Case Study - Bright Spark

The Water Conservation Garden, Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne

You don’t have to go far from Melbourne to see an attractive example of a thriving, water-wise garden.

The Water Conservation Garden in Melbourne’s Royal Botanic Gardens has been designed to help people learn more about how to create and maintain "dry gardens".

Learning experience: A visit to the Water Conservation Garden can help people see how bright and attractive a "dry garden" can be.

The west-facing garden comprises four beds and 80 species of plants that have low water needs and are suited to Melbourne’s climate.

It features signs about the Water Conservation Garden itself, choosing drought-tolerant plants, clever planting, mulching your garden, tips for wise watering and how lawns "lap up" water.

The garden’s trees, shrubs, grasses and groundcovers were chosen because they can cope with natural conditions without supplementary watering.

According to curator Alison Rice, the garden receives about half the water of other collections in the Royal Botanic Gardens.

"It’s one of the brightest spots in the whole of the Gardens," she says. "The sorts of plants we picked survive on low water and many have very colourful flowers. There is something attractive every season and I’ve been surprised at how quickly the garden has grown."

Home and dry: The Water Conservation Garden features signs, tips and information on water-wise gardening.

Among the Water Conservation Garden’s plants are a striking guinea-flower and a soft groundcover known as woolly yarrow that is an excellent alternative to lawn.

Ms Rice advises people to think carefully about plants before buying them. Often people liked the look of plants in nurseries but didn’t consider if they were appropriate additions to their gardens. She also urges people to reduce their lawns as much as possible and water their gardens sensibly.

"Even here we dig a few holes now and again to find out how dry it is and how well the water is penetrating through the soil," she says.

A fine mulch used in the Water Conservation Garden is created by the Royal Botanic Gardens from its own green waste.

The Water Conservation Garden, designed by landscape gardener Andrew Laidlaw, opened in February 2000. It is sponsored by South East Water.