Browse Forums Landscape & Garden Design 1 Oct 11, 2008 5:39 pm We have a basically blank canvas for our yard and want to do some landscaping... hopefully with all Australian natives.
The problem is that we can't seem to find much inspiration or information on how to do it as it doesn't seem a very popular choice. Has anyone gone all native? I would love to see some pictures of example gardens so we can plan something good. Thanks Re: All Australian Native garden - anyone attempted it? 2Oct 12, 2008 6:16 am I've seen a few featured on Gardening Australia on the ABC
http://www.abc.net.au/gardening/factsheets/native.htm After 4 years - we're in! Re: All Australian Native garden - anyone attempted it? 3Oct 12, 2008 2:46 pm Oh, it can be done. There are magnificent plants, many of them hybridised or grafted so you can use WA plants in "foreign" (read Eatern states )environments. You can go any style you want, you can have, tropical, country/cottage, formal or bushland look. It really depends on what plants you choose. The main thing is to study your native plants and see what will suit the style you like.
Get magazines, borrow books and watch gardening programs, there is a lot of material there. Have fun Maggie Re: All Australian Native garden - anyone attempted it? 4Oct 12, 2008 9:18 pm It is being considered that the native garden is going to stamp it's presence on the gardens planted from 2000-?. Just like in the 50's to some extent and the 70's did. How we do it now may change our gardens for ever more.
Edna Walling did it in the years gone by and who knows who may in the future I can offer a contact for Brissie landscaping via hopefully a local designer here in Perth. PM me. Re: All Australian Native garden - anyone attempted it? 5Oct 12, 2008 9:22 pm maggie Oh, it can be done. There are magnificent plants, many of them hybridised or grafted so you can use WA plants in "foreign" (read Eatern states )environments. Have fun Maggie I think WA produces some of the best native hybrids on the market. Thanks to guys like Steve Vallance and George Lullfitz, we would not be growing Westringeas or a lot of WA kanga paw varieties, just to mention a few, with out them Re: All Australian Native garden - anyone attempted it? 6Oct 13, 2008 10:08 am We decided to do a native garden out the front this weekend!
My partner rang the SA Native Flora Assoc (or something like that ) and they told him who to contact in Adelaide for seed grown Indigenous Plants. We went to an Indigenous Nursery on the w.e. and purchased heaps of small plants for $2. for mass planting. Also purchased two grass trees for a very reasonable cost. In fact I'm about to go back there today to pick up another grass tree (I just love them) Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ We built 1/2m mounds for the plants so the roots don't hit the clay soil (drainage), and created a bit of a retaining wall from local bluestone. Great minds think alike! It feels good to know that we are planting something that could still be around in 600 years. Re: All Australian Native garden - anyone attempted it? 7Oct 13, 2008 10:23 am Nice grass trees!
Can't wait to see what it's like. I plan on doing a native garden with: dwarf lilly pillies for hedges pennisetum - purple lea - planted en mass for bordering the yard After 4 years - we're in! Re: All Australian Native garden - anyone attempted it? 8Oct 13, 2008 10:40 am I love lilly pillies . very nice Re: All Australian Native garden - anyone attempted it? 9Oct 13, 2008 11:06 am I like the idea of a native garden, but most of the ones I've seen have been very spindly, prickly, barren and arid looking. I'm not knocking them at all, just saying that I've never seen one that I would describe as "lush", "green" or "pretty".
I'd love to see some pics of good native gardens Do the hard jobs first. The easy jobs will take care of themselves. - Dale Carnegie Re: All Australian Native garden - anyone attempted it? 10Oct 13, 2008 11:30 am Go north Queensland, Cabinfever, or to the rainforest over west in Tassie, this is green and lush. Australia is a dry country so it is hardly ever lush but beauty is in the eye of the beholder and green has many shades so it all depends what you call green . Native gardens can be very beautiful, IMO, they just need good design and care as any garden for that matter. I love the lime/grey/green of spinifex grasess with red earth as contrast, I love little peaflowers in all shades imaginable well... I could rave on and on ....
Maggie Re: All Australian Native garden - anyone attempted it? 11Oct 13, 2008 2:18 pm Hi everyone.
Thanks for the tips so far. Also glad to see some other people are attempting the native garden - hopefully we can share some pics as we progress!. Cabinfever - I think you summed up our initial 'fear' with the native garden with the whole spindly, pricky, barren thing. We are hoping to avoid that by mass planting all different sorts of natives. We have purchased some "softer" looking grevillea this weekend and will probably plant with dwarfed callistimon and lillipillies. If anyone has any other suggestions for plants with a bit of a softer look or different or interesting colours, please let me know Also, what should mulch the ground with - pebbles, barks etc? What would look good and not kill all the plants? Re: All Australian Native garden - anyone attempted it? 12Oct 13, 2008 2:22 pm some of my favs that look soft
Purple Lea (pennisetum alopecuroides) Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Breeze (dianella) Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ After 4 years - we're in! Re: All Australian Native garden - anyone attempted it? 13Oct 13, 2008 4:41 pm I love those grasses, they are not available in WA. I have a boarder of lilly pillies and other grasses in front, but the rest of the garden is more in Monet's style
Maggie Re: All Australian Native garden - anyone attempted it? 14Oct 13, 2008 6:47 pm There seems to be a misconception that a native garden is a 'low maintanance' garden thanks to some TV shows.
This depends entirely on the particular natives used. Some natives are reasonably high maintanance if they are to be looking their best or they do end up straggly. A good example of this is the Grevillea which requires tip pruning most the year round if they are to stay dense and full of flowers. My all-native garden in Sydney before I moved was an example of this - I had 43 different species of Grevilleas in it among other natives. Re: All Australian Native garden - anyone attempted it? 15Oct 13, 2008 7:23 pm Dukekamaya There seems to be a misconception that a native garden is a 'low maintanance' garden thanks to some TV shows. This depends entirely on the particular natives used. Some natives are reasonably high maintanance if they are to be looking their best or they do end up straggly. A good example of this is the Grevillea which requires tip pruning most the year round if they are to stay dense and full of flowers. My all-native garden in Sydney before I moved was an example of this - I had 43 different species of Grevilleas in it among other natives. Our friend planted a row of Grevilleas. Some of them died despite his best efforts, and they are not low maintenance at all. But they do look great. Re: All Australian Native garden - anyone attempted it? 16Oct 13, 2008 7:49 pm Stonecutter, Have you seen this warning on the Federal Govt. Royal Botanic Gardens website?
Warning – P. alopecuroides is known to strongly self-seed. Therefore it is advisable to cut off the flowerheads before they shed their seeds and not to plant the grass near bushland. It has the potential to be invasive in some areas. Advice from South Australia Grass weed experts in South Australia have expressed concern about its introduction into that State because: P. alopecuroides could be planted outside its range and become more widely naturalised. P. setaceum (a weed from Africa) could be sold and distributed as P. alopecuroides as if it were native. This may already be occuring. P. alopecuroides could prove not to be native to Australia. I know you are not in South Australia but in New South Wales like me. I loved this plant also and in 1994 I planted it around my pool. It drove me mad as the seed heads blew everywhere and tiny plants shot up throughout my courtyard (between the pavers), down the side of my yard and it even ended up in my neighbours' yard 2 doors away. They were not hard to remove but it was a constant pain. I finally ripped it out when it began to get into the bush in front of my house. I tried to control it by cutting off the flower heads but this seemed to defeat the purpose of having it. I'm not telling you what to do but just letting you know of my experience. Edited to add: I assumed that this is the plant you referred to but further googling makes me wonder if Purple Lea is another sub group and my problems were with the common variety. I'll leave this up to someone more knowledgeable and I hope I have not worried you for no reason. Re: All Australian Native garden - anyone attempted it? 17Oct 14, 2008 8:22 am Hi Neverfinished
I saw the Purple Lea on the Ozbreed website the following: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Quote: Don't be confused... In this photo on the right we have the flowers of two varieties of Pennisetum alopecuroides. On the left side of the photo is the native, non-invasive Pennisetum alopecuroides. On the right side of the photo is the highly invasive African variety of Pennisetum setaceum. Unfortunately many people often confuse the native for the exotic and vice-a-versa. The plant apparently has low seed viability - that is, it is not supposed to spread with the wind like the pesky ones. Will have to confirm with them over the phone about this. After 4 years - we're in! Re: All Australian Native garden - anyone attempted it? 18Oct 14, 2008 1:28 pm Thanks Stonecutter,
When I look at the photo of the 2 seed heads, the invasive one looks closer to the one I had. Obviously marketing of plant species was not as advanced in 1994. I actually bought mine from an Australian native nursery. This reminds me of the gums which we planted in 1984 and which were decribed as small - growing no more than 12 metres. We planted 12 in the yard and one of them (Scoparia) must be one of the tallest trees in Menai. It towers over our yard (and the neighbours) Sorry to worry you. Obviously I should do more research before posting. At least this discussion has been of benefit to me because I loved the look of the one I had and now I can investigate planting some of the variety which is not a problem. Thank you. Sorry to the OP for going off topic. Re: All Australian Native garden - anyone attempted it? 19Oct 14, 2008 2:55 pm Neverfinished, don't worry about that - you never know when info like that might come in handy.
We currently rent a house that has a lot of natives and they are all deciduous. The amount of leaves and flowers these trees drop drives my husband and I to insanity sometimes. They LOOK AMAZING in spring.. but oh lawdy! What a complete PITA. Also have to agree on the fact that they are not necessarily low maintenance gardens. I have already managed to kill a weeping Lilly Pillie and a Canberra Gem Grevillea. The native grasses look promising. I will try to scout some out next time I am garden shopping Re: All Australian Native garden - anyone attempted it? 20Oct 14, 2008 3:09 pm I'm sure you can find stacks of great plants for a lush native garden in Brisbane. Planting a native garden can save you lots of money, as many plants can be purchased from tube stock nurseries for $1-$2 per plant.
Check out Greening Australia's website and QLD nursery. They also have information on what to plant in your suburb. http://www.qld.greeningaustralia.org.au/GAQOTSASP/ Anyone looking to do the same in Melbourne should visit the new Australian Garden in Cranbourne, where you can see heaps of native species in a garden context. Fig Landscapes has produced an e-book and native plant index, available for purchase from their website. It's a great resource, full of inspiration and tips. Another… 1 12239 A question. Im in Queensland and building a new home. We managed to reach practical completion 6 weeks ago but we haven't heard any date for handover yet. Who should we… 0 5805 This is one of the reasons I decided to go overseas for my double glazed windows. As the builder indicated, he's worked on many upmarket builds, these were the most well… 13 19225 |