If you’ve ever watched a carefully planned garden wilt after its first Forster summer, you’ll know why we’re such big fans of native coastal plants. Our patch of the Mid North Coast throws a lot at a garden — salty winds off Cape Hawke, sandy soils, long dry spells, and the occasional drenching storm. Natives shrug it all off and keep looking good year-round. If you’re planning a new garden or refreshing a tired one, here’s our friendly landscaper’s guide to the hardy species that truly thrive in Forster.
Why Natives Are the Smart Choice for Forster
Native plants aren’t just a nod to sustainability — they’re genuinely better suited to our local conditions. They’ve evolved with our sandy, well-drained soils, they tolerate salt spray, they feed our local wildlife, and once established they need very little water. For Forster gardens, that’s a win across the board. They also pair beautifully with our existing environment, blending the garden into the landscape rather than fighting against it.
If this sounds up your alley, you’ll love our earlier piece on creating a low-maintenance garden in Forster. Natives are the foundation of just about every low-maintenance design we recommend.
Top Native Shrubs for Forster Gardens
Shrubs are the workhorses of any Forster garden — they fill space, create structure, and offer year-round interest. Here are a few favourites we use again and again:
- Coastal Rosemary (Westringia fruticosa) — A classic coastal performer with soft grey-green foliage and white flowers. Handles salt, wind, and light pruning beautifully.
- Coast Banksia (Banksia integrifolia) — Perfect for larger gardens. Beautiful yellow cylindrical flowers bring honeyeaters right into the yard.
- Lilly Pilly (Syzygium species) — Great for privacy hedges, tolerant of pruning, and gives you edible berries in summer.
- Grevillea ‘Superb’ — A reliable flowering shrub that blooms almost year-round. Honeyeaters and small native birds love it.
Plant these in well-drained positions with a bit of compost at install, water weekly for the first summer, and they’ll reward you for decades.
Groundcovers and Grasses That Won’t Quit
Sandy Forster soils love groundcovers. They stabilise the soil, suppress weeds, and prevent the “bare patch” look between shrubs. Our go-to species include:
- Myoporum parvifolium — A flat, spreading groundcover with tiny white flowers. Handles foot traffic and hot sun.
- Dianella caerulea (Blue Flax Lily) — Tough strappy foliage with purple flowers and berries. Incredibly drought-tolerant.
- Lomandra ‘Tanika’ — A compact native grass that looks sharp in modern landscape designs. Perfect for borders and mass planting.
- Kangaroo Grass (Themeda triandra) — Adds movement and softness, gorgeous in meadow-style plantings.
Flowering Favourites for Year-Round Colour
One of the misconceptions about native gardens is that they’re all green. Not true. With the right plant selection, you can have something flowering every month of the year. In Forster, we love pairing Bottlebrush (Callistemon) for spring and summer red blooms with Kangaroo Paw varieties for autumn colour, and Correa species that flower through winter when not much else does. Add a few Leucophyta brownii (Cushion Bush) for their silver foliage and you’ve got a palette that looks stunning from every angle.
Dealing with Forster’s Tricky Spots
Every Forster garden has its challenges. Here’s how we handle the common ones:
- Salt-exposed front yards — Stick to coastal hardies like Westringia, Banksia, and Correa. Skip plants with soft, fleshy leaves.
- Shady side-gardens — Native violets, ferns, and midyim berry (Austromyrtus dulcis) thrive here.
- Windy backyards — Build a windbreak using layered planting — a row of taller Banksias or Coast Wattle backed by medium shrubs.
- Sandy “won’t hold water” soils — Amend with compost at planting, and mulch heavily. Native mulches like tea tree or pine bark work beautifully.
Establishing Your Natives the Right Way
The single biggest mistake we see is treating natives like exotics. They don’t need rich soil or heavy feeding — in fact, too much phosphorus will kill many native species. Plant them in spring or autumn, water in well, add a thick mulch layer (keeping it away from the trunk), and reduce watering once they’re established. After the first year, most native gardens need no supplemental watering at all.
A thoughtful design is everything. Layering plants by height, grouping species with similar water needs, and leaving room for mature growth will save you a lot of headaches down the track.
Let’s Build Your Forster Native Garden
Native gardens are some of our favourite projects. They’re good for the environment, easy to maintain, and they look fantastic in our coastal landscape. Whether you’re starting from bare dirt or refreshing an existing yard, we’d love to help you design a garden that thrives with our Forster conditions, not against them. Swing by the home page to see our work, or get in touch with our team for a friendly chat. We’re local, we know these soils, and we’d love to help make your garden the best-looking one on the street.