Verge gardens

Beautify your home and street

Native gardens are getting the edge over lawn on many verges across Perth. Perth’s dry climate and the amazing array of Western Australian plants available have made verge gardens more practical than ever before.

Sustainable Outdoors can transform your front yard into an amazing verge garden. Native ground covers are waterwise, low maintenance and far more attractive than lawn or synthetic.

Click here to download our latest News Letter including a FREE SPECIAL OFFER with the installation of a verge garden.

Questions and Answers about Native Gardens

Verge Garden Pricing

Most verge garden can be done fairly cheap and can range from $35-$80/m2 including drip irrigation and depending on complexity.

There are a few factors that determine the cost of a verge garden, namely:

Plants
Usually we recommend using low ground covers, grasses and small shrubs for verges. The exact type of species you choose doesn’t affect the price a great deal, our service includes a consultation about the different species available . The major determining factor is the size of plants, whether they are in 200mm pots, 175mm, 140mm and or 75mm tube stock sizes. We recommend the use of a few 200mm pots, roughly 50-60% 140mm pots and the rest tube stock, this gives a cost effective solution and some substantial size plants. On the other hand using all tube stock is a great way to save a bunch if you don’t mind waiting.

Mulch
There are two types of mulch we recommend, Aged Street Tree Prunings and or Pine Bark mulch. Both work just as good as the other. A common mistake is that mulch is meant to hold water, the best mulches are rough, course and irregular size particles, this allows moisture to reach the soil and preventing it from being evaporated. Street tree prunings are the cheaper option where as Pine bark is more expensive but will look a part with its deep rich brown colour. A cost effective way is to used a little bit of both, Street tree prunings on the bottom and Pine bark on top. The overall thickness we aim for is 75-100mm.

Soil Amendments
Depending on the soil type you have, most of Perth is on Grey Sands. From our experience it is absolutely vital to bring you soil to life by adding some organic matter, moisture and nutrient holding minerals and breaking the compaction. We rotary hoe compost, Bentonite and Zeolite into all our gardens. The compost contains heaps of humus and beneficial bacteria. Bentonite is a type of clay and by adding a small amount of this to sand will help retain the moisture. Zeolite is another natural mineral that acts like a sponge to absorb nutrients, locking them into the soil profile. We also add wetter soil to help break down the water repellency.

Removing or leaving the grass
This basically depends on whether the levels are at the right high below the kerb to prevent the mulch from spilling over. In both cases we would need to spray the grass to be sure it isn’t going to come back. If necessary we may need to remove the top layer or we can create some small undulation with the excess which can look quite smashing. The grass thatching can be mixed in with the soil in some situations without a problem, it all adds to the organic matter in the soil.

Garden Features
Now this really brings the garden to life. Grass trees, small pathways, undulations, rock or logs give the garden a something special. Grass trees look good in small groups, they don’t need to be monstrous, pathways winding around or even across the verge gives it structure, shape and most importantly access to enjoy it, Limestone rock work great near the coast and Coffee rock or Granite in the hills.

Reticulation
We recommend installing a drip irrigation system. This system is one of the most efficient system available preventing evaporation and runoff as it is installed underneath the mulch layer. It has the added advantage of watering the surface evenly allowing the plants to spread their roots in search of water and in turn making them stronger on hotter days.