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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-07-02 Daily Xml
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COASTAL GARDENS

Ms FOX (Bright) (15:26): Today I wish to congratulate minister Weatherill and the Department for Environment and Heritage, along with the Adelaide and Mount Lofty Ranges Natural Resources Management Board, on their joint publication entitled Coastal gardens: A planting guide. As members may be aware, many residents in the Bright electorate (including me) live in close proximity to the coast, and I know that gardeners across the state face the challenge of long, hot summers, drought conditions and water restrictions. However, those living in coastal areas have the added stress of salt spray and sandy or saline soil. With these conditions, residents find it extremely difficult to maintain gardens.

The coastal gardens planting guide provides simple yet inspiring gardening advice for people living in all coastal suburbs of Adelaide. The plants that are featured in this publication are native plants that require very little water and maintenance and do not need pesticides or fertilisers. Not only do they save gardeners a great deal of time and money but they also look stunning. The guide is very user friendly and was put together with the help of landscape architects. It provides plants for a variety of different gardens including contemporary, natural cottage, formal and Japanese-style gardens.

The other added bonus of encouraging gardeners to use plants that are native to coastal areas is that it reduces the number of plants that tend to multiply outside the garden, which can spread across the coastline and become weeds. For this reason, the guide has a useful list of plants that are dangerous to the native environment and should not be grown near the coast.

In the Bright electorate we are very lucky to have the Carter House Native Garden in the suburb of Kingston Park. This garden is absolutely beautiful and encapsulates everything the planting guide is trying to achieve. The City of Holdfast Bay along with many volunteers helped to create this garden, which boasts over 2,000 plants used by the Kaurna people, and I would like to acknowledge their invaluable help on this project. The native gardens border the Tjilbruke springs, which is one of the most significant Kaurna sacred sites. I strongly recommend that all members of the house, if they have an opportunity, visit this garden. It is not just a lovely place to be: it is an amazing part of our state's eco-heritage. I went there again last week, and it truly is striking.

The planting guide allows members of the community who live near our coastline to rethink what they are planting in their gardens which may compromise the health and wellbeing of native plants along our natural coastline. I would love to say that I have a green thumb, but I do not. I have more of a sort of gloomy, verdant digit. Despite this—

Mr Pederick: Please don't explain it.

Ms FOX: No, I am not going to. I guess what I am trying to say is that I am not the world's best gardener, but I do like pottering around in the garden and, like many others in my area, I struggle when it comes to growing things and maintaining my front and back gardens. I am very pleased to discover that not only have they produced this book but the Adelaide and Mount Lofty Ranges Natural Resources Management Board will hold workshops for people who wish to embrace this coastal garden initiative but do not know where to begin (that is people like me). These workshops are completely free. You go along and they tell you what will grow well and how to plant and what to expect. I have informed constituents who live close to the coast about this guide, which is free and available, and, of course, they can contact my office if they wish to get one.

Over the coming months and years, I look forward to seeing many constituents with native ecologically-friendly gardens. It really is a credit to minister Weatherill, the Department for Environment and Heritage and the Adelaide and Mount Lofty Ranges Natural Resources Management Board that the coastal gardens plantings guide is already so popular. I congratulate them and I encourage them to continue working towards producing solutions such as this to help members of our community towards a greener future.

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