I do love seeing a garden bed full of plants rather than completely bare. It means that there has been some thought involved by someone at some point. The trouble is that it’s the same old plants that get used everywhere as the ‘go to’ native plants….more than a little boring if you ask me.
The main plant in this setting is Lomandra longifolia. Yes it is as tough a plant as you can get and it will survive (although not always good looking), needs less water and just does its thing. There is also one of my favourites, Hardenbergia violaceae, or purple coral pea. This is dotted around the lomandra and is often growing through it in many places. There are a couple of different species of trees, Tillia tomentosa, and Banksia integrifolia, which are both nice trees. While all these plants are great in their own way, I just think that there should be more species in the garden than there are. Dianella is also present and is growing through everything, as it does.
While we were working in the grounds of an apartment building, there isn’t a an excuse for boring really, even if easy maintenance is required, There are plenty of plants out there to choose from so only have three or four lomandra plants rather than twenty and have other plants in the same garden bed would be a good idea.
Given a choice, I would have to have a wider mix of plants in general. There are some species of plants, whether native to Australia or not, that are just everywhere. Yes, they are reliable and very often ‘fashionable’ (why people want exactly the same plants as everyone else is beyond me), but unfashionable plants can be as hardy, if not more so, than the usual suspects. I would also choose something other than herbaceous perennials and trees. Nature didn’t supply us with these two plant types, so why should we only have these two in the garden? Again, colour is often missing so I would have more colour there in the garden, whether flowers or leaves it doesn’t matter, but I’d rather have both!
Why is it that more variety is so important to me? For a start, gardens with a wider range of plants is a lot more interesting to look at. It’s also better for wildlife. Also, the pest and disease load is reduced-more animals around equals more animals to eat your pests. Also, if you have less plants of one species around, there is less likely to be a huge and damaging buildup of pests and diseases affecting each species, which less stress and less work controlling these pests and diseases.
Even though the planting of the garden bed in question was rather boring, work wasn’t too bad today. It was a garden maintenance job that wasn’t too strenuous in any way so I can’t complain. I really should get more use of my landscape design qualifications and use them to start practicing what I preach!