to] incredibly rich, jungle-like rainforests." Mr Pelle said he visited one of the cleared northern NSW sites identified in the report. "If you walk through them, they are towering forests with trees in excess of 40 and 50 metres high," he said. "You would be in the rainforest, you would hear the call of whip birds around you." Just next door was a different story. "You can be standing in that forest and, across the fence, you can see piles of timber on fire and areas of pasture that would once have looked exactly like the rainforest ... before the bulldozers moved in." The environment group enlisted the help of 675 citizen scientists who pored over satellite images from 2023 and 2024 of four million hectares of Australia identified as likely to be cleared. "The vast majority of cases discovered were on agricultural properties (150 out of the 176) and the biggest driver of deforestation is livestock farming (at least 143 of 176 cases)," the report found. More than half the total area cleared was on beef farms. All the vegetation lost included trees older than 15 years, which was more likely to provide homes and habitat for wildlife like koalas, pink cockatoos and greater gliders, the report said. "Some of these examples of bulldozing could even have knocked down habitat for critically endangered species like the swift parrot, regent honeyeater, and bulloak jewel butterfly, as well as several critically endangered ecological communities," it said. Beef farmer Glenn Morris, from the NSW New England region, said farmers were not rewarded for looking after the land. "They've got a million things on every day ... they're incredibly hard working," he said. "Most farmers have got a good conscience and they'll look after forests and they'll look after trees." "Then there's the ones, they're just chasing that little extra bit of pasture." The outspoken climate activist said people working on the land should be at the forefront of conversations about how to better protect forest and water. "The forest is like a lake in the landscape," Mr Morris said. "So when we clear we're actually taking that water supply out of the landscape." Nathaniel Pelle from ACF said most farmers wanted to do the right thing, but national laws governing land clearing under the the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act were letting nature and threatened species down. "Only 2.5 per cent of all of the referrals ever made to the [federal] environment department have come on agricultural land, even though somewhere between 80 and 90 per cent of the clearing occurs on agricultural land," he said. "It's really the regulators that need to do a better job of making it clear to farmers that they need to obtain a federal approval." The report, Bulldozing the bush, was expected to be released on June 19.
The Age
a day ago
- The Age
Chappo didn't like Shakes when they first met. Now, they're ‘like brothers'
Primary teacher Caleb 'Shakes' Mills (right) and youth pastor James 'Chappo' Chapman, both 20, met in year 7. They've been taking it in turns to carry each other, physically and emotionally, ever since. James: I didn't like Shakes when we met in 2017. He was friends with friends of mine and I was jealous. In the end, I decided to give him a crack. Turned out he was a lot like me: loves meeting new people, staying up late planning adventures and writing songs. We clicked, and rode our bikes all over Newcastle together. A couple of mates took us to youth church and we became Christians. It gave us a supportive community and a belief in something bigger than ourselves. I use my disability to share hope with other young people. I don't sugar-coat it, though: at times, I struggle. I was born with pseudoachondroplasia dwarfism, a one-in-a-million condition. At nine, I had an operation to straighten my legs and was bedridden for three months. The prospect of an even bigger operation at 13 was terrifying but, in the end, my doctor felt it wasn't necessary. I was basically given a second childhood – and Caleb was a big part of that. 'We gave each other a safe space to talk; nothing, not even something as dark as that, was off limits.' James 'Chappo' Chapman Even though I'm not wheelchair-bound, I had to use one at school, so Caleb would push me and help carry my stuff. His dad and younger brother moved away after his parents split in 2018, and we'd often make the three-hour return trip from Newcastle to Woy Woy after school to see them. He missed them terribly. I just wanted to be beside him. When we were 14, an older boy in our youth group committed suicide. We'd shared a cabin with him at camp and it hit all of us hard. We didn't know what to think or feel and having someone to process something so heavy with was a relief. We gave each other a safe space to talk; nothing, not even something as dark as that, was off limits. After finishing school, we travelled through Europe, Japan and Egypt for four months. I wanted to bite his head off at times – Shakes is chronically late and sleeps and showers way too much – but I couldn't have done it without him. In Iceland, we shared a bottom bunk in a rental van with a dwarf friend for 10 days while two mates, who'd just started going out, slept on top. The sound of them getting intimate a foot above our heads ... we'll never be able to unhear it. At festivals, I'm always on his shoulders, which is how I ended up on stage with Macklemore last year in Sydney for a dance-off, which was super-fun. Shakes is always right there with me in the mosh pit; he won't let me miss a thing. When I made the Australian soccer team for the 2023 World Dwarf Games in Germany, Shakes said, 'I'm coming, too.' We had to pay our own way, so Caleb helped fundraise and live-streamed our matches. We lost to France in a penalty shootout in the quarter-finals, but I felt so supported having him there.
Sydney Morning Herald
a day ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
Chappo didn't like Shakes when they first met. Now, they're ‘like brothers'
Primary teacher Caleb 'Shakes' Mills (right) and youth pastor James 'Chappo' Chapman, both 20, met in year 7. They've been taking it in turns to carry each other, physically and emotionally, ever since. James: I didn't like Shakes when we met in 2017. He was friends with friends of mine and I was jealous. In the end, I decided to give him a crack. Turned out he was a lot like me: loves meeting new people, staying up late planning adventures and writing songs. We clicked, and rode our bikes all over Newcastle together. A couple of mates took us to youth church and we became Christians. It gave us a supportive community and a belief in something bigger than ourselves. I use my disability to share hope with other young people. I don't sugar-coat it, though: at times, I struggle. I was born with pseudoachondroplasia dwarfism, a one-in-a-million condition. At nine, I had an operation to straighten my legs and was bedridden for three months. The prospect of an even bigger operation at 13 was terrifying but, in the end, my doctor felt it wasn't necessary. I was basically given a second childhood – and Caleb was a big part of that. 'We gave each other a safe space to talk; nothing, not even something as dark as that, was off limits.' James 'Chappo' Chapman Even though I'm not wheelchair-bound, I had to use one at school, so Caleb would push me and help carry my stuff. His dad and younger brother moved away after his parents split in 2018, and we'd often make the three-hour return trip from Newcastle to Woy Woy after school to see them. He missed them terribly. I just wanted to be beside him. When we were 14, an older boy in our youth group committed suicide. We'd shared a cabin with him at camp and it hit all of us hard. We didn't know what to think or feel and having someone to process something so heavy with was a relief. We gave each other a safe space to talk; nothing, not even something as dark as that, was off limits. After finishing school, we travelled through Europe, Japan and Egypt for four months. I wanted to bite his head off at times – Shakes is chronically late and sleeps and showers way too much – but I couldn't have done it without him. In Iceland, we shared a bottom bunk in a rental van with a dwarf friend for 10 days while two mates, who'd just started going out, slept on top. The sound of them getting intimate a foot above our heads ... we'll never be able to unhear it. At festivals, I'm always on his shoulders, which is how I ended up on stage with Macklemore last year in Sydney for a dance-off, which was super-fun. Shakes is always right there with me in the mosh pit; he won't let me miss a thing. When I made the Australian soccer team for the 2023 World Dwarf Games in Germany, Shakes said, 'I'm coming, too.' We had to pay our own way, so Caleb helped fundraise and live-streamed our matches. We lost to France in a penalty shootout in the quarter-finals, but I felt so supported having him there.
