Australian’s with our preference for stand alone housing support a significant nursery and garden equipment industry. You only need to walk into Bunnings to find they have as much floor space for these items as the bulk building materials for trade.
Across Australia there dedicated groups of volunteers who organise or run nurseries to support local landcare initiatives. Most of these are open to all of us.
Of value is that these nurseries firstly provide plants that are specific to their locality. So easy care natives that are often unique and attractive to all types of wild life.
Secondly many of the plants are sold as tube stock for a few dollars each. You can also find more mature plants. All for a fraction of the cost of plants that are a year or so older common elsewhere.
The plants produced by local landcare or waterwatch groups come from volunteer labour, and are cost effective compared to bulk whole sale nurseries. You don’t need to purchase in bulk. You may need to look them up on line as they do not have funds to advertise or locate in expensive retail complexes. Don’t forget to check opening times too.
And tube stock given it is not pot bound like many larger nursery plants can grow more quickly than larger plants when planted out.
You might like to look at
http://anpsa.org.au/nursery.html
And to see some feedback on any such groups or nurseries elsewhere.
