weedbusting at birdsland

Tomorrow marks the start of Weedbusters Week, a national awareness program aimed at the community to achieve sustainable land and water management, primarily through increased public involvement in weed management and education projects.

Weedbusters Week started nationally in 1997 and it is auspiced by the DPI in Victoria. This year the Shire has organised a swap your weeds for native plants program, as part of the ‘Grow Me Instead’ campaign. The weed swap kicked off this morning at the Southern Dandenongs Community Nursery at Birdsland in Belgrave Heights.

It took me only a couple of minutes to get my weed samples together, and all the usual suspects were there, ivy, pittosporum, angled onion, dandelion.


Katie Jacobsen (Landcare Officer with the Shire), Me and Garrique Pergl (President of the SDCN) exchanging weeds for a fine selection of native plants.


Gavin and Katie from the shire were kept very busy with a steady stream of residents bearing their sample weeds (in one case a trailer load of agapanthus – that’s what I call enthusiastic!) and receiving their native plants in exchange.

Residents can go along to the Southern Dandenongs Community Nursery at Birdsland (and a number of other sites in the Shire – check http://www.weedbusters.info/cgi-bin/activities.cgi) and swap 2 sample weeds for up to a maximum of 6 native plants.

It’s a great initiative - I encourage you to go along to Birdsland next Sunday 7th September when the weed swap is on again between 9:00am and 12:00pm.
















The collection of weeds so far, and this doesn't include the trailer load of agapanthus. Residents keenly took to the task of bringing in samples of weeds to exchange for native plants.

The Southern Dandenongs Community Nursery does a great job and is open every Sunday and Tuesday between 9 and 12. They have a great mix of indigenous plants and cover the full spectrum from groundcovers, understorey plants right up to Mountain Ash and Mountain Grey Gums. It’s well worth a visit to source all your native plantings.