Sue visits a Waterwise Garden
Episode: # 30 22/12/07
Presenter: Sue McDougall
Looking in your friends or neighbours garden is usually a great source of ideas and
This week Sue visited a fantastic local garden with plenty of great ideas.
In this garden a normal hills hoist has been covered with a grapevine, so that the owners get the best of both worlds, the washing doesn’t fade from the hot sun and it hides the clothesline that always used to dominate backyards. This garden has more great ideas that can be easily achieved in your own garden.
If you have an area of garden that’s shaded from the house, dichondra is a perfect choice. This low growing ground cover looks great all year round; it’s often used as a ‘no mow’ lawn substitute.
In high traffic areas or where the soil and water are limited it stays low to the ground. In good times, when it has more water and fertiliser, it gets a little higher. And when it gets too high you just trim it off and it shoots away again.
The native ground cover Scaevola is one of Sue’s favourite plants. There are a few different varieties of Scaevola, and this garden uses Scaevola aemula which flowers for at least 6 months of the year. They get to a maximum height of around ten centimetres and they look spectacular mass planted on a verge.
The front garden of Patchwork Cottage in Willetton is a good example of a Waterwise garden. There is no lawn, its December and the garden is full of colour. It’s an eclectic mix of natives, perennials and exotics; they all have to survive on limited water.
Along with correct plant selection soil improving is very important when it comes to waterwise gardening. The extra organic matter holds water in the soil and helps the plants roots can develop.
In Perth’s sandy soils the water drains through very quickly. An interesting tip we can learn from Julie, the owner of this garden is she has imported tonnes and tonnes of clay into the Willetton garden. Clay is made up of very small particles and holds so much more water than sand, and when you dig around you can see where she has added it because the soil is still damp.
Gardeners have always had problems with high traffic areas, in such areas if you tried to plant grass it would never grow very well and paving or concrete paths can be expensive. Julie has a better idea, mulched paths. They are cheap to make, easy to create and are good for the environment as they reduce the amount of run off water.
With concrete paths the water would run off and down the street, but in Julie’s gardens case the mulch catches the water, slows it down and it soaks into the soil eventually recharging the ground water supply.
If you are lucky enough to have some time off to spend in the garden for the next few weeks, before you start grab a copy of the latest edition of The Garden Guru newspaper, it is jam packed with ideas to get you started. It’s available from selected garden centres and your local mitre 10 store.
Featured plants:
Kidney Weed (Dichondra repens)
Mauve Clusters Scaevola (Scaevola aemula ‘Mauve Clusters)
For help choosing waterwise plants for your garden visit
www.watercorporation.com.au
Presenter: Sue McDougall
Looking in your friends or neighbours garden is usually a great source of ideas and
This week Sue visited a fantastic local garden with plenty of great ideas.
In this garden a normal hills hoist has been covered with a grapevine, so that the owners get the best of both worlds, the washing doesn’t fade from the hot sun and it hides the clothesline that always used to dominate backyards. This garden has more great ideas that can be easily achieved in your own garden.
If you have an area of garden that’s shaded from the house, dichondra is a perfect choice. This low growing ground cover looks great all year round; it’s often used as a ‘no mow’ lawn substitute.
In high traffic areas or where the soil and water are limited it stays low to the ground. In good times, when it has more water and fertiliser, it gets a little higher. And when it gets too high you just trim it off and it shoots away again.
The native ground cover Scaevola is one of Sue’s favourite plants. There are a few different varieties of Scaevola, and this garden uses Scaevola aemula which flowers for at least 6 months of the year. They get to a maximum height of around ten centimetres and they look spectacular mass planted on a verge.
The front garden of Patchwork Cottage in Willetton is a good example of a Waterwise garden. There is no lawn, its December and the garden is full of colour. It’s an eclectic mix of natives, perennials and exotics; they all have to survive on limited water.
Along with correct plant selection soil improving is very important when it comes to waterwise gardening. The extra organic matter holds water in the soil and helps the plants roots can develop.
In Perth’s sandy soils the water drains through very quickly. An interesting tip we can learn from Julie, the owner of this garden is she has imported tonnes and tonnes of clay into the Willetton garden. Clay is made up of very small particles and holds so much more water than sand, and when you dig around you can see where she has added it because the soil is still damp.
Gardeners have always had problems with high traffic areas, in such areas if you tried to plant grass it would never grow very well and paving or concrete paths can be expensive. Julie has a better idea, mulched paths. They are cheap to make, easy to create and are good for the environment as they reduce the amount of run off water.
With concrete paths the water would run off and down the street, but in Julie’s gardens case the mulch catches the water, slows it down and it soaks into the soil eventually recharging the ground water supply.
If you are lucky enough to have some time off to spend in the garden for the next few weeks, before you start grab a copy of the latest edition of The Garden Guru newspaper, it is jam packed with ideas to get you started. It’s available from selected garden centres and your local mitre 10 store.
Featured plants:
Kidney Weed (Dichondra repens)
Mauve Clusters Scaevola (Scaevola aemula ‘Mauve Clusters)
For help choosing waterwise plants for your garden visit
www.watercorporation.com.au
AS SEEN ON 
