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Drought Tolerant Gardens – Are You Watering Wisely?

Drought-tolerant gardens have been a popular choice for many  years and, if your isn't, summer is a good time to think about how you can reduce your water usage in garden. Heading for the succulent section of your local garden centre and planting Xerophytic desert plants might seem like the answer to a hot dry summer, but these don’t suit all climates or garden aesthetics, and with the other extremes of wet weather experienced in recent months, a lot of gardeners have found tha...

Rosa 'White Carpet' (Carpet Rose) 🏡 DIY Designs

The wonderful thing about groundcover roses is that they are highly disease-resistant, simple to grow, and they flower almost year round. They're easy to maintain AND there's no need for any fancy pruning. Just cut back hard in early spring to promote prolific flowering. Unfortunately, in a time when everyone wants low-maintenance plants, carpet roses often get dismissed as too 'boring'. I say, there's no such thing as a boring plant - just boring plant design! Sadly, carpet roses...

Lomandra 'White Sands' (Mat Rush) 🏡 DIY Designs

A beautiful, easy-care plant for creating impact in your planting schemes. Not all grasses give year-round impact the same way Lomandra 'White Sands' does. Maybe because this Australian native is, in fact, a rush not a grass. That means it copes with both damp and dry conditions. It's also tolerant of both full sun and shady conditions. Whether mixed with flowering plants, shrubs, or planted massed in large groups  Lomandra 'White Sands' is always a standout plant. It's perfe...

Ohiopogon 'Nana' (Dwarf Mondo Grass) 🏡 DIY Designs

Dwarf mondo grass is a tough little plant that pops up in many garden designs. It’s ideal for using between pavers instead of pebbles. The most commonly grown dwarf mondo in New Zealand is Ophiopogon 'Nana', which matures at around 100mm high. When you plant mondo it’s best to plant lots of small plants planted closely together, rather than a few bigger plants scattered about. Some professionals plant them around 10cm apart, using a staggering 200 plants per m2 😱.But don’t call the...

Ophiopogon 'Nigrescens' (Black Mondo)

Despite its small stature, 'black mondo grass' is a great plant for adding drama to a planting scheme. The narrow strap-like leaves give a grassy effect, and the unrivaled black colour makes a great contrast to other garden plants.Often used as an edging plant, 'black mondo grass' will also spread to form a dense, weed-supressing groundcover, maturing at around 200mm high. Best surface coverage is achieved when multiple small mondo plants are planted closely together, at around 100mm apart....

Nandina 'Lemon and Lime' (Heavenly Bamboo) 🏡 DIY Designs

🙊Shh, don't tell everyone, but I think this might just be the perfect small garden plant 🎉for all you low-maintenance, time-poor and novice gardeners.Nandina 'Lemon and Lime' is the green form of the common 'heavenly bamboo' plant (most people know the common old red types, and not everyone's a fan of those ).Growing to a nice, neat size of just 1m x1m size, Nandina 'Lemon and Lime is lush & leafy & reliable in both sun and semi-shade. Did I mention it's evergreen, so it'll even lo...

Best White Camellias for Hedges 🏡 DIY Designs

Camellia Sasanqua 'Setugekka' (Sasanqua Camelia)Camellia Sasanqua 'Early Pearly' (Sasanqua Camelia)Camellia Sasanqua 'Silver Dollar (Sasanqua Camelia)Also beautiful as standalone shrubs , these 3 white camellias are the ones that I suggest first for my garden design clients when they want a white flowering camellia hedge 🌳🌳🌳.Camellia's make excellent hedges for a few reasons including...✅They're evergreen (ie they keep their foliage all year) so they will give your garden year-ro...

Acorus gramineus 'Ogon' (golden variegated sweet flag) 🏡 DIY Designs

PLANTS FOR FREE!!Well, almost.....These small grass-like plants are super easy to grow and great value for money as the little tufts will spread naturally over time to form a dense ground cover. It’s like getting free plants!Fantastic, because like most small plants, you’ll get the best design impact if you grow them in groups or large drifts.💫Sweet flag is an excellent plant for foliage contrast and an interesting alternative to the small limey lomandras like ‘Little Con’,...

Escallonia 'Apple Blossom' (redclaw) 🏡 DIY Designs

🌱Talk about underrated!Here's a tough little hedge plant that should be giving poor old over-used Griselinia littoralis a run for its money 💫I say a tough 'little' plant but there are a a range of escallonia cultivars, so estimated mature sizes vary immensely, but it's a plant that can be kept clipped to size as a hedge 🌲🌲🌲.✂ Escallonias should be pruned after flowering (which is in early summer) has finished.No, it's not a NZ native plant, BUT it does offer diversity and it's a...

Ajuga reptans 'Jungle Beauty' (bugle flower) 🏡 DIY Designs

🌱This lovely little blue flowering feature plant is.... Ajuga reptans 'Jungle Beauty'. It's not the typical planting choice for between pavers, but sometimes it's good to mix it up 😁'Ajuga' aka 'bugle flower ' is a spring flowering groundcover ideal for shade and semi-shaded positions. It's pretty easy to grow, though it doesn't like 'wet feet'💦👣.Maturing at a petite 250mm high, one plant can spread 1–2 metres plus wide, as it spreads by rooting. However, for a fast cover, it'...

Lomandra 'Frosty Tops' (mat rush) 🏡 DIY Designs

🌾I love using THIS lomandra in my garden designs JUST AS MUCH as all the other lomandras 😅.What's not to like! 'Frosty Tops' has that gorgeous grey-green foliage that everybody is loving currently, and being very heat tolerant, it's a better bet for those of us gardening in a humid climate than grey-green than Festuca glauca (blue tussock) or Helictotrichon sempervirens (blue oat grass).Lomandra 'Frosty Tops' needs a lot of space, maturing at around 800mm+ wide. Growing to such a good size...

Farfugium japonicum 'Aureomaculatum' (leopard plant) 🏡 DIY Designs

What do you plant yours with?I'm adding a few of these spotty farfugium to my own garden, popping them in my shady, under the 🌳🌴🌳trees garden, next to my tractor seat ligularia (Ligularia reniforis 'Giganteum' where they'll have companion plants of grassy acorus (Acorus gramineus ‘Aurea’ )🌾🌾🌾and golden toned 'creeping Jenny' Lysimachia nummularia 'Aurea'.I was told recently that this spotted farfugium is more susceptible to slug and snail attack than the larger 'tractor sea...

Chamadorea costericana (Bamboo Palm / Costa Rica Palm) 🏡 DIY Designs

👀perfect to block out your neighbours, or an ugly view, ‘bamboo palm’ makes a fantastic screening plant and will give your garden a lush, tropical look ⛱ on quite a small footprint. *THIS IS NOT A BAMBOO* It is a clustering PALM 🌴🌴🌴.Chamadorea costericana forms multiple slender canes (rather than one tall trunk) in much the same way as bamboo - hence its common name of bamboo palm.With shelter from medium to high wind, this easy-to-grow palm will happily grow outdoors in t...

Philodendron 'Xanadu' 🏡 DIY Designs

👀This plant turns up in a lot of inspirational garden photos on social media, so I thought I'd share some insights, in case you need an excellent plant 🌱to grab during an impromptu garden centre trip🛒😀.🫶 One of the smaller philodendrons, ‘Xanadu’ rarely exceeds 1m x 1m in size. 🍃The leaves are the standout feature of this evergreen plant, and they become more heavily lobed as the plant matures. It makes an excellent potted specimen as it is very drought tolerant🪴and will...

Asplenium bulbiferum (hen & chicken fern / pikopiko) 🏡 DIY Designs

Hen & Chicken' fern is a versatile plant that can be used in so many garden situations. It's EASY TO GROW and it's a NZ native. It will look just as home whether you use it in a subtropical, woodland, classic or NZ native-themed garden setting. I find it a particularly good companion plant for larger leaf plants such as hydrangea and ligularia for three main reasons...🌱1. It enjoys the same growing conditions.👀 2. It tucks nicely into the base of large hydrangea shrubs and gives v...

Acacia cognata 'Fettuccini' (river wattle) 🏡 DIY Designs

🙃𝗜 𝗱𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘁𝗼 𝘄𝗮𝗹𝗸 𝗽𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗼𝘂𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝘁. 𝗜𝘁’𝘀 𝗮𝗹𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗼𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗯𝗹𝗲!Irresistibly shaggy, Acacia cognata 'Fettuccini' (common name - river wattle) is a tactile Aussie native plant that is easy to grow and care for (if a little pricey 😅).🌞 Sun-loving (and also happy in semi-shaded situatio...

Cordyline 'Show Off' (slender palm lily) 🏡 DIY Designs

🙃Such a showoff!This is one of the best foliage plants you'll find for skinny spaces and slender eye-level screening. A perfect candidate for the side yard or narrow boundary strip. It'll grow to a modest 2.5m high maximum while remaining less than 600mm wide. It forms multiple stems from the base of the main plant over time which may increase the width, but these are easily removed if needed.The long green leaves have purple-tinged tips and overall the plant has a very bold and sculptural fo...

Carex oshimensis ‘Feather Falls’ (variegated Japanese sedge) 🏡 DIY Designs

❤️I'm a great fan of this lovely grass-like sedge.Carex oshimensis ‘Feather Falls’ (commonly called ‘variegated Japanese sedge’ ) is a well-behaved, mid-sized sedge, ideal for your low-maintenance garden. Did I mention it’s gorgeous😍I'm getting one (at least one) this year! The arching foliage gives 'Feather Falls' a cascading look, so it's an excellent choice to grow in pots and containers where it can spill over for stunning impact. You can also tumble it over ugly ...

Astelia banksii (Coastal Astelia / Wharawhara) 🏡 DIY Designs

The first garden plant I ever owned and boy, was it tough 💪!Also commonly called 'silver flax' his NZ native plant is perfect for dry spots and unirrigated pots and planters. In fact, the one thing most likely to kill it - too much water!Astelia banksii has many of the characteristics associated with a plant suitable for hot, dry, sunny garden spots such as 👉 silver foliage covered in a fine furry coating, which is also a good visual clue that a plant is suitable for a coastal location,&nb...

Hylotelephium spectabile 'Stardust' (stonecrop) 🏡 DIY Designs

🌞Say hello to another easy-to-grow plant that is happy in a hot, dry, sunny garden bed.This stunner is Hylotelephium spectabile 'Stardust' 💫It used to be, and in my mind, will always be, called Sedum spectabile 'Stardust'. And that's a lot easier to pronounce, too 😅 But, most people just call it 'stonecrop'.It's an easy-to-grow clump-forming perennial plant, with fleshy, moisture-filled green leaves.The flowers are small, white, and star-shaped, and because they appear in large flat-top...

Verbena bonariensis - purpletop vervain 🏡 DIY Designs

This soft & airy mix worked so well on the free-draining sloping gardens to either side of the client's new steps and gave height without blocking the wonderful views out 👀.𝗩𝗲𝗿𝗯𝗲𝗻𝗮 𝗯𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗶𝘀 (𝗽𝘂𝗿𝗽𝗹𝗲𝘁𝗼𝗽 𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗮𝗶𝗻) - A tall and airy perennial with long thin stems topped with clusters of tiny purple flowers. Likes full sun and well-drained soil.If garden plants have you confused or you just ...

Nepeta mussinii "Blue Wonder" - Cat Mint 🏡 DIY Designs

💡How to use it? I’ve given you 3 ways to use catmint at the end of the caption, but first ...Easily confused with catnip if you’re new to gardening, as they do look quite similar - they both belong to the same plant ‘family’ -the mint family - so watch the botanical and common names when you’re buying 😊Catnip : Nepeta catariaCatmint : Nepeta mussinii.😻Your cat will love both if you plant them in your garden, but catmint is the one that has the most ornamental value.🌞 It’s...

Parthenocissus quinquefolia (Virginia creeper) 🏡 DIY Designs

🌿Is THIS the new Auckland go-to now that we can't buy,  propagate or plant our old faithful self-clinging climbing Ficus pumila?Parthenocissus quinquefolia is another one of those super useful, self-clinging, climbing plants. I.e. it climbs by clinging, so no wires or trellis needed 🎉and it is just as perfect for covering walls and fences on just a tiny footprint. Yes, it’s deciduous, but the colour of those leaves as they turn in the autumn is fabulous 😍, and once all ...

Cercis 'Forest Pansy' - Redbud 🏡 DIY Designs

Where's the best place to put this beautiful feature tree in your garden?Where it is backlit by the evening sun . Magic ✨ The leaves glow and become almost translucent.But TBH, it looks incredible wherever it is planted. Easy to spot by its lovely heart-shaped, deep-red leaves.❤️Cercis 'Forest Pansy'If garden plants have you confused or you just want to learn, FOLLOW ME for regular insights, tips and tricks on plants, planting design & garden design in general....

Coprosma repens - 'Poor Knights' 🏡 DIY Designs

😇Talk about an overachiever! Coprosma repens 'Poor Knights' is one of those useful plants that just goes with just about everything.Perfect for windswept and coastal sites, sun or part shade. It's not fussy 🙂.It mounds and sprawls and looks fantastic 👌 as a large massed plantingThe gorgeous, super glossy foliage, which earns it the common name of 'mirror plant', shimmers in the 🌞 .TIP: Not enough space for this big sprawly fella, look for little cousins 'Mini Mac' and 'Lighthouse' in...