Water Saving Garden

Useful Information

How to Get there

Part of the Southern Display Gardens, next to the Diversity Garden. Turn right out of the Visitors Centre
Map

Click to view this on the Interactive Map
Best Viewed

All year
Look out for

Giant steel watering can sculptures, signifying the varied irrigation needs for each area
Accessibility

Main path is on a slight incline with side entrances in to each terrace. Small step within garden between each terrace
Plant Census

View Living Collections Plant Census

During the Millennium Drought, this display was created to start conversations with visitors about water use to demonstrate ways to create a beautiful garden with little to no irrigation. This garden is divided into three tiers, demonstrating three different watering regimes (hydrozones); from the open and arid top terrace with no irrigation, down to the bottom terrace displaying plants with a more lush appearance that still requires very little watering.

When in the Water Saving Garden:

See how applying different types of organic and inorganic mulches can prevent water loss and add to the aesthetics of your landscape.
Use the topography to your advantage, grouping drought resistant plants in the highest sections of your garden, and plants with high water needs in the low-lying sections.
All plants displayed here are readily available at retail nurseries, promoting the use of natives in home gardens.

Key Plants

Gymea Lily

Doryanthes excelsa

Gold Nugget

Hymenosporum flavum

Landscape Lilac

Anigozanthos flavidus

Lemon-scented Darwinia

Darwinia citriodora

Pink Pantha

Eremophila nivea x Eremophila glabra

Wedding Bush

Ricinocarpos pinifolius

Gymea Lily

<em>Doryanthes excelsa</em>

One of the tallest lilies in Australia with leaf blades up to 2 metres long and a flower stalk to 3 metres tall, this large strappy plant has outstanding ornamental value as a garden feature or planted en masse.

Notes from the Curator

Mathieu Lascostes

It is interesting to note that the general design style of this precinct leans towards formality; with clipped hedges, neatly shaped shrubs and well-defined geometrical beds, the hand of the gardener is strongly felt. This demonstrates once again that Australian plants should not be confined simply to naturalistic landscapes, as it was (and maybe still is) wrongly assumed. Indeed, one can easily select a perfectly appropriate native plant to create any particular form of garden, from French Parterre to Japanese Tea Garden. Why not! There is after all around 22,000 different species to choose from!