Native design Tips
A little music to contemplate with.
Native foliage gives you depth and character in your garden, provides architecture with strong defined edges and graceful contours, living earthy texture, incredible bright colours and festival of helpers to your door.
We are spoilt for choice.
Pin cushion (hakea laurina). A beautiful little tree with amazing burst of circular floral displays that reminds me of the sun or universe. 4 to 6 m tall by 2 m wide with brown reddish stems and dark green to red leaves, looks fantastic as a cutting for the indoor vase.
Selecting beautiful natives plants is like painting with foliage, it is about the experience of choosing that plant that speaks to you, choose your own colours and palette and experiment with green space.
At the bottom of this article are easy to follow planting tips to start your garden with.
Planting a little garden will increase the value of your property or apartment by 10 to 20%, native plants will open a door for you to see and feel the bigger picture, of restoration of local habitat, climate and the inclusive feeling of genius loci ‘spirit of place’ .
Below is small selection of native plants I love to include, when I can in my garden design.
Upper Story Natives
The Wattle
Acacia podalyriifoli
3 to 5 m tall and wide a beautiful small tree
From winter to late spring the wattle simply glows with clusters of round golden canopy of flowers. A beautiful foliage plant both in the garden and in the vase with soft velvet like blue-green to silver wide Phyllodes (leaves).
The Wattle is a part of the legume family which has the ability to take nitrogen gas (N2) out of the air and convert it to a form of nitrogen which is a great source of health for other plants to use around the wattle.
For the Aboriginal people of Australia the wattle is an important support plant.
The seeds were crushed into flour which contains fats, protein and carbohydrates and moulded into a bread called damper, they say that Aboriginals were kneading dough before the Romans had discovered bread.
A graceful and useful tree.
Illawara Tree
9 to 12 m in height and width
With a smooth bronze wrinkly bark, hooked prickles scattered on trunk and branches; leaves with 3 leaflets, up to 180 mm long. The tree is leafless for up to 4 or 5 months of the year. The strong scarlet red flowers with horn like tubes with tiny hair like anther and filaments showing are borne in dense clusters in spring. The leaves of summer are love heart in shape with light to dark green tones and as large as your hand, while inviting a festival of helpful birds and insects.
Corymbia ficifolia
2.5 to 5 m tall and wide
One of Western Australian most prolific flowering trees as seen in king park and all around world.
The perfect little tree for courtyards or to shad that bedroom or kitchen. Hybridised trees come in colours of light to dark pink flowers with yellow centres, light to bright orange, bright scarlet red and summer snow of white. The leaf is a elongated dark green with a red lines running through the centre and when cells are bocken it releases a scent of fresh eucalyptus. The cut stem, leaves, nuts and flowers look delightful indoor.
And all will invite helpful birds and insects to the door.
Little Ghost Gum (Eucalyptus victrix)
Hight 3 to 6 m tall and wide
A small slender tree with crickley white and bronze bark. Forms its own character, with lateral branches twisting and reaching out with the body slightly bending to the light. Long green elegant leaves with straight lines, with white creamy flowers from November to March. Planted as a grove along a back or front fence will soften and cover hard lines while gracefully hanging over the native garden below.
The Understory
Cockies Tongues (templetonia Retusa)
2m high to 2 m wide
The Templetonia retusa belongs to the pea flowering and legume family which encourages good bacteria and fungi in your soil. The once a year pruning of this shrub is not to go into the greens bin but into your compost pile for the breakdown of rich nitrogen which transfer to your plants and garden. This flowering shrub is a natural hedging or screening plant softing walls and fences, while providing habitat. Showing bright burnt orange colours with long stigma curling out. The flowering stems are firm with light to dark green textures and rounded soft leaves, the perfect cutting for your vase indoors.
grevillea red orange
Grevillea rivularis
Grevillea candelabroides mingenew
Grevilleas
From small tree to ground covers
this family offers a fascinating array of colour, structure and habitat.
A light prune after flowering will help to hold the shape and bring back wonderful colours and healthy green foliage. Which will invite native birds and butterflies to your garden.
Flor Grevillea
Native hibiscus (alyogyne Huegelii)
1.5 high by 1 to 1.5 wide
A member of the hibiscus family with a graceful disposition. Colours of mauve, pink, light pink and hints of blue. Sits comfortably on any balcony.Patterned leaves of light green and soft crinkled edges, flushes of flowers summer to autumn. Can be mixed into a garden or vase for indoors.
The Ground floor
Native Grasses, Groundcovers and flowers.
Grass ecology
Prickly spear grass (Austrostipa stipoides)
Kangaroo grass Themeda triandra
Knobby Club rush (ficinia nodosa)
Native grass ecology, big or small do not thirst for water, and encourage networks of fungi in your soil.
Grasses can render and bring a garden together, planting in pattern or random placement.
A patten can work by using similar species to contrast in lines or circles.
Using tall clump grasses between natives or trees gives texture and movement with ease in the afternoon breeze.
Wonderful Native flowers
Swan River myrtle (Hypocalymma robustum)
smoke bush (Conospermum triplinervium)
Morrison Fertherfloer (Verticordia nitens)
Our native flowers are grown for the multi million dollar cut flower market. Because they are visually dynamic grow no taller than a metre, survive long dry summers and rehydrate over winter rains.
Visit your local wildflower associations for variety and choice.
Plant sequences of colours and contrasts
Grow some wild flowers with seeds. Simply throwing around by hand to soften and brighten the ground with Paper flowers.
Visit your garden on a gentle warm day to be thrilled by a festival of helpful birds and insects hoving and darting around your natural world you have made.
Couch Honeypot (Banksia dallanne)
Sundew (Drosera stolonifera)
Summer fraseri (Calytrix fraseri)
Covering Ground
Groundcovers spreads, covers, rambles and reach over and under all parts of your garden. A variety of ground cover will soften hard rocky edges, bring unity to a landscape while gently focusing onto sutler parts.
A diverse native garden will reduce, suppress and even stop weeds from appearing.
While holding in moisture over hot summers days.
Rule of thumb
For every 7 plants add 1 or 2 groundcovers.
Myoporum parvifolium
Salmon correa (Correa pulchella)
Ruby salt bush (Enchylaena tomentosa)
Chrysocephalum apiculatum
Lavender grevillea (Grevillea lavandulacea)
Mixed Grevillea ground covers
genius loci ‘spirit of place’ from seasonal planting over time.
Native Planting Tips No 1 ....
Follow easy tutorial video for any Native planting.
The ingredients shown in this video are as follows "Always follow safety guideline when using products"
The Ever important Wettasoil Baileys Grosorb, WA Made :)
Blood & Bone (Richgro), WA made
Rock minerals (Richgro) WA made.
Please ignore the statement in the video on slow release fertiliser use, I meant to say Rock minerals.
Small amounts of pelleted Manure chock poop.
Use the sandy soil you dig up in your garden for the native plant. If you do not have any soil you can purchase Native soil mix by the bag or from a friends backyard.
and remember to water your new plant over the hot summer for 2 years and adding a handful of fertilising every 6 month.
Article written by Paul Lambert of
Beneficial Gardens Sustainable Landscapes
Western Australia.
Credits
Pincushion Hakea (Hakea laurina) By JJ Harrison (https://www.jjharrison.com.au/)
Cockies Tongues (templetonia Retusa). Left image Lullfitz nursery, Right image By Kevin Thiele from Perth
Native hibiscus (alyogyne Huegelii) image supplied by https://mansfields.net.au/
Knobby Club rush (ficinia nodosa) image from LEPMG, Themeda triandra kangaroo grass By Peripitus Own work,
Wonderful Native Flowers
Swan River Myrtle right by Gardening with Angus, left image by Margaret Donald
Drosera stolonifera left image Darwiniana, Right image Cygnis, Morrison Fertherfloer (Verticordia nitens) By Muriel Bendel , Banksia dallanne image by JarrahTree , Summer fraseri (Calytrix fraseri) By Hach3, Chrysocephalum apiculatum by Harry Rose from South West Rocks, Australia, Conospermum triplinervium - smoke bush Gardening with Angus.
Covering Ground
Ruby Saltbush (Enchylaena tomentosa) By Raffi Kojian, Grevillea lavandulacea By Melburnian, Salmon correa (Correa pulchella) By Stickpen