Creative landscaping goes beyond pragmatic elements of gardening, such as growing vegetables, to focus more on the decorative desire of having a beautiful garden.

Many people can be unsure of how to approach landscaping. That’s why we have created this blog to share some of our landscaping ideas to help you get started.

Choose Your Plants With a Year-Round Approach

The harsh reality of gardening is that some of the most beautiful plants and flowers you could choose are only in season for a few months every year.

That doesn’t mean that you should avoid them entirely, it just means that your whole garden shouldn’t be reliant on them as it will leave you with a dull garden for the vast majority of the year. Tree choice is just as important, if you’ve planted something which sheds just when you are wanting the shade, or you’ve planned trees as a screen but they are bare half the year, then you will not be satisfied with your garden.

One element of ornamental landscaping is building key parts of your garden with year-round, all-weather-friendly plants to have a consistently beautiful garden year-round.

Install an Outdoor Seating Area

Nothing can be more relaxing than sitting outside on a lovely summer’s day. It’s perfect for barbecues, get-togethers or just some quality you time!

Some landscaping projects will call for the installation of a patio to improve the aesthetics of your garden. You can use outdoor furniture, pot plants, screens or lighting to add a decorative touch to your outdoors, and really make the patio a feature in your garden.

A gazebo is also a fabulous romantic addition to a garden, and while you can make it a focal point in your creative design, it is also a very functional way to create year-round covered seating in your garden.

Sometimes Less is More With Creative Landscaping

A common mistake people make when it comes to creative landscaping is overfilling and overcrowding their gardens with features and fixtures.

It’s easy to get carried away in the buzz of a project only to realise afterwards that you went a little overboard.

One of the aspects of a beautiful garden is leaving enough space to enjoy it and make the feature pop. By tackling a creative landscaping project step by step you can take breaks in between to observe and see how much will be enough for your garden.

Why not make a list of some ideas you have and then prioritise them by preference and install them in that order?

That way you won’t overcrowd your space but will still have the gorgeous features you really care about.

Make Full Use of a Walkway

Let’s say there is a feature in your garden that you love. It could be a seating area, or a water feature, or even a favourite flowerbed.

By creating a walkway, you can highlight and draw out areas of interest in your garden and make them appear more welcoming. It also provides safe access year-round even when wet and muddy.

Why not try planting on either side of the walkway to create a beautiful and grand walk up to your home? Or add solar lights along the path for a magical and welcoming touch at night?

Walkways can also add colour by using stones and gravel or create a break between brightly coloured plants by paving in a single, plain colour.

Creative Landscaping Services for Perth Gardens

Here at Perth Landscaping, we are proud to deliver professional services and high-quality results to our clients.

We take all jobs from paving and planting to creative landscaping and design – and we are full of creative landscaping ideas!

If you are in Perth and need help bringing your landscaping ideas to life, contact us today.

More specifically, garden design crosses your mind.

Maybe you’re finally finding time to get started on that garden you’ve always dreamed of. Or maybe you’re looking to change it up.

Regardless of where you’re at in the gardening phase, here are some top ways to get the most out of your garden.

1. Use Variety in your Garden Design

There are many elements you can focus on to really make your landscape shine as an oasis while reflecting your personality and style.

Consider the following elements:

Colours

Bright, vibrant, and maybe even a little whimsical, colours evoke draw the eye and arouse emotion. The colours you choose can add to your theme, like bright strong colours in a tropical themed design, or create a calming space like using blues and greens to rest the eyes. Read our blog on using colours in a garden design for more.

Shapes

Using various shapes of plants can function as a method of dividing space. Differing plant shapes can also invoke creative architectural stimulation. Instead of always straight lines in your garden beds, use curves to draw the eye to certain focal points in your garden design. Cotten steel edging is a great way to create shape and seperate areas of your garden such as the lawns from the beds. When designing, don’t be afraid to experiment with drawing the same features; walkway, paving, lawns and beds, multiple times in different shapes to find the one that works best in your space.https://perth-landscaping.com.au/landscape-construction-perth/perth-paving-services/

Texture

Mingling textures of plants will make you stop and appreciate the effect they bring to the landscape design. Texture arouses emotion – you can’t help but want to touch each one and feel the difference. Creating layered effects within your garden beds or hedging adds interest to your design and allows you to plant for every season so you always have something flowering or green year-round.

Contrast

Combining colours, shapes, and texture provides you with contrast. Contrast works to show off the differences of each plant and keep your design interesting. Depending on your theme, you can use plants, trees and even features in your design like sculptures and gravel or mulches, to add colour and interest to every area of your garden.

A garden is a reflection of you, after all.

2. Make your garden work for you

One of the most common ways you can make your garden work for you is by planting fruits and vegetables.

Rather than taking yet another trip to the supermarket to buy these food essentials, you can experience the payoff of growing your own.

There’s nothing quite like taking a bite of a crisp tomato grown right at home, or adding just-picked herbs to your meal.

What’s more, you can put your garden to work in other ways as well.

How?

By creating a relaxing haven that you can sneak off to when you just need some peace and quiet from a hectic day.

Studies show that there is an overall positive correlation with gardening and health. For example, gardening helps with:

• depression
• anxiety
• physical body
• life satisfaction
• quality of life

So how can you get your serene gardening on? Try adding:

• a water feature – there’s nothing like the calming sound of running water
• wind-chimes
• spiritual figures or fluid sculptures

3. Understand Your Landscape

While you consider what plants, colours, and shapes, make it a goal to understand your space. This means looking at:

• the size of your yard
• where the sun primarily shines
• where the shade is
• how big you want your garden to be
• the soil type and location of your area

With these aspects in mind, you will be better equipped to create a thoughtful design from your space.

Maybe you’ll want artificial lights lining a pathway to safely walk at night to your shed. Perhaps your flowers won’t grow in the place you had in mind because of light and shade. Maybe the tree you want to plant will grow too large for your section.

There are lots of aspects and questions to think about when it comes to a design. Read here for what to consider before a garden design.

Need help?

If you need any help in creating the perfect garden design, give our expert landscape gardeners a call or email us. We’ll be happy to help you every step of the way!

A pool is a must-have in Perth – it’s hard to get through those 40+ degree days without one! If you are looking to have a pool installed or wanting to create a gorgeous design for your existing pool that includes a lot of foliage, it’s important to have a good idea of what plants will look great without causing issues in the future. Most people would think to get a garden design before beginning to landscape their outdoors – but it’s just as important to have a good pool plant design before adding a bunch of plants to your pool area!

For example, some trees have very determined root growth, such as bamboo, umbrella trees and rubber trees, which can cause serious damage to your retaining walls or pool itself, while plants which attract bees and drop masses of leaves when it’s warm and you want to be swimming in clean and safe water, are probably not the best choices in close proximity to your pool.

IMPORTANT – Consider these before beginning to choose plants for your design…

• Do you have or plan to use limestone retaining walls in your pool design? This can make soils alkaline so make sure to choose plants which can cope with a high pH soil.
• Is your pool saltwater or chlorinated? If your pool is used as a bombing and playing area, not just causal dips to cool off, you will want to look for plants that are ok with being splashed (or drenched) with either salty or chlorinated water. A good tip; look for plants with silver, furry or waxy leaves – these are usually pretty happy to be near saltwater.
• Are you planting near a fence/wall? Fences heat up which then heats the soil so, combined with the reflection of the sun off the pool, your plants are in for a tough time. Choose hardy plants like our sturdy native Australian types that are used to hot and dry conditions, or make sure you feed and water the plants in your pool area a bit more than the others in your garden.

Where to start?

When designing your pool area, start with the larger shrubs/trees and choose where you want shade – maybe at one end of the pool so you always have the choice between sun and shade? Stay away from plants like the stunning Jacaranda which, sadly, have fine foliage, flowers, seed, pods, bark and twigs… the bane of any pool-owner’s existence. Remember – you will be cleaning that pool so choose plants that won’t make your life harder!

Note: although deciduous plants would seem to be on the ‘naughty list’ for a pool plant design, they tend to shed during winter in Perth. They do however hang on to their leaves in summer, so are worth considering if you love them and want to include them in your garden design.

Larger trees and shrubs that work well around pools are…

(these are also all limestone-tolerant)

• Hakea laurina or also known as Kodjet, Pincushion Hakea – can reach 5 meters in height.
• Hakea petiolaris or the sea-urchin Hakea – can grow 2-9m high.
• Leptospermum sericeum or Silver Teatree – can grow up to 1.5m, makes an excellent hedge.
• Banksia integrifolia or Coast Banksia – can grow 5m or higher depending on location
• Dodonea viscosa purpurea or Purple Hopbush. Can grow up to 5m tall
• Adenanthos sericeus or Woolly Bush – cand grow 3-5m tall.
• Acacia saligna or coojong, golden wreath wattle, orange wattle, blue-leafed wattle and Western Australian golden wattle – depending on the sub-species chosen they can grow from 2-8m tall.
• Acacia coriacea or river jam, wirewood, desert oak, wiry wattle or dogwood
• Grevillea longistyla – can grow up to 3 – 4m high and 2 – 3m wide.

Privacy – create a natural screen

Nobody wants to have their relaxing swim interrupted by the prying eyes of a neighbour or see a nice plumber shot of the guy working next door when quietly sipping a drink by the pool. This is where a good hedge, or a green-screen (as we like to call it), comes in to prevent these unfortunate events from intruding on your little oasis.

Decide how high you need the hedge to be based on the pool design, often 1 – 2m will do quite nicely, and what kind of look you are after, formal and well sculpted or more natural.

Shrubs for creating your ‘green-screen’ include… 

• Ozothamnus diosmifolius or Radiance/Rice Flower – produces flowers almost year-round so avoid planting right next to the pool and increasing clean-up duty!
• Hibbertia cuneiformis or cut-leaf Hibbertia – WA native.
• Westringia brevifolia or ‘Lilac and Lace‘ / Coastal Rosemary – native and evergreen.
• Westringia ‘Wynyabbie Gem’ – native, grows dense and bushy.
• Eremophila or ‘Wild Berry‘ – native, also flowers year-round.
• Grevillea rosmarinifolia or Spider Flower – native, dense and bushy evergreen foliage.
• Banksia media or the Golden Stalk Banksia – native, grows in all soils – including sand.

Select plants to include in your design that are evergreen and flower in summer, making sure that your design looks good when you need it (swimming season!), as well as staying an asset to your landscape year-round.

The best way to make sure your pool is both a beautiful green haven and a safe and low-maintenance area, is to check with a professional landscape designer. They won’t just take looks into account, but will know what is best for your area based on soil, location, climate, and the myriad of other details that can’t be condensed into one blog post!

If you would like one of our landscape designers to help with your pool plant design, please get in touch – we can both design and install and would love to assist with your pool design!

As such, your outdoor space will be an expression of your personality and your style.

Your backyard is an extension of your home. It is no different than your living room, kitchen, or bedroom in that you want to your landscape to have as much character and style as the rest of your house.

It should come as no surprise that there are many style options to choose from when it comes to creating custom landscaping.

For that extra little something to really accentuate your landscaping, have a look at some of our tips below…

1. Light Up Your Custom Landscaping with Fairy Lights

The night sky is a majestic, awe-inspiring blanket that covers the land when the sun rests for the day. Wouldn’t it be great to create an enchanting display right in your own home?

Lights create a sense of magic and add an intimate, romantic atmosphere to any landscape; twinkling fairy lights, strings of rustic lightbulbs, mason jars full of lights or tea candles …

Take your outdoors to the next level with the creative inclusion of lights within your design.

2. Entertain with Fire

No, not fire breathers or baton twirlers. Consider adding a fire pit or fireplace to your backyard. Both are excellent additions.

A fire pit can serve two functions:

1. Operating as an open fire for you and your loved ones to gather around
2. Cooking food

Cooking food might give the fire pit an edge if you like to entertain friends and family at home.

There are many choices to choose from, including a fire pit built into a table. Selecting the best one might be difficult but go with your personal tastes and the overall style and theme of your garden.

A fireplace is another great option, though you typically don’t get the added bonus of cooking with one.

If you’re just looking for something to sit around and soak up the warmth, this would be a great addition to unwind with.

3. Add a Gazebo or Pergola

Maybe your ideal outdoor space involves hard landscaping. After all, what’s a fireplace without a cozy pergola or gazebo?

A pergola will add a characteristic flair to your custom landscaping design by creating rustic charm. You may even look to incorporate vines depending on the style you choose.

A gazebo can add either rustic or elegant charm. It serves a similar purpose as a pergola but typically comes with short walls and a floor.

Ultimately, it will come down to taste and what sort of style and feeling you’re looking to evoke with your landscape design.

4. Touch of charm

If you are looking for tranquil charm, the popular choice is to utilise features that look antiquated and simple, such as:

• A wheelbarrow (wooden or metallic) filled with flowers
• A trickling pond for that calming atmosphere the sound of water brings
• A wooden bench flowing with the natural shapes of the wood and blending into your landscape
• An abundance of plants – green or colorful

Using wooden materials will be a strong point in creating a rustic garden design, along with plants galore. Mix with fairy lights and you’ll be transported to an entirely new world.

Need help with your garden design?

These are merely ideas to help get the creativity flowing in making the most of your landscape design. If you need any help, contact one of our expert garden designers and we will be happy to help you create the garden of your dreams!

Of course, you should choose one you will love and which suits the design, but you also need to understand the long-term effects and nature of the tree – they can have a large impact on many areas of your design and garden.

Choosing Trees for Landscaping

Consult the often-asked questions about landscape trees questions below and our list of possible hazards before making your selection…

1. What is the size of your garden area, and how much space are you willing to have the tree occupy?

A large tree offers shade, can be used as a focal point for your design, keeps the garden & house cool in summer, provides entertainment for the kids and creates healthy air for you to enjoy in your garden. But consider how large it can grow before planting; if it grows too much and you aren’t prepared, removing it can be an expensive and problematic procedure, and a huge loss to the environment.

2. Function or Feature?

Are you looking to use trees for a functional purpose such as; screening from neighbours or street, shade and protection from the elements, to attract birdlife into your garden, for fruit, etc. Or maybe as a feature in your garden design, like a focal point, maybe for its colour or shape, for its fragrance, or to create a break or private area in your space.

3. Do you use your garden year-round?

All nature follows a cycle, and not taking that into account can create havoc with your design. For example, deciduous trees provide fabulous shade in summer, but lose all their leaves and are bare in winter. This can be great for letting in and making the most of the winter light, but if you used them as a screen within your design, suddenly you are exposed for months to prying eyes and lose your privacy. Not to mention dealing with a lot of leaves clean-up come autumn! Evergreens on the other hand shed lightly throughout the year and stay green during winter – but you can lose a lot of light because of that reason.

However, both have many great features which can be used to your advantage if carefully chosen and planned from the beginning.

Possible Hazards From Poor Selection and Placement of Landscape Trees

1. Problems from falling leaves/flowers/fruits

If the wrong tree is put in proximity to gutters, entertaining areas, or features like pools or waterfalls, then in autumn you could be facing fun problems like blocked drains, pools to clean, and guests wading through soggy, rotting leaves. Many trees look stunning but aren’t great in garden designs for people who want a clean, low-maintenance yard. Avoid trees like Jacarandas, Eucalyptus or trees with pine needles and cones.

Trees like Marri and Jarrah attract noisy cockatoos who will also shred and eat the tree quite happily, causing mess, damage and commotion. Often it is a matter of placement, so you can include a stunning Jacaranda tree in your design – just think carefully before you plant it!

2. Damage from root systems 

Some trees have strong and wide-spread root systems that can affect pools, paving, roads, drains, and underground systems. We’ve all seen that friend’s backyard where their prized tree has broken and cracked the paving, damaged their reticulation, or lifted up a wall – and just with its roots! Trees from the Ficus and Tipuana families, and many of the large Eucalyptus can cause problems with their root systems.

If you plant on your verge or are in the middle of developing, and more than one-third of the root system gets damaged by road-works or construction, it might not be able to recover and then you are left dealing with a potential hazard.

3. Proximity to neighbours

Overhanging trees can cause damage to fences and boundaries or, worst-case scenario, cause disputes between you and your neighbour that develop into a legal and financial problem. This can be avoided by regular pruning, careful planning and tree selection.

Is it Necessary to Prune Landscape Trees?

It’s a common mistake to assume that trees ‘need’ pruning. Apart from commercial fruit trees, they really don’t. Unless it is a safety issue of potential falling branches, impact on property or due to damage, you can leave your tree to grow as large as it wants – and it will be happier and healthier that way!

How Can a Landscape Designer Help you Choose Trees for Landscaping?

A good designer should have extensive plant knowledge and, if you live in Perth, know all about our native trees and what works best in the Western Australian climate.

A designer will be able to assess your garden and know which landscape trees will give you the result you are looking for, while making sure your design is as safe and carefully planned as possible to prevent problems in the long-run.

They can also look at your existing trees and if and how you can incorporate them into your design. An experienced and creative landscape designer should be able to work a tree into your design – removing a healthy and fully-grown tree should be a last resort!

Remember; landscape tree selection is for the long-term, you are planning for the future. It is too common nowadays to simply remove perfectly good trees to make way for planting new ones that might seem to be the better option for a design. In Perth there are very few trees over 100 years-old – imagine if yours was the next to last that long!

Don’t let something as small as a poorly-chosen tree get in the way of your dream garden design – give us a call and our expert landscapers will help you out.

Climbers, or creepers, are plants which naturally grow up vertical structures such as cliffs, walls and trees using twining stems, tendrils, thorns and suckers. Many of these can also grow on a flat surface as a groundcover.

Climbers can be a gorgeous addition to every design and make walls, or any vertical space into a great feature in your garden.

How climber plants are used in a design

Climber plants can be used to hide an ugly wall or fence, soften aspects of your garden, create shade, form a privacy screen, or as groundcover.

Adding a trellis, archway or an arbour can create private spaces or form a focal point in your garden that will soften and complement the natural beauty of your landscape.

Why climbers can cause problems

Some climbers can cause trouble and even damage once they are well-established and form a large, heavy, fast-growing mass.

Once it has spread out and used up all the space you originally allowed, it will begin to encroach on surrounding parts of your garden. Climbers can smother smaller plants and shrubs, even trees, stealing their light, breaking, damaging and eventually killing them.

The sizable weight of a fast-growing climber can cause fences to lean or collapse, and its roots can dig their way into cracks in the mortar in brick or stone walls and damage or break them.

The dense growth can hide rats and wasp nests, prevent light and warmth from entering windows, and shoots can invade gutters and roofs forming fire hazards or blockages.

That’s a lot of doom and gloom, but by being aware of all the potential issues, you can plan ahead in your design and know how to prevent problems by careful planting, selection and maintenance.

Climbing plants to avoid

These are much less common as they well-known to be trouble, and in Perth can cause problems by invading bushland, but can still be hanging around in older gardens unbeknownst to the owner.

• Dolichos Pea
• Cape Ivy
• Climbing Groundsel
• Balloon Vine
• Cats Claw
• Moth Vine
• Morning Glory (blue or pinkish-mauve flowers)
• English Ivy
• Bridal Creeper
• Madeira Vine

These climbers grow rampantly and can quickly overwhelm a garden. The Morning Glory can kill birds with its toxic seeds and the English Ivy has aerial roots that will adhere for years on most surfaces.

Removing Troublesome Climbers

Sometimes climbers become too much and need to go and be replaced by something much more low-maintenance, but this can be a tough ask. You may need to call in a specialist.

In some cases, applying glyphosate will kill the climber, although it may take a few applications to completely eradicate it. Don’t worry about pruning it first as glyphosate works best with plenty of foliage.

Ivy is almost impossible to entirely remove. Glyphosate will brown the foliage but won’t often kill the plant. Cut through the stems at around waist height and the growth above will die and can be pulled down, however, digging out the roots may take years.

Vines with tubers, like Madeira vine and bridal creeper, are practically impossible to remove since the tubers will remain in the soil.

Do NOT dump green waste in bushland as it will invade and destroy the native plants. Either put pruning’s in the green waste bin or on the verge, or take to the dump in a closed trailer so seeds and cuttings can’t fall out and cause problems.

Safer climbing plants to use

Many climbing plants are able to be used for enough coverage without the risk of overwhelming, so choose from the list below or ask either garden centre or nursery staff (or a professional gardener) to recommend the right one for your space.

Here are just a few options – and there are many more!

• Jasmine
• Brazilian Jasmine
• Star Jasmine
• White Potato Creeper
• Snail Creeper
• Rata Vine
• Bleeding Heart Vine
• Purple Coral Pea

Popular Climbers – which require extra care!

You can’t live in Perth long without seeing the popular and lovely Bougainvillea around, but many people choose it for its looks and quickly realise how troublesome it can be.

The strong thorns will latch on to anything possible and help it grow to substantial heights – but they can cause serious damage and be very tricky (and painful) to prune. Use standard forms that can create a nice little tree for easy maintenance, or dwarf cultivars which can be container-grown. Prune mercilessly after flowering and it will bloom twice as well in the next season while also keeping those long canes in check.

This is just one example of a popular climber, and these others can also be used so long as they are located carefully and pruned often. Try not to let your climbers mix with each other as later removal will turn into a nightmare, as well as making pruning more difficult.

Other popular climbers which need careful maintaining are…

• Cape Honeysuckle
• Wisteria
• Pink Trumpet Vine
• Orange Trumpet Creeper
• Chinese Trumpet Vine
• Coral Vine
• Black-Eyed Susan

Climbers are high-maintenance and do come with some potential problems to be aware of. But, they can also add a lot of beauty to your garden and be an excellent addition to any design when planned and maintained correctly.

Make sure to consult an expert to cover your bases and ensure you know the best way to plant and care for your climbing plants. Contact us with any questions you have and we can even assist with the planting and maintenance for total peace of mind!

Your garden is your daily escape, your own slice of heaven as you relax in peace and quiet surrounded by nature… the dream.

So why not theme it and bring the tropics to your own backyard with a tropical garden design?

Create that Bali magic in your Perth home and go on holiday every day.

To start with, spend some time figuring out answers to questions such as;

• How will I use my space?
• What is my current lifestyle like?
• How much is my budget?

See here for more on what to do before hiring a landscape designer.

Once you have a basic idea of what you need to include, let’s create the look!

Foliage

Nothing says tropics like Frangipani, Bamboo and Palm trees! Tropical designs are all about using bold, bright colours such as red, orange, hot pink, and purple, in striking combinations throughout your garden. Even plants not tropical in origin can help create the look you are after.

Tropical looking Trees:

• Canary Island Date Palm (Phoenix canariensis)
• Frangipani (Plumeria rubra)
• Jacaranda (Jacaranda mimosefolia)
• Kentia Palm (Howea forsteriana)
• Weeping Fig (Ficus benjamina)
• Illawarra Flame Tree (Brachychiton acerifolius)
• Purple Orchid Tree (Bauhinia purpurea)
• Poinciana (Delonix regia)
• Banana tree (Musa balbisiana)
• Sacred Bali bamboo (Schizostachyum brachycladum)

Create green-screens with carefully placed trees and shrubs for a hidden oasis that is private as well as beautiful.

Shrubs to create a tropical garden:

• Lilly Pilly (Syzygium species or Acmena species)
• Bird of Paradise (Strelitzia)
• Cordyline Palm (Cordyline fruticosa)
• Mirror Bush plant (Coprosma repens)
• Hawaiian Hibiscus  (Hibiscus rosa-sinensis)
• Bamboo (Nandina domestica)
• Orange Jessamine (Murraya paniculata)
• Dancing ladies (Oncidium species)
• Sago palm (Cycas revoluta)
• Spiral ginger (Cheilocostus speciosus)

These are just some of the amazing plants you can choose for your tropical-inspired design – make sure to chat with your landscape designer for more ideas!

Water Features 

Whether your budget includes a pool or not, a trickling water-feature is the perfect way to add a touch of holiday magic to your garden. Hidden away in a corner surrounded by bamboo, or as a focal point dotted with lilies, a pool adds the sights, sounds and moisture you need, as well as that feeling of calm and serenity that is important to pull off your design.

Using natural materials like rock adds to the feeling of ‘escape’, try to stay away from anything that looks man-made and detracts from the overall look of an untouched paradise.

If you have a swimming pool, surround it with foliage and try to incorporate the tropical touch of a waterfall feature or rock edging to help it blend into your design.

Try adding a:

• Waterfall
• Pond
• Rock pool
• Fish pond
• Fountain

TIP: Floating plants such as Sacred Lotus, Yellow Water Fringe and the Snowflake or White Water Fringe, add a touch of beauty and tranquility to any pond.

Herbs and Spices

Even if you aren’t an avid cook, planting an Asian herb garden adds a delicious and authentic scent to your garden – and you might find they smell so good you’ll want to incorporate them into your meals!

Find a nice moist and cool spot and plant cardamom, kaffir lime, edible ginger, lemongrass, coriander and mint.

There are so other many ways to add a touch of the tropical to your design

• Consider using ground covers like Southern Blechnum Banksia, Leschenaultia formosa’Prostrate Red’ or Grevillea nudiflora instead of grass – reducing weeds and covering your landscape in a blanket of beauty.
• Add a Bali-style hut or outdoor bed to relax in, surrounded by bamboo and other foliage.
• Stone features – walls, statues and around pools.

We hope this has helped fuel your imagination for your tropical garden design, and if we can help in any way from design to installation, the Perth Landscaping team are who you need! Get in touch and we will consult, create and construct your dream design so you can get away without the getaway!

Colours and their varying shades and hues have a massive effect on the mood and perception of a garden design. Whatever theme or feel you are trying to convey within your design is heavily influenced by the colours you choose to use, in both plant and material selection.

What are you trying to create? A design that is intended to be relaxing and allow you to unwind might have a costal/water theme and include blues, violets and purples with a background of green. Or, you might instead choose an English garden theme and use more pinks and yellows with light-hued stone to create a warm and welcoming feel.

As you can see, the choice of colour is crucial to carrying off the right mood successfully. Your favourite colour might be blue, but if you are wanting a garden design that is tropical and dramatic, your colour scheme will need to include reds and oranges set against the green for a bright and striking effect. Blue would detract too much from that result if over-used.

Here is the low down on colour…

Cool Colours:

Blue-purple, violet, all shades of blue, blue-green, mint-green, and soft greenish yellow.

All blue-based pinks – mauve, lavender and ice pink.

Blue-based reds – crimson, magenta, burgundy and purple.

These create the perception of cool and quiet – although you can use the different shades and tones to dramatic effect within a design.

Warm Colours:

Strong greenish yellow, golden-toned yellows, gold, orange, tan and sienna.

Yellow-based pinks – champagne, cream, apricot, flame and salmon.

Pure and yellow-based reds – scarlet and pillerbox red.

Be aware of Perth’s very bright and sometimes harsh sunlight. Using these in their brightest shades and in large quantities can create an effect that is hard on the eyes. Using the warmer tints can be a better idea than the purest shades for use in large amounts.

Colours and the moods they can create.

Blues, violets and purples:

Think cooling – clean, calm, restful, shade, water/sea, relaxing and unwinding.

These are easy on the eyes at a distance and close up – even in Perth sun.

Use in high intensity shades for dramatic focal points in your design, as contrast for brighter colours or to give the illusion of length or distance, for example; line a path with flowers in these shades to make it appear longer and inviting to explore.

Green:

Think calming – nature, gentle, soft, life, harmony. Green is the background to life, and always the backdrop of every garden.

Easy on the eyes, green is physiologically and physically cooling in summer and used in the right shades is the perfect way to highlight the focal colours in your design. Harmonises well with blue and yellow and provides a strong contrast for red.

Yellow, gold and orange:

Think warm and hot – cheerful, sunshine, happy, tropical, beach, summer, bright.

Yellow colours are easy contrasts to white, blues and purples, and silver grey and blue grey foliage.

Tips – Don’t use cool red and pinks with pure yellows unless you want an awful clash. Be aware that a lot of the yellow foliaged and margined plants can burn or bleach in a Perth summer – some will need shade in the afternoons to stay healthy and happy. Orange can be used near reds if you also include a lot of pure green in that area of your design.

Red:

Think HOT – bright, dramatic, attention-grabbing, romantic, passionate, tropical, danger, flamboyant.

Red is great when used in tropical or Mediterranean garden designs to give that exotic flair to a garden. Use as accent or focal points to not overwhelm your design with too much drama, or make it hard to look at in bright sunlight. Placed in the foreground of a design it grabs attention and when placed at a distance, red creates an excellent focal point to draw the eye. Use with green to make it really pop.

White:

Think pure – calm, clean, organised, cooling, modern, or in sun, glary and bright.

When in full and direct sunlight, white is very hard on the eyes. We’ve all seen gardens with concrete slabs or light coloured pavers in a central area – you can’t see past them to anything else in the landscape. If you are designing a night garden however, white shows up in the moonlight for a gorgeous effect.

White goes well with most colours and contrasts wonderfully with red, purple and bright dark blue, and harmonises with the soft pinks and blues for a sweet, calm effect. Use as a connecting colour to link brighter colours in your garden, or to create a break between colour schemes.

Modern colour schemes often lean towards monochrome. White, black and grey are used for a clean and classy effect, with a simple background of green – usually ferns and plants with minimal colours and flowers.

Other garden design themes can be urban, desert, tropical, beach, or in a landscape or garden ‘style’ taken from cultural and historic gardens, such as Italian, English, Japanese, or Spanish colonial gardens.

Whatever style you choose for your own garden design, make sure to pay careful attention to your use of colour within it – this can make or break the final effect of your design!

For help selecting a theme, colours or designing your landscape, give our expert landscape designers a call – we would love to help you create your dream garden!

Sometimes autumn will stretch longer than usual or spring will come earlier, so even though technically winter is June – August, you can often get more time outside than you might think.

This means if you include landscaping for winter in your garden design, you can still get enjoyment from your garden in the colder months.

Ways Winter Landscaping Can Ensure A Garden That Still Looks Good in Winter

Maximise sunlight hours and exposure:

• Deciduous (which shed leaves annually) trees and vines are great for providing shade in the summer, and then with their bare branches in winter, allowing the light to get through.
• Add paving – this gives warmth by soaking up the sun during the day, as well as providing a safe dry and solid place for outdoor activities
• Plant with the lower position of the sun during the winter months in mind – making sure that lawns and gardens are planned well so they will receive enough sunlight.

Plan ahead when choosing plants for winter:

• Roses and tropical foliage are dormant during winter months, so this will result in them looking less attractive.
• Remember that deciduous trees will shed so if they were planted as a screen, won’t be able to hide that ugly fence or poorly-designed hardscaping once their limbs are bare.
• Use evergreens such as palms, ferns, shrubs, succulents and ground-covers to balance out the bare deciduous trees. Plant winter flowering plants around them for added green during summer, then enjoy their flowers in wintertime.

Trees – butterfly tree, Indian flame tree, Judas tree, Acacias; baileyana

Deciduous Trees (for letting in light):

Plane tree, birch, Chinese elm, Frangipani, flowering plum, Chinese tallow, Robinia

Good and Bad News for Winter Garden Maintenance…

Winter means less watering of plants and mowing of lawns as everything goes dormant and hopefully is being watered by Mother Nature. However, the weeds will flourish so no slacking off in that department or your lovely winter garden will be over-run before you know it.

Winter to early spring is maintenance time for a lot of your plants, so when planning your initial garden design, take into account how much winter garden maintenance you are prepared to do and select plants accordingly! If you plan your holidays around escaping Perth for the winter, you will need to account for hiring a good gardener to maintain in your absence so you can return to a happy and healthy garden.

If you have roses, they will need pruning while dormant to ensure they are healthy and ready to flower come spring. In Perth, the best times for pruning is anytime from June – mid-August.

Your lawn will be dormant so should require no fertilising during winter but, although you need to mow less, don’t stop altogether as those weeds will be anything but dormant.

In summary; when using a thoughtfully planned garden design, your outdoors can offer year-round enjoyment! Let your designer know to plan for both winter and summer use and you won’t be disappointed!

Have you incorporated landscaping for winter in your garden design plans? We’d love to hear more in the comments.

Need some help with your landscaping for winter?

If you need advice or help with your landscaping for winter planning and design talk to us at Perth Landscaping. Our experts can assist with anything from garden design to install – so get in touch today!

Here are the main things to think about before making your choice between installing a natural or synthetic lawn.

Artificial Grass vs Natural Grass Lawn

When choosing a lawn, you need to think about price, looks, long-term goals, and drainage… while synthetic might seem the simpler or cheaper choice, there are aspects that might make it unsuitable in the long term, so it’s important to take all points into consideration.

Things to consider include:

Location and Maintenance

Synthetic lawns are often suitable for places where a real, natural lawn won’t thrive, such as indoors, on verandahs and patios, underneath shade covers and in high-traffic areas. If you don’t have the time or inclination to care for real grass, you might decide it’s worth sacrificing the look and feel of a natural lawn for ease of care.

However, there are natural lawn varieties that can also suit these environments – for both full sun and shade. There are even varieties that are self-repairing and drought-tolerant. While it may take more maintenance, the benefits below may make it the right choice in the long run.

Cost – What Is Your Initial and Long-Term Budget?

Initially, the difference in cost is quite significant. Synthetic lawn can cost between $75 and $100 per square metre while real lawn is significantly lower at around $10 per square metre. However, the ongoing maintenance costs of an artificial lawn are minimal while natural lawns will incur costs such as mowing, weeding, watering and fertilising.

Natural turf can also be laid DIY relatively easily, which might save you money on installation, whereas artificial lawns can be extremely difficult to lay. Getting the joinings correct and the correct instructions to ensure it takes and doesn’t die off,  and many people choose to have professional installation for guaranteed results, which of course is an extra cost.

But, as we all know, time is money and both installs require a lot of hard yakka, as well as the right preparation and tools, so outsourcing to professionals for installation can save you time, money and a lot of hard work!

What Look Do You Value?

It’s true that a natural lawn may, at times, not look as lush and green as an artificial lawn, but there are varieties available that have been cultivated to maintain a year-round colour. With the proper care and irrigation; for example, a drip line you won’t see or have to think about, your lawn can stay healthy and green, with that healthy, natural look only real lawn can provide to your garden.

Synthetic lawns have come a long way over the years and now have a much better and more realistic look but do still maintain an unnatural shine. At the end of the day, your guests are going to know your lawn is fake – so is that important to you?

What Texture and Feel Do You Want From Your Lawn?

Both types of grass can provide a lawn that is soft and comfortable however it comes down to the fact that one is made of plastic and the other is natural and it is up to you which of these you prefer.

The major difference in the feel will become apparent during the warmer months when a synthetic lawn will heat up, possibly to the point that you shouldn’t let small children and pets play on it. A real lawn will remain around 15 degrees cooler and will act as a natural air conditioner for your whole property during hotter months. Plus, you can’t beat the feel of bare feet on cool, natural grass!

What Environment Do You Want?

An artificial lawn will not act as a filter to prevent pollutants from getting into waterways, does not work as a natural fire break around your home or absorb carbon and cannot produce oxygen as a natural lawn will.

Real lawns will require pest and weed control and fertilising, but you can choose whether you use chemicals or natural alternatives. But, if you chose chemical, the runoff will need to be controlled to ensure the chemicals do not reach the waterways. A natural environment is proven to be good for our physical and mental health and is especially important for children and pets to have real grass to play on.

What Level of Maintenance Can You Provide?

A synthetic lawn may seem to be maintenance-free but that is not true in the long term. Synthetic lawn will also require ongoing maintenance but in the form of brushing, and cleaning, particularly if you have small children and pets, as well as refilling twice a year to keep the grass blades standing up straight. Many people who have pets find that synthetic lawn ends up smelling and they don’t want to walk on it themselves after a while!

A real lawn requires ongoing care – mowing, weed control, pest control, fertilising, aerating and watering – to stay healthy and green. But if you are wanting a lush, natural environment for your family, it’s worth the extra effort. Read more here for

Some final thoughts on Synthetic Lawn vs Real Lawn for Your Garden

Synthetic lawns can be a great option for those suffering from allergies and won’t attract bees and other insects, however, this may affect the rest of the plants in the ecosystem of your backyard.

Natural, real lawn gets our vote here at Perth Landscaping – you just can’t beat the look and feel of real, lush green grass as the centre of your garden design. It’s better for the environment, keeps the pets happy, cools down your backyard and feels great to run and play on. Here are some expert lawn care tips from our sister company Perth Gardening Experts.

Artificial lawn has its place as a low-maintenance option, for cafes or apartment verandas, but, if you can put in that little bit of extra work, we’d go for natural lawn every time.

Need help choosing the right lawn for your property?

Talk to our team at Perth Landscaping to further discuss which option, natural or synthetic lawn, is best for your space, lifestyle and design goals.