Re: hot windy site near Perth Australia

Hi Christine,
Your conditions sound very much like Riyadh, Saudi
Arabia, except you don't get quite so hot.  I was
working on a palace gardens over there a year ago this
month, and we also were dealing with almost pure
limestone rock as planting medium.  For the palace, we
ended up importing dune sand as a soil, and placed it
about a foot thick for lawn/groundcover areas, and
overexcavated plant pits about a meter deep by square
for large trees.  You can certainly get things to grow
in limestone if you give them water, and they don't
require acidic soils, and you start with smaller sized
plants.  The previous suggestions for mulch are
certainly good ones.  For shading and wind control, it
would probably be best to use what works locally, and
can survive on limited water.  As for lawns, it sounds
like you have perfect conditions for something like
Kikuyu grass, Pennisetum clandestinum, which is a
tough subtropical grass that can virtually outcompete
any weed once it gets established, and needs much less
water than other lawn grasses.  Mulching throughout
the rest of the garden, or putting down weed fabric
with a gravel or stone muclh would help with your burr
weed problem.  I would guess that the more desert/dry
climate plants native to western Australia would be
best bets for planting the majority of your garden. 
Some of the best low herbaceous shrubs might include
Eremophila species and Cassia species.  A lot of
California/Arizona desert species would also handle
your conditions well, such as:
Trees:
Chilopsis linearis, Cordia boisieri, Cercidium
floridum, Prosopis spp, Acacia spp, Eucalyptus
spathulata, Vitex agnus-castus, Washingtonia robusta
and W. filifera, would all do well for you.  Some of
the trees we used in Saudi Arabia included Ficus
altissima and F. religiosa, Conocarpus erectus(similar
to a Lombardy Poplar in habit), Bauhinia variegata and
B. purpurea.
Shrubs:
Caesalpinia spp, Calliandra spp, Cassia spp, Dalea
spp, Dodonaea viscosa, Encelia farinosa, Justicia
californica and J. spicigera, Larrea tridentata,
Leucophyllum spp, Ruellia peninsularis, Salvia
leucantha, Simmondsia chinensis, Sophora secundiflora,
Tecoma stans
Groundcovers:
Baccharis 'Centennial', Bileya multiradiata, Dalea
greggii, Melampodium leucanthum, Oenothera
berlandieri, Verbena gooddingii, V. peruviana, V.
pulchella, V. rigida, Zauschneria californica, Zinnia
grandiflora
Vines:
Anigonon leptopus, Bougainvillea spp, Macfadyena
unguis-cati, Merremia aurea, Podranea ricasoliana
Accents:
Aloe spp, Agave spp, Asparagus densiflorus(shade),
Dasylirion wheeleri and D. longissima, Echinocactus
grussonii, Hesperaloe parviflora(a personal favorite),
Muhlenbergia spp, Opuntia violaceae 'Santa Rita',Yucca
spp

Not all of these would be available in your area, or
some might become naturalized weeds, so some research
would be necessary, but these types of plants are all
adapted to limestone soils and desert conditions, and
could be expected to survive with limited drip
irrigation to get them established.  It would also
seem that you ought to have local native plants
nurseries with locally drought adapted plants, and
that may be a more sensible way to approach your
garden design.  There is a Gardenweb.com site that
deals with Australian native plant and exotic plants,
that might also give you more specific local advice
for your situation.

Good luck with your garden!    


--- Diane Whitehead <voltaire@islandnet.com> wrote:
> Posted for Christine infanti
>
=======================================================================
> 
> Hi,
> I found this site online.  I live in Australia
> (southern hemisphere)
> therefore our seasons are opposite.  Geraldton,
> Western Australia is 500
> kilometers north of Perth.  We have hot windy
> summers 30 - 47 Celsius.  We
> are on the West Coast and the in wind during the day
> is an easterly - hot &
> strong from the inland desert areas.  We
> occasionally get afternoon westerly
> winds to cool down a little (if we are lucky) off
> the ocean. 

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