In one of the local reserves here someone has planted a Maiden Hair Fern. I know this plant fairly well. My Mother tried to grow many of them in our bathroom as I was growing up but no matter what she tried they always died. I think they are gorgeous and beautiful plants but these plants have no place in a local reserve. They are actually weeds there, and some of us are going to have to spend some valuable time pulling them out.
It may have started as just one maiden hair fern, but it has spread out over large areas now. This is not a garden escapee, this is a case where someone has deliberately put them there. However plants which might be good in your garden can escape and be a weed in the local environment. We all need to be careful what we are planting and check to make sure it isn’t a plant which can cause issues for local wildlife if it does manage to escape our own garden.
Please, don’t ever put your garden waste in a local reserve. It does not belong there, and it may cause serious havoc for our native animals, not to mention the people who take care of the reserves..
I worked with a group of Conservation Volunteers for a while, out in the countryside, removing “weeds”. One of the “Green Reserve” teams. Picture a group of us, all over 40, totally unsuited, but willing to qualify for a few extra centrelink $$$, climbing hillsides a mountain goat would think twice about, to rip out wild artichokes and olive trees. Or down beside the river planting millions of tiny, tiny native grass seedlings, most of which died through lack of watering. Sunburn, scratches, bug bites, all while watching out for brown snakes, not disturbing natural habitat (difficult, we WERE walking all over it) it certainly wasn’t fun. When the first opportunity came to take a real job, I took it. Yes, I gratefully accepted a job I didn’t want, a job I’d always promised myself I’d never do, just to get away from the “Greens”.