Episode: WA Garden Gurus Special - Summer Gardens
Presenter: Sue McDougall

The Waterwise Garden Centre program was launched three years ago in conjunction with the Nursery and Garden Industry of WA and every garden centre endorsed under the program must meet the essential criteria including the training of staff in the latest waterwise messages.

Mark Tucek leads the team at Waldecks Kingsley and they have been a waterwise garden centre since the beginning. All the staff have been through the waterwise training through the Water Corporation and there is a lot of advice and products throughout the centre that can help customers.

Mark recommends a quality soil conditioner like Waldecks Bio-ganic to help retain the moisture, a wetting agent like Richgro Ezi-Wet is very important and lastly, good quality mulch on the surface of your garden.

You don?t have to compromise on quality in your garden and at Waldecks Kinglsey you will find the latest, trendiest plants that only look brilliant but they are going to use next to no water.

Succulents store water in their foliage for dry times, making them ideal for hot dry positions. Agapanthus? add so many colours to the garden in summer and don?t require much water at all.

There are many new varieties that you can plant in your garden like the Strawberry Ice. Another one to look out for is the Snowball; it is a low growing variety with an extra large flower head that are pure white.

A new one that is just stunning is called Regal Beauty (Agapanthus cv.), its extra large flower heads are really deep violet in colour. The blackest of Agapanthus is Black Pantha that creates a stunning display in the garden.

Waldecks Kingsley has also an extensive display of the plants that are part of the Waterwise plants for Perth programme. If you have a spare spot in the garden Sue recommends you come down and take a look and choose one or maybe a trolley full to put in your garden to fill it up because these varieties are the perfect choice for low maintenance and low water use gardening.

More than ever before there is so much information available to gardeners and often it can get quite confusing. Sue recommends taking a few hours out this weekend and visit Waldecks Kingsley and become inspired with the ideas you will find here to create a waterwise, yet truly beautiful garden.

Waldecks
www.waldecks.com.au

The Water Corporation ? Waterwise Garden Centres
www.watercorporation.com.au/W/waterwise_garden_centres.cfm

The Water Corporation ? Waterwise Plants for Perth Program
http://www.watercorporation.com.au/W/waterwise_plants_perth_index.cfm?uid=9577-1279-2707-6492

Nursery and Garden Industry
www.ngia.com.au