NGI - Nursery & Garden Industry

Invasive Plants > Grow Me Instead!

Grow Me Instead!
A Guide for Gardeners in the Greater Sydney District

This project, Discovering Alternatives to Garden Escapes, is coordinated by the Nursery & Garden Industry Australia with the express purpose of:

Identifying plants grown and sold within the nursery industry that are considered invasive to the environment
Identifying suitable alternative suggestions of both introduced and Australian species where possible
Educating the community through the nursery network so that propagation and sale of invasive plants eventually ceases.

Many of the plants that have become invasive have come from private gardens. By selecting plants carefully at your local nursery or garden centre or from the alternative plants suggested here you can achieve an environmentally ‘friendly’ garden. In so doing, you are helping preserve indigenous species and habitat for native fauna.

The list has been developed with the assistance of various land and water conservation groups and councils and with Nursery & Garden Industry NSW & ACT (NGINA) to identify those plants that already have a damaging effect in our environment and also those that have the potential to become a major problem in the present and not too distant future.

This booklet targets an initial focus group of plants recognised as invasive of Sydney bushland and known as “garden escapes”. Your garden may already contain some of these or there may be others that have the same potential to become escapes. Your vigilance in helping control invasive plants is the best possible outcome this booklet can produce.

There are also a number of suggestions of either Australian or non-Australian origin as alternative choices for your garden plantings - no doubt your garden centre or nursery will offer you more. Please question suggestions or your own choices as to their potential to become invasive.

It should be understood that this project deals only with garden plant escapes in the greater Sydney Basin. It is not intended for use beyond this region.

It is hoped that in time, this or similar projects will encompass the state, region by region and eventually at a national level.

For further information, please contact Nursery & Garden Industry NSW & ACT on ph: (02) 9679-1472.

	Click the link below to view a PDF version of the Grow Me Instead! booklet of right click and choose ‘Save target as…’ to download
	Grow Me Instead! booklet (1.9 Mb)

The Important Issue:
What is a weed?

A weed is a plant growing where it is not wanted. Any plant including ferns or algae can become a weed. Weeds pose a threat to the environment and can adversely impact on human or animal health or cause crop or stock losses.

It cannot be repeated often enough that weeds and garden plant escapes are extremely regional. What may be a problem in one area, or even one state, may not be so in another. This is why it is so important to check each plant selection with your local council or NSW Agriculture to ensure that it is not a potential problem in your area or region.