Growing endemic plants for Goulburn Wetlands by Jennifer Ashwell and Tim Hayes
For many years, Jen Ashwell and Tim Hayes have supported the planting of endemic species in the Goulburn area.
Over the last 10 years, Jen has been growing endemic plants for the Goulburn Wetlands. ‘This project started as an APS Southern Tablelands project when huge numbers of trees and shrubs were required’. Now it is managed on a smaller scale by Jen at her home.
Jen recently collected seed of Leucochrysum albicans subspecies tricolor along a section of Range Road prior to major road widening – and then redistributed the seed after the roadwork was done six months later.
Tim Hayes is a similarly passionate propagator from the Southern Tablelands region. As a fan of pea plants, he propagates local species, even if they are not spectacular, to go into environmental projects rather than gardens. As he says, ‘I like providing species that might grow ‘just outside the front gate’ or ‘down by the gully’ and support local revegetation projects, such as wind breaks, shelter belts, permanently waterlogged soils, gully banks, dry ridges and lots more.’ He belongs to the Upper Lachlan Landcare for revegetation works west of Goulburn and propagates plants for Goulburn Wetlands ‘display’ gardens.