Tough plants for Perth sun - cactus and roses!

I love to grow food plants but I also love other types of tough plants like succulents and cactus, and since I have worked at a garden centre for so long that sells roses I have also ended up with a couple of roses...just so I can learn how to look after them. One I bought on purpose and the other two I adopted.

This has been the hottest Australian summer since 1978. The sun has been intense and there's been very little rain in Perth, if any, for many areas. However, out there in the hot afternoon sun, the roses and the cactus both look quite happy! Sure I need to water them but the roses are pretty, smell good and do the important job of flowering during summer, when not many other things do.

Tough guys in the garden. 

Flowers provide somewhere for beneficial insects to feed and survive over the summer months. The leaf cutter bees love to cut semi-circles out of the leaf and use it make a nest for her babies.

Leaf cutter 'damage' on rose. I think it look sbetter, myself.

We have one that has passed on using rose petals as well as leaves for their nest linings.We watched leafcutter bees in previous years doing the same thing.

Leaf cutter nest made of rose petals. We had to remove this from a rolled up tent we left out for a couple of days.

Other summer flowering plants include calendula, marigolds, daisies, some Grevilleas, Salvia, dahlias and others. Vegetables with flowers that are good for the beneficial insects and of course bees are all the summer vegetables. Cucumbers, tomatoes, eggplants, strawberries and lots of the herbs, such as thyme, oregano, and chives have plenty of flowers, too. Petals from roses, calendula, Allysum, cucumbers and chives can be added to salads, too.

Summertime is tough in Perth

Just a few of the things going on in the garden. It's hot and dry out there at this time of year. We've given up in certain parts of the garden but the potted orchard and a few other favourite things are still going well.

Strawberry guava, with ridiculous amounts of fruit forming.

Grevillea Robin Hood, to hide neighbours and attract birds.

Dragon fruit flower

Yummy figs, picked before the rats get to them.

Caper bush. Tough plant that takes lots of sun and loves limestone.It has pretty flowers too.

So what's in your garden?

We have been at this house for an amazing 14 years, renting from our neighbours family (all except the landlady surround us and can see into the garden from various angles).
When we moved in there was very little vegetation apart from a fig, a half dead apple tree (which died), grape vines stretching out across garden from their spot down the back, and a pair of loquats (one of which also died). The previous tenants didn't go outside much or open the windows, despite the number of pets it smelt t like they had in here.

We had a fairly clean slate, and did warn the landlords that we were rabid gardeners. Paul and I had both done our permaculture certificates not long before and we were keen to grow.

If we had realised we were going to be here for so long, we would have planted more fruit trees into the ground. A couple of large shady trees were put in, one of which, Gleditsia Sunburst, is getting a bit too large, but we both love it heaps, and the Paulownia, to be cut down every year or three to reduce height and theoretically allow us to somehow dig it up or poison it before we leave.

In the interests of creating an ark to take with us when we eventually manage to leave the city, most of our useful and edible plants are in pots. Having said this, there are areas where vegetables and herbs have been grown in the ground for some time. The food growing areas have been improved over time with manures, minerals, biochar and depth added with rescued potting mix from a couple of nurseries I've worked at.  If something is edible it gets looked after, if its ornamental it has to be tough enough to not need very much water in summer.

Therefore we have an orchard worth of potted fruit trees and small edibles, many types of succulents and other hardy ornamentals in pots, vegetable and herb beds and the aquaponic set-up. A few bamboos and other long-living trees in pots are also part of the ark of biodiversity we keep for the future. Around the edges of the garden are a variety of natives, mostly Grevilleas and some local species to invite local birdlife in.

Birdbaths are also scattered around (although strangely all lined up from the back window where I sit now, so I can see any bird action at any of them), for insects and birds to drink from. Always place a stick or rock into birdbaths to enable any insects to climb back out and change the water often to stop bacterial build-up which may cause birds to get sick.

Eating food from your own back garden is such a simple joy. Seeing the changes as time goes by is always interesting and there is always something new going on. Our garden is our sanctuary from the rest of the world.

It's gotta be edible or useful.

I work at a garden centre. It is easy work for me, too easy, I find it boring, but it is permanent part-time, which is handy while I am at uni.

However, I'm less and less interested in selling people anything that isn't edible or native. Why plant an Azalea in that acid soil when you could grow delicious healthful blueberries? Plenty of native plants can grow in semi-shade areas (after all, there was an overstorey of tall Eucalypts or Banksia in most areas to give shade and protection to the plants below. In fact it works both ways, the little plants act as mulch and provide a sanctuary for soil microbes for the larger species to develop).

Flowers do have a place in a garden of course, but it's best if they are insect attracting ones, to encourage pollinators into your garden to help with fruit fertilisation. Beneficial insects rely on pollen to give them the energy to come and lay their eggs in your garden so their young can destroy the bad guys who damage leaves, buds and flowers.

There are plenty of ornamental looking edible species that can be integrated into gardens, so at least there is some edible yield coming out of it. Rainbow chard, lettuces of all kinds and colours, parsley and all the herbs are pretty. Peas can be grown in spots where deciduous vines are bare over winter.

Many fruit trees are also quite handsome too. Many dwarf varieties are available these days so even small gardens can have an orchard of sorts, even in tubs. Citrus are excellent for very sunny spots. Stonefruit love the climate here in Perth. There are effective controls for Mediterranean fruit fly and citrus leaf miner which are both prevalent; regular and dedicated resetting of traps and sprays are necessary for organic control.

Everybody needs to learn how to grow food so get out there and grow something to eat.

Urban agriculture.

Really, everyone should be planting useful and edible plants in their gardens. There are so many beautiful fruit trees and decorative but delicious vegetables to choose from. Theres nothing wrong with a few exotics for show or to attract beneficials and, of course, there needs to be (preferably local) native plants too to support local biodiversity of insects, birds and small reptiles.

Fruit trees have pretty blossoms and if more folk were growing fruit tress and caring for the ones in their garden organically then I suspect that less fruit fly problems would exist, because correct hygiene for fruit fly is quite simple but needs to be done regularly.

With less chemicals for gardens available now and more food gardeners aware of the health benefits of organics there are increasing populations of predatory insects. This year there was a huge aphid population followed within weeks by hundreds of ladybirds and tiny parasitoid wasps. Frogs and small lizards play their part in pest control too, consuming slaters and other bugs.