The event at the end of May was the culmination of months of hard work and preparation for the local Landcare team but well worth the effort said nursery manager, Estelle Gough.

"The first weed swap was great for us because we had lots of people who hadn't heard of Landcare before come along," Ms Gough said.

"We had a great deal of interest raised about the role backyard gardens play in the spread of weeds into bushland which was fantastic.

"We also gave away or swapped lots of weeds for native plants and since the swap we have had lots of people come to the nursery for more."

Ms Gough said the idea of the weed swap has been nearly 10 years in the making and will complement the work Landcare volunteers are continuously doing in the local area.

"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," she said.

"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. Weed swappers also had to pledge to reduce the impact of weeds from their gardens.

"Happy customers were able to take replacement plants home to replace the weeds they had removed.

"We are hoping to run another weed swap on July 28 to continue the great work that was started in May.

"The next weed swap will be will be held in the same place, beside 124 Lord Street on National Tree Day from 10am until midday."

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