
Water Saving Gardens Adelaide Residents Have Include Automatic Irrigation Systems & Good Soil Preparation.
Your watering system needs to provide you with the flexibility to alter the time and duration of watering for various seasonal conditions.
In Adelaide, for a water saving garden it’s preferable to irrigate early in the morning. Since we have distinct seasons, more so than our inter-state cousins do, we need to alter our gardens watering regime according to the season.

It really is futile to attempt watering the garden by hand.
The time required to water all your plants effectively is beyond the majority of working people and with so many things to remember, your plants will soon become forgotten.
Unless you have experience and horticultural knowledge, knowing how much water should be given to each type of plant is also forgotten, and how do you know how much is coming out your hose per 15 minutes?
One solution common to water saving gardens Adelaide residents adopt is the installation of an automatic irrigation system. However, they do need to be programmed correctly or they can waste huge amounts of water by over-watering, or not provide enough, both will harm or kill your beloved plants.
With advances in technology, there’s a good range of automatic irrigation systems to choose from.
Most are hard-wired and some can even be controlled by your Smart Phone via Bluetooth.
It’s also important to use good quality sprinklers and drippers.
All landscape designs, Living Pictures By Tony Stanton create specify what system, the number of lines & type of head to be used, knowing each plants water requirement.


Those very cheap drippers and heads you can readily buy from hardware shops are cheap for a reason. If you’ve used them before, you’ll no doubt never use them again.
Professional quality irrigation components are made to perform and last.
The few extra dollars spent now will long be forgotten compared to having to constantly replace and repair faulty components and you’ll end up spending more in the process.
Water Conservation Through Soil Preparation
The most important part of water conservation and therefore should be part of all water saving gardens in Adelaide is soil preparation. It is vital to create a well drained soil that retains water at depth. Treatment of the clay soils varies from that of sandy soils but putting 100mm of sandy loam over them is definitely not the way!
Poorly trained and unskilled landscapers often install gardens over thin layers of imported loam. This is a recipe for high water use and poor growing plants.
Once the soil has been properly prepared and the plants are in, the next most important step is to mulch. Most people (including some landscapers) put mulch on too thinly and fail to maintain it. Again this costs money due to water evaporation.
Most plants need a depth of 300mm of well drained soil to grow well.
Ideally the soil should be approximately 40% clay, 40% sand and 20% organic material with air and water spaces. Most of the Adelaide plains has an alkali clay based soil and the coastal strip is typically sand or sandy loam. The Adelaide hills are predominantly acid soils.
Garden or Landscape Design Is Not Possible Without An Understanding Of Your Soil
A good landscape design that includes plants factors in soil conditions. As a qualified Horticulturist, Tony Stanton will look at what preparation your garden areas need before laying lawn or planting. When plans are drawn up, notation is made for landscapers to follow ensuring all plants get the best start in life.
With all water saving gardens Adelaide homeowners request, plants are selected to specifically handle the soil conditions.
It’s one of the garden design solutions that makes for a successful, great looking outdoor space long term.
A top soil of red/brown clay over limey clay has a high ph and poor drainage.
To improve clays we need to add sand and aged compost. To improve sandy soils we add aged compost because it is nearly impossible to add clay to sand. In practical terms we add 100mm of sand and 50mm of aged compost over the clay soil and dig in to a depth of 300mm. On sand we add 100mm of aged compost and dig in to the same depth.