Native garden design in Perth: plants that thrive on sand

A native garden suits Perth because the plants already know our sand. Perth Natural Resource Management, a regional body, says local natives are adapted to sandy soils and need them, rather than simply putting up with them. This post sets out how to prepare a sandy block for natives, which WA species suit a home garden, where to find local stock, and what the sources say about watering a new native garden through its first summers. Where two sources disagree, we show both.

Why natives suit Perth’s sandy soils

Water Corporation describes a native garden as a good fit for the local climate. It flowers year-round, and it attracts birds and wildlife. Its advice on natives is that they are adapted to local conditions, need less water and maintenance, and flower through the year.

If you want the design and build handled for you, see our residential landscaping in Perth page. Water is the reason to choose carefully. Water Corporation’s low-maintenance guidance notes that Perth households use more than half of their total water on gardens. A garden of plants that are already adapted to our rainfall, and that are rated waterwise, keeps that share under control.

Start with the soil for a native bed

Here the sources differ, so we show both.

Water Corporation’s design guidance for sandy, water-repellent soil is to mix bentonite clay and organic compost or soil-wetting agents into the top layer, then water in the wetting agents until they foam.

Perth NRM takes a lighter hand. It warns that over-enriching can hold natives back, and it recommends a good handful of bentonite clay and a single handful of vegetable-based compost in each planting hole. Manure-based compost is often too rich for natives. It also recommends a liquid wetting agent so water reaches the roots, and a thick mulch to shade the soil.

Our reading is that the two fit together: use the small quantities Perth NRM gives, and use wetting agents on the sand. Heavy compost is the step to skip.

Water Corporation’s guidance on establishment is the one to plan around. It says a new garden may qualify for a watering exemption, so the soil stays moist while the plants settle in. Perth NRM says that after the first two summers, a well-established native should have deep roots and can largely look after itself.

Native plants for a Perth home garden

The City of Kalamunda’s Habitat Pack 2025 is a useful council list because each plant carries a water rating and a height. Its ten plants are all rated waterwise and drought-hardy, except Angled lobelia, which has no waterwise rating and needs moist soil in exposed sites. For the wider picture on water use, see our waterwise landscaping Perth guide.

For a home garden, the pack’s heights matter most:

• *Bull Banksia (Banksia grandis)*, up to 10 m. A tree for larger blocks only.
• *Graceful Honeymyrtle (Melaleuca radula)*, up to 2.4 m, a shrub that suits a screen or back border.
• *Silky-leaved Blood Flower (Calothamnus sanguineus)*, up to 1.5 m, with red flowers.
• *Kangaroo Paw (Anigozanthos manglesii) and White Myrtle (Hypocalymma angustifolium)*, both up to 1 m, for the front of a bed.
• *Snakebush (Hemiandra pungens) and Scarlet Runner (Kennedia prostrata)*, both under 10 cm high and spreading to about 2 m, as groundcovers.

The Friends of Kings Park database adds low spreading species suited to sandy soils, such as Acacia aemula subsp. aemula, which the database lists as prostrate and verge-suitable, and Acacia browniana var. browniana, a medium shrub listed as resistant to Phytophthora. The database lists well over 1,300 Western Australian natives, with links to FloraBase for more detail on each.

Read the water rating before you buy

A waterwise label on a nursery tag is not the same as the Water Corporation’s rating, so check the directory itself. Its waterwise rating means a plant, once established in improved soil, needs watering about once a week in summer or on your rostered days. Its separate water rating (minimum, little or medium maintenance) describes the establishment phase, when some plants need more care than others. A plant can be waterwise over the long run and still need attention in its first season. Plan for both.

Layout: give each plant its mature width

Plant by the size the plant will reach, not the size it is when you buy it. Water Corporation’s rule is simple: a plant that grows one metre wide goes one metre apart. Put trees first, then shrubs, then groundcover between the clusters. Keep the tall plants, such as Bull Banksia, for blocks that can hold them.

Group plants with similar water needs into zones. Water Corporation calls this hydrozoning, and it keeps the thirstier plants, and any vegetable patch, away from the dry native beds.

Water Corporation’s free design plans cover native, coastal, Mediterranean and cottage styles, and each comes with a plant-name list to take to a nursery. Use the plan for your region and check each name against the waterwise directory before you buy.

Where to buy local natives in Perth

APACE WA is a retail and wholesale nursery at 1 Johannah Street, North Fremantle. It supplies locally occurring WA flora from the Swan Coastal Plain and Darling Range, which matters if you want plants that match your soil. Its Revegetation Guides, first published in 1992, are organised by vegetation complex, which corresponds to soil type. Find your area on the Suburb Selector map, then use the guide for the species native to it. APACE’s retail nursery serves customers buying 200 plants or fewer, and the nursery’s own page gives its hours as Tuesday to Saturday, 8:30am to 2:30pm.

The Friends of Kings Park propagate their own stock and sell it at quarterly plant sales. Many of the plants are rare or unusual and not stocked by commercial nurseries. Species lists change for each sale, so check the current list before you go.

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