Working with nature
With one eye on the Mediterranean and the other on native species, two dedicated gardeners have overcome poor soil and minimal water to create this gorgeous naturalistic garden in Western Australia
Two plant lovers have transformed a dry, weedy paddock with poor soil into a thriving naturalistic garden
On a rural hilltop with views to apple orchards, green pastures and mixed karri and jarrah forests, the Mediterranean-style sanctuary of Donna and Matt Rumenos is now unrecognisable as the weedy paddock it was almost five years ago. Both fanatical gardeners, they have transformed this site in Middlesex, a farming area near Manjimup, about 300km south of Perth, into a naturalistic garden with year-round structure and interest.
It has been a labour of love for these self-confessed ‘plant tragics’ (Donna trained as a botanist and now works in the forest industry, and horticulturist Matt is a flora conservation officer) who spend every spare moment gardening, reading about plants, or thinking about ways to create harmonious displays of colour and texture in the garden. Matt’s main interest is trees and shrubs, while Donna adores smaller plants, perennials and bulbs, and is inspired by the New Perennial movement.
Working with poor soil
Extraordinarily, this garden in south-west Western Australia survives with very little irrigation and in infertile duplex soil. “When we arrived at the site, we discovered the soil was very degraded because of the exclusive use of conifers in the existing garden,” recalls Matt. “The soil had bleached to a pale yellow colour and the plantings had become highly flammable and were blocking fine views of rolling hills.”
After removing the conifers, slashing, and hand-weeding, they broke up the compacted soil with mattocks and set about planting trees, mulching around them and creating watering basins to facilitate deep handwatering through summer.
Donna and Matt had both worked in plant propagation, so when the couple and their newborn son Xavier moved to the 44ha property in 2015, they brought with them a large collection of small plants grown from cuttings. They’d already started planting by the time son Tauri was born two years later. Today, most plants are grown from seed and cuttings in their on-site nursery.
The first trees that Matt planted included strawberry tree (Arbutus unedo), Chilean myrtle (Luma apiculata), silver tree (Leucadendron argenteum), Illawarra plum (Podocarpus elatus), citrus, and Azara microphylla, which has vanilla-scented, yellow flowers in winter.
Over time, Matt and Donna have discovered the plants that do best in their conditions are those from Mediterranean climates. “Mediterranean climates around the world have incredible plant diversity, and the flora is largely adapted to hot, dry summers and poor soils – exactly what we need here!” explains Donna.
“We happily intermingle native plants with exotics that appreciate similar conditions,” adds Matt, “and we’re also experimenting with plants from drier subtropical and bimodal climates, such as South Africa.”
The couple have chosen plants that survive in poor soils, boosting their chances by planting out with blood and bone and compost or slow-release fertiliser. Matt also feeds the trees with a liquid fertiliser that includes worm juice, and uses pine bark mulch to retain moisture.
Colour and contrast
The major floral elements in the garden are salvia, santolina, lavender, rock rose (Cistus spp.), pelargonium, rosemary, euphorbia, plectranthus, mountain marigold (Tagetes lemmonii), hyssop, daisies (pyrethrum, anthemis, achillea and tanacetum), catmint (Nepeta spp.), penstemon, agapanthus and thrift.
These are teamed with herbs such as thyme and oregano, and succulents including aloe, crassula, cotyledon and kalanchoe.
Donna and Matt have also incorporated many native flowering plants, including small wattles (Acacia spp.), Thomasia spp., native fuchsia (Correa reflexa), native hibiscus, hakea, fan-flower (Scaevola spp.), mint bush (Prostanthera spp.), conostylis, grevillea, the local tussock grass Poa porphyroclados and the local kangaroo grass Themeda triandra.
“I like plants with different flower forms, such as umbels and spikes, and particularly those that blow in the wind,” says Donna. “It’s difficult to choose a favourite, but I adore the beautiful feathered sage (Salvia jurisicii) – so do the rabbits! – and I’m very partial to native Thomasia species, which have gorgeous clusters of purple or pink bell-shaped flowers and stunning foliage, and deserve to be used more commonly in home gardens.”
The couple also enjoy creating visual contrast with red and silver foliage, planting silver-leafed wormwood (Artemisia spp.), plectranthus, santolina, saltbush, pig’s ear (Cotyledon orbiculata) and centaurea with red or dark-leafed coprosma, grasses, cotinus, aeonium and Leptospermum ‘Starry Night’.
Summer survival
To succeed here in the summer-dry climate, annuals must grow through winter, the most successful proving to be sweet peas, larkspur, corn-cockle and love-in-a-mist (Nigella damascena).
We visited in spring, when the garden was a sea of colour with spikes of blue-flowered morning iris (Orthrosanthus polystachyus), drifts of grasses, clumps of pastel sweet peas, acid-green euphorbia blooms, and the pretty pink flowers of stellar pelargonium. The garden peaks in early November,
when the Canary Island foxglove (Plectranthus barbatus), fairy’s fishing rod (Dierama pulcherrimum) and rock rose are in bloom.
“Last year was unusually dry for this region, which received only about 650mm of rain,” says Donna. “Historically, the annual average is between 900mm and 1100mm, with most of this falling in the winter months. Summers here have become warmer and drier, and we can have 4–7 months without significant rain.
“We do all our watering with one very long hose, or buckets and watering cans. We have two 55,000L rainwater tanks – one quite new – that have kept us in enough water to get by so far.”
Though lack of water in summer is a challenge, the couple say pests are a bigger problem for their plants, with setbacks including attacks by plagues of weevils and grasshoppers, as well as rabbits and kangaroos. They plan to introduce chickens or guineafowl to reduce insect pests.
A coherent ecosystem
While it’s often the boys calling for their parents to come inside at the end of the day, the garden provides the children with a place to explore, build cubbyhouses and run along the paths. Xavier, now 5, has discovered the joy of propagating succulents, and Tauri, 3, chats to the shingleback lizards, skinks and many motorbike frogs that call the garden home.
The garden has become a magnet for birds, too. Rosellas feed on scabiosa seed heads, and birds such as the golden whistler, red-eared firetail finch, boobook owl, white-breasted robin and scarlet robin also visit. “We enjoy watching the honeyeaters and thornbills feeding from our salvias,” says Donna, “and last year our resident splendid fairy-wrens nested in a dwarf pink rock rose (Cistus x skanbergii).”
This year, the family discovered a pygmy possum curled up in a bucket by the back door, and they believe these tiny marsupials might be responsible for germinated seeds vanishing from seedling pots.
“It’s so wonderful to see the garden grow and come together to create something that’s starting to resemble a unique little ecosystem,” says Donna. “Just noticing the day-to-day changes is often what brings the most joy. It’s only in the past year or two that we’ve felt the garden is coming together, as we’ve now found enough things that will survive to make it coherent.
“We can understand people giving up on their garden dream after their initial plantings fail, but we believe there are always plants out there that are suited to your conditions and will thrive. It’s a matter of finding out what they are, and using techniques to help them establish well. And when choosing plants, remember: diversity, diversity, diversity!”