Designing a resilient garden
2025-10-29T13:39:45+11:00
Learn how one landscape designers is tackling the challenges of creating a resilient garden.
Across the country, landscape designers are looking to wild spaces for inspiration plus testing plants, soils and design approaches in their own backyards and with their clients. Their experiments provide a practical toolbox of ideas you can try at home to help you create a resilient garden in a land of increasing extremes.
Here, Andrew Beck talks about designing gardens Western Australia.
Andrew Beck, Perth, WA
Landscape designer Sustainable Garden Design
Climate: Mediterranean with sandy soils, heat and storms
On Perth’s sandy coastal plain, improving soil is the first step in every project for Andrew Beck.
“The addition of clay, natural minerals, soil microbes, organic matter and mulch is essential for new plants to thrive in our sometimes-harsh coastal conditions,” Andrew says.
He tells clients to budget as much for soil (including soil amendments such as compost) as for plants. Mulching is critical in Perth’s four-month dry season.
Stronger storms have also shifted his plant choices: “We are staking trees for longer because of the challenges of stronger storm events.”
Andrew now relies on faster-growing pioneers, such as banksias, hakeas and acacias, to create quick canopy cover.
Andrew’s irrigation plans are highly targeted. He separates zones for edibles, natives and drought-hardy exotics, adding greywater where possible. Clients often want edible gardens and wildlife habitats, and many councils now require canopy planning.
Andrew’s takeaways for home gardeners
- Invest in soil with amendments such as clay, compost, microbes and mulch.
- Drive around your suburb to see what thrives locally.
- Use sub-surface drip irrigation to save water.
- Plant in clusters, with groundcover filling gaps.
- Buy plants in smaller pots as they adapt faster.
Cass Dowding asks five landscape designers to talk about how they create resilient gardens in the Early Summer 2025 issue, available in newsagents and selected supermarkets. You can also subscribe here and get an issue delivered to your door!
