With the average household using almost half of their water in the garden, we recently held a Facebook competition to celebrate community members who have successfully created water wise gardens and to inspire others to think about the small, easy changes they can make in their own to reduce our water use.
Hear from three of our community members about how they’ve created water wise and fire-safe gardens, and their top tips and tricks!
Jo Baker
Jo Baker, Kudardup resident and the winner of our Caring for Our Place competition, shared her beautiful water wise and fire-safe native garden. Jo is on 100% water tank and started planting a water wise, fire-safe native garden last autumn.
Jo said their new home has been built on a half-acre block that was formerly part of a sheep farm, so they're starting with a blank canvas.
“We began by picking the brains of the green thumbs at Everyday Potted Plants and Geographe Community Landcare Nursery for drought-tolerant and fire-retardant native plant recommendations. We went with a mix of wattle, westringia, saltbush, pig face, Dianella and Lomandra varieties with a few pops of pink and blue flowering natives”.
With no lawn or reticulation, Jo just has drought tolerant native plants that only require occassional water in extra dry conditions once they're established.
"We're hand watering twice a week for the plants' first two summers using watering cans and a hose. And we're finding that most are quite happy with only 10 to 15 seconds of watering at a time."
"We've implemented a few basic rainscaping techniques, including small berms and half moons to catch as much water as possible."
In addition, Jo shared some other tips:
- We've heavily mulched the beds to the front and east sides of the house and a small amount of mulch around the perimeter windbreak shrubs. However, we've discovered that mulching is encouraging plant-eating pests such as weevils and earwigs! In fact, the only plants we've lost were aggressively attacked by these pests. Everything else is doing well on just two short waterings per week, so far.
- Our windbreak shrubs have ollas made from old milk bottles, sunk into the ground to slowly release water directly to the roots (see image below). Larger shrubs and trees have a piece of PVC pipe to water directly down to the roots.
- Our septic drainage field is planted with drought-tolerant septic-safe native grasses and saltbush. We invested in a larger water tank and solar panels rather than an ATU system.
- The front fence is planted with three varieties of local drought-tolerant, septic-safe native climbers (sadly, only one of these varieties has stood up to the leaf-eating pests).
- We're hoping to plant up the garden mandala with a few fruit trees, herbs and veggies this autumn and will be using the ollas and half moons there too. It may be reticulated with drippers eventually, otherwise, that's going to require a lot of hand watering!
Amy Regenerative Gardening
Amy's large 2,000sqm garden is situated on a slope with gravelly clay soil, and was previously cleared over 70 years ago and has since been used for viticulture and horse adjistment, resulting in no existing topsoil or organic matter, making the soil very hard.
Amy shared that the local natives that they planted less than two years ago are no longer irrigated and are surviving this summer.
Here's what Amy has done:
- We have added additional mulch and compost, and used coconut coir waste in the bottom of the planting holes. This has been very effective at improving soil water retention and enhancing our clay soils, with less environmental impact than peat
- To prepare the soil for planting, we used a mix of bush mulch, aged manure, and grape waste (peel and seeds), topped with mulch from local arborists. Much of the garden is planted with local native plants. Living near Marri and Karri forests, we have chosen understory plants that naturally thrive in this environment. These plants were sourced from local seeds at Geographe Landcare Community Nursery, Everyday Potted Plants, and some self-propagation at home.
- Additionally, we have planted edibles in on-contour swales. These swales capture and manage rainwater, making it available for plants. This area is on a gentle slope, which makes this possible. Swales are shallow trenches dug along the contour lines of a slope. When it rains, water flows into these trenches, slowing down and spreading out evenly along the swale, preventing erosion. The water then gradually sinks into the soil, recharging groundwater and providing moisture to plants over time. We have also mulched the trenches, so they double up as pathways. In time, we plan to divert water from the house rooftop to flow overland via a dry creek bed into the trenches, increasing the water captured and provided to plants.
Image: Swale on countour - Amy Regenerative Gardening
Image: Half moon (Demi-lunes) - Amy Regenerative Gardening
Margaret Moir
Margaret Moir shared her aesthetic water wise garden in Margaret River which has very dry stony gravel and no lawn or reticulation. Margaret has never used any soil additives or fertilisers, only uses the mulch that exists on the block and advised that the only watering that is done is for food plants in self watering pots, hand watering of areas close to the house for fire reasons and some low water for potted plants on the verandahs!
Here's Margaret's fantastic tips for the community:
- Every summer seems tougher than the last one so it’s essential to know your soil and microclimate to guide your plant choices
- Choose things that like your soil and climate, not the other way round. There is a native plant that will like your soil and conditions no matter how impossible they seem.
- Low water use includes all your inputs – try to choose your plants so you can minimise or entirely avoid fertilisers, sprays and soil amenders. This saves work, money and resources.
- Plant trees - big or small, no garden is complete without a tree.