I forgot Pelargoniums and some geraniums.

When I first moved to my new garden in Castlemaine, some 15 years ago, I realised I would not have a lot of time for gardening, and although I had gardeneed from early childhood, I had just got the bug big time. I had come from a garden with excellent water retention, to one that was sitting on the top of a very porous hillside, with scant topsoil. I definitely wanted flowers - not so much big and blowsy, as plentiful - cottage style.
I decided to make myself a long list of what I liked that WOULD grow there. I used Kevin Walsh's "Water-Saving Gardening" published in 1993 by Reed Books, as a resource, and spent several evenings going through forst the "High drought tolerance" plants, then the 'Medium drought tolerant" plants and simply made a long list of those I really liked. The lists are extensive, and include all types of plants, giving brief descriptions, and some cultural info. Only a few photos in the book, but a big plus for me was that the author was a local.
My garden was lovely (in my eyes at least) and I was sad to leave it. The new owners pretty much ripped it up after they found a snake the first week. The got rid of anything that provided ground cover - LOL. Didn't really upset me - they didn't deserve my garden, and I had taken lots of it with me.
Rather than lists - how about some good resourses - either in book form or online?
My need for drought tolerent plants has been greatly reduced with my move here, as the soil is more water retaining, and the rainfall a little more reliable.

Here is a link that might be useful: Tips from Kevin Walsh

Hi Sparaxis,

I am relatively new to gardening it is only a few years that I have been really obsessed. I grew up without a garden and then for many years moved from Naval quarter to naval quarter when my husband was in the Navy. Most of our houses we lived in a short time and this is my first home I have lived in for a long period. Nearly 14 years. My garden has been very trial and error. I did the walk around the neighbourhood thing to see what was surviving in other people's gardens. Does the book you mention talk in details about the sort of soil each plant will survive in? Because my soil is so alkaline clay and on limestone it is not suitable to many plants. I probabaly could do with a book for people gardening in Adelaide to discover some different drought tolerant plants I could try. I also like the cottage garden look.

Shelley

You know the most drought tolerant plants for your area are the ones that naturally grow there. Look at your aspect, soil type, drainage, average rainfall etc, then choose some plants which grow very close to your area. The local council will have lists of these plants. You will be amazed at the type of plants available.

That is if you WANT to grow native plants. Or coffee bush, gorse and blackberries, orother weeds that have become endemic in the area. Personally I don't.
Shelley you would need to refer to other books for specific plant needs, which is fair. This book is specifically to point people in the direction of drought tolerent plants. It is a small hard back - only 190 pages or so.
There are heaps of books that deal with specific requirements. You could even try the library.

Thanks pos for your suggestion. I went to the native nursery but because we are coastal and on limestone many of the native plants still aren't suitable as they like well drained soil and not as alkaline soil. I can't say I have seen many natural shrubs on the reserves. Trees I am have but it is under storey plants I want. As I said I have found exotics that grow.

Thanks Sparaxia for your info, yes that would be a good idea to cross reference the drought tolerant plants and see what would tolerate my soil. I will see what the library has.

Shelley

All the way from Adelaide
http://www.hortulusaptus.com/gotstn.html

And here it is in blue :-)

Here is a link that might be useful: Gardens of the Sun

Is this book available in Australia. I checked Dymocks online and they dont have it. The last book I ordered from Amazon took 2 months to get here and a fortune in postage, I am not using them again.

Shelley

Sparaxis,

Coffee bush (Cassinia arcuata) is in fact a valuable pioneer native Australian plant. It is ubiquitous on the Central Highlands of Victoria and is generally associated with disturbed ground. It is also great for bird habitat and as a food source especially for lots of Parrots. It is known to be great protection for the Red Rumped Parrot which is endangered.

I used to live just out of Castlemaine, owning 250 acres with a group of folk who I still visit. As soon as we got rid of the stock, Coffee Bush started growing. It got to be very dense and dominated most of the open land. However we have not bothered to eradicate it and it has proved invaluable. It stopped a lot of the erosion and provided excellent habitat.

Now, twenty years later, the Coffee Bush has well and truly lost its dominance. It has a rather short life span and has died down while other more permanent natives are establishing themselves (with our assistance). There is a theory that once the nutrient level of the disturbed soil settles down the Coffee Bush loses its dominance.

When we first saw it twenty odd years ago, the locals reckoned it was an introduced plant that the Chinese brought out with them. Well that has been proved to be nonsense.

I knew that :-) Thanks Robert, I remember that now. We broke ours down and let it compost. It drops good mulch and the soil underneath was of good quality, even though not a very thick layer. We only had a small area of coffee bush because much of our block was being grazed by kangaroos, and had very good stands of 'kangaroo grass'. Much of the coffee bush was where we were building, and the rest was in an area that I planted out with native shrubs, amongst the young eucalypts. The new owners ripped out anything that grw above 4 foot, or had foliage at ground level that snakes could hide under. Very sad. I DO actually grow native plants, and when I do I am somewhat of a purist, not mixing them with non natives. we have an acre here, and I have just replaced an area of around 1/8 of an acre of grass that had to be frequently mowed, and went brown in summer. Much of the topsoil taken out for the carport, was spread over this area, and covered with eucy mulch, and I have planted it out thickly with natives, with a few paths running through. Will take some photos when I get time. It links our block visually to the crown land over the road.