NATIVE FOOD MYTHS BUSTED

Many times you hear or read that you should only feed Australian natives with native-only fertiliser, and this may put you off buying them for your garden. But it’s not true!

• Soil type is crucial to natives. Most natives prefer sandy soil that is nutrient poor and will collapse from the over-sweet richness of clay or loam soil.

• Native-specific fertiliser only needs to apply to the members of the Proteaceae family, which include grevilleas, banksias, proteas and the iconic waratahs. They have evolved over the centuries in soils that are low in phosphorus. If you overload them with the level of phosphorus found in regular fertiliser, they will implode.

• However, garden faves such as gums, wattles, lilly pillies, the stunning kangaroo paws and all other non-proteaceae Australian natives cope just fine with regular fertiliser.