Gardening in Australia
Reversed seasons, fierce summer sun, and rainfall that arrives all at once or not at all.
The numbers that decide your year
- Growing zones
- Tropical to cool temperate · often water-limited
- Last spring frost
- August in cool regions, none in the tropics
- First autumn frost
- May in cool regions
- Rainfall
- 200–1600 mm, highly seasonal
Summer, and the fact that the northern-hemisphere calendar is upside down here.
Biosecurity rules on moving plants between states are strict, and permanent water-wise rules apply in many councils.
How people actually garden here
- Native gardens
- Dry coastal planting
- Subtropical courtyards
- Wicking beds
Native to this country
Plants that evolved here. They ask least of you and give most back to local insects and birds.
Reliable in this climate
Introduced rather than native, but proven in these conditions. Each links to its full encyclopedia entry.
The calendar reads your device clock and shifts every job six months for the southern hemisphere.
The Australia Gardening Guide
292 pages written for this country alone: its soil, its frost dates, its rules and the plants that reward the effort. Everything on this page, expanded and in your hands.
- A southern-hemisphere calendar
- Water-wise design that still looks lush
- Australian natives, done well
- Wicking beds and mulch depth
- Fire-aware planting
- Tropical versus temperate zones