thisplace.com.au - You can have Beautiful Flowers and still Conserve Water

Flowers provide a lovely splash of colour through the summer months, and can be used to lighten up any garden. Though they are generally considered to need a lot of water, you can grow them in a WaterWise garden if you follow these basic principles.

Prepare your flower bed to minimise water usage

Australian soils are naturally deficient in organic matter; which means they can't hold adequate amounts of either much water or nutrients. Taking the effort to improve the organic matter of your soil will bring enormous benefits to your garden. It will:

Improve plant growth
Reduce fertiliser use
Reduce water use and
Decrease garden maintenance.

Organic matter can be added in many ways, you can:

Make your own by composting household waste or
Purchase it from your local nursery in many different forms including peat and manure.

Soil additives such as soil wetting agents will also help your soil to use water more effectively.

Mulch your Garden Bed

The Australian climate is one of the harshest in the world. Bare soil exposed to the sun loses nutrients and water at a rapid rate. The application of a thick layer of mulch will help to:

retain moisture
discourage weed growth and
prevent soil erosion

Organic mulches have the additional advantage of breaking down over time, and feeding the soil and your plants. To prepare your flower bed:

Improve your soil.
Mulch the whole area first and
Scrape away small areas to plant your seedlings.

Note: Beds containing tall bedding plants should be mulched to a depth of 75mm. For lower or spreading plants the mulch should be 50mm thick.

Plan before you Plant

When planting your flower bed choose a water efficient flower from the list below and group your flowering plants together in a suitable area which can be watered independently from other areas of the garden. Not all flowers have the same water requirements, so try to group flowers with similar needs together. Your local nursery can advise on the water needs of different types of plants.

Choosing the Right Flowers

When gardening in Australia, we should always remember that our climate is probably one of the harshest on earth. For this reason, we need to choose flowers and plants which can flourish in these conditions. Some flowers which are suitable for Australian conditions include:

Alyssum
Cleome
Dimorphotheca
Marigold
Rudbeckia (Limonium)
Zinnia
Celosia
Dianthus
Gerbera
Portulaca
Stock
Mesembryanthemum
Gaillardia

Calandrina
Coreopsis
Gazania
Pelargonium
Salvia (perennial)
Sunflower
Arctotis
Cockscomb
Dorotheanthus
Marguerite Daisy
Snapdragon
Sturt's Desert Pea
Vinca

Carnations
Cosmos
Geranium
Candy phlox
Statice Verbena
Calendula
Cornflower
Petunia
Shasta daisy
Eschscholtzia

These plants can be grown in full sun and will perform well with a watering every second day. Some may show slight wilting during very hot days, but should make a good recovery once the heat has passed.

Remember that all flowers will perform better if the guidelines about soil, mulches and watering are followed.

Watering your Flower Beds

Micro-irrigation is the most water efficient means of watering a flower bed. A low volume spray or soaker hose can be used to cover the area. Two important things to note:

Cover your irrigation lines with mulch to improve appearances and keep pipes cool and
Water at night or in the early morning to reduce evaporation loss.

Fertilising your Flower Beds

Don't attempt to force the plants on with large amounts of strong fertilisers. This will only produce lush growth which has a higher water transpiration rate and is more prone to insect and fungal attack. Manures are excellent fertilisers for flower beds when used in moderation, because of their slow release action and high organic matter content. Some animal manures are rich in nitrogen which stimulates leaf growth. These manures may need supplementing with a general purpose fertiliser.

Source: WaterWise You Can Have Beautiful Flowers and Still Conserve Water flyer