Working together with the great work Landcare already do in our local community, Landcare’s Estelle Gough said the weed swapping project aims to get the whole community involved in what they do.

“The announcement of the weed swap project is a long time coming for us,” Mrs Gough said.

“I first came up with the idea nearly a decade ago and the idea behind the swap is being able to bring the bush into urban and peri-urban areas in our local government area.

“This is exactly the kind of work that Landcare volunteers do each week but we wanted a way of extending that into the private gardens and yards in Port Macquarie.”

The idea behind the weed swap is pretty simple with people encouraged to remove weeds taking a before and after photograph in order to obtain up to three native plants.

They also have to pledge to reduce the impact of weeds from their gardens.

“The weed swap is a targeted way of getting people to plant native plants,” she said.

“The native plants are all from the area and grown in our Landcare nursery. From germination to planting we have a great nursery that has grown all the plants we will be giving away in the weed swap.

“People can also purchase more plants through us if they want to.”

The official launch of the weed swap will be on February 26 and Mrs Gough said the benefits of the weed swap extend beyond bush regeneration.

“While yes it is all about the regeneration of the bush creating those corridors of native flora ensures local fauna are able to survive.

“Just in the Landcare nursery we have recently identified four native bee species in one of our gardens that didn’t used to be there.

“Even just today we had a visit from a native butterfly which was just excellent. By planting these native plants in your garden it will promote local native animal species.

“From bees and insects to koalas by planting these native plants people will soon find native critters coming explore.”

The first Landcare weed swap will be on May 26, at the corner of Lord Street and Hill Street in Port Macquarie.

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