Landscaping in Western Australia

Having just returned from a christmas break to australia to see family i was stunned by landscaping in and around Perth, Western Australia. You may be thinking is it good or bad? Well there are two aspects, first the good.Obviously they have the weather, so plants grow big. You only have to look at the agapanthus in my pictures to see that. They tend to grow large plants and lean towards the Balanese style with palms, banana trees etc. Foliage is everything and the bigger the better. Coupled with a covered spa or surrounding a beautiful pool which most of the time has a waterfall flowing into it you can't help but think you are on a tropical island. The onlydown side to a pool visually from a gardeners aspect is it has to be (by law) surrounded by a pool fence and they do detract from the visual aspect.Most properties have reticulation or automatic watering systems. This enables lawns and gardens to be watered on a timed basis. With exceptional heat you are only allowed to utilise clean water on certain days of the week depending on the postal district, so automatic watering is essential so you don't miss out on watering your garden. If thats not enough you can get a company to instal a borehole for deep underground water, but it stinks and turns everthing brown, but a borehole is essential if your in the out reaches where there is no piped water and the only water you have is collected from the roof during thunderstorms. So you don't want to waste that on the grass.Alot of the garden edging or lawn edging is done by a machine. Yes a machine. You basically excavate the chosen line of edging, position your machine, insert the required former/die. Mix your concrete mix and throw it in the hopper. The machine forces it through the former and moves along by itself as it pushes the concrete out. Impress your design into the concrete, colour and seal and you have instant kerbing. As always its slowly made its way over to the UK and is available in a form of franchise, typical. Thet even lay freeway and raodside kerbing with larger industrial machines.So whats the down side. Well based on my view on a hard landscaping basis. Its got to be product diversity. If you love limestone you will be in seventh heaven, if you like block paving you will get a broad range of products but that where it stops. In Perth everthing is built on sand, including the houses(no foundations just a concrete pad). So paving primarily needs to be flat, not like the uneven surfaces you would get on the laying side of indian sandstone. Even the retaing walls are built from limestone blocks. But on the sunnier side you do get a beautiful finish on paving and they even do the pool edge bull nosing to match the paving. Your just limited on colour. There are other coverings you can have, for instance you can have a coloured spray on concrete and stencils to make it look like crazy paving or slabs. I'd prefer the real thing myself.As with all blogs and the legal ramifications that could follow, please be aware that these are my thoughts on the small amount of time that I looked at the landscaping possibilites in Perth, I am sure that a landscaping company working in Perth would say what a load of rubbish, but please be aware that i have only had a small snapshot.That said and done changing the way you lay paving from cement to dry laying on sand wouldn't be difficult. Working in 30+ degree heat would be a killer, but most start early finish mid afternoon and hit the beach or cool off with a beer. They don't like working weekends as this is there lesuire time. Sounds like my kind of life.I could rabbit on but this blog would end up being twenty pages long so i finish off. Hope you've enjoyed it.

"They tend to grow large plants and lean towards the Balanese style with palms, banana trees etc. Foliage is everything and the bigger the better"

Have to say I am very envious of the style of gardens that you have described. It would be wonderful to have a tropical oasis outside the back door especially with the huge Agapanthus (one of my favourites) growing to such a fantastic size.

The machine sounds like takes a lot of the hard work out of laying edges and a great time saver, but also sounds like it takes the 'handmade' out of landscaping. But to be fair, working in 38 + degrees, think any one would look for a quick fix!

Probably a good job that it is generally cold or wet here otherwise we may all loose our landscapers to the surf board by lunchtime. Welcome back.

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Comments

Kerrie John-The garden design Co January 14, 2009 at 7:58pm

"They tend to grow large plants and lean towards the Balanese style with palms, banana trees etc. Foliage is everything and the bigger the better"

Have to say I am very envious of the style of gardens that you have described. It would be wonderful to have a tropical oasis outside the back door especially with the huge Agapanthus (one of my favourites) growing to such a fantastic size.

The machine sounds like takes a lot of the hard work out of laying edges and a great time saver, but also sounds like it takes the 'handmade' out of landscaping. But to be fair, working in 38 + degrees, think any one would look for a quick fix!

Probably a good job that it is generally cold or wet here otherwise we may all loose our landscapers to the surf board by lunchtime. Welcome back.