The Geographe Community Landcare Nursery continues to thrive after 15 years of growing native flora species to the area.
In 2001, the not-for-profit community nursery was established in Busselton to grow native plants which could be used on farms, waterways and gardens.
To celebrate their anniversary, the nursery’s founder City of Busselton senior sustainability and environment officer Robyn Paice officially opened their new administration and amenities building.
Ms Paice came up with the idea for the nursery after being asked by community members about volunteering opportunities, outside of planting season there was not much she could offer.
As a way to get people involved, she thought it would be great if they could grow some native plants for projects which were happening at the time.
“So that is what we did, initially we grew 10,000 plants for the Vasse River and it kept growing from there,” she said.
Traditional custodian Wayne Webb thanked the nursery staff and volunteers for their work to grow native plant species.
“It is a marvelous job what you are doing at the nursery, because mother nature does not have a voice, you are her voice with what you do,” he said.
“The plants you grow bring back all the animals and birds to the area.”
Geographe Community Landcare Nursery chairman Peter Frost said it was good to know they were part of a bigger family, doing the same thing to achieve benefits for the community.
“We are a community-based specialised nursery which grows flora from the area, we collect most of our own seed and do our own propagation,” he said.
“What we are trying to achieve is a large stock of flora so it can be accessed by all community groups including farmers, property developers and a whole range of users [which included domestic gardens].
“Instead of creating a foreign flora environment we have a native one to bring back all the birds and animals, which is important to all of us.”
The not-for-profit nursery have about 200 species which they regularly use and another 100 which they also use.
Mr Frost encouraged people to let them know if they wanted specific native plants so they could grow them.
