Maintenance and establishment
The phase that decides whether any of it survives
More Perth gardens die in the first summer than are ever killed by bad design. Establishment care, seasonal watering within the roster, feeding sand that holds nothing, and knowing the local pests — this is where the value is kept.
You end up with
A year-round maintenance calendar built on the Noongar six seasons, and a retic system you can audit.
What you produce in this phase
Your seasonal calendar
Build a maintenance calendar for your garden across the six seasons: what you water, feed, prune, plant, mulch, check and repair in each. Note the fixed dates that constrain you, including the winter sprinkler ban.
Retic audit record
Run a full station-by-station audit: every head checked for arc, radius, blockage and damage; pressure checked; catch-cup uniformity re-tested on the important stations; run times adjusted for the season. Record what you found and fixed.
Lessons
- 01
The first twelve weeks: establishment care
Not written yetMore Perth gardens are lost in their first summer than are ever killed by bad design. Establishment watering is different from ongoing watering, and getting it wrong wastes the entire plant budget.
⏱ 60 minIntermediate - 02
The Perth year: a maintenance calendar on the Noongar six seasons
Not written yetThe European four-season calendar fits Perth badly. The Noongar six seasons — Birak, Bunuru, Djeran, Makuru, Djilba, Kambarang — describe what actually happens here, and they make a far better maintenance calendar.
⏱ 90 minIntermediate📐 Makes: Your seasonal calendar - 03
Watering through the year and auditing your reticulation
Not written yetSeasonal adjustment rather than set-and-forget, the annual pre-summer retic check every Perth garden needs, and the audit method that finds the blocked nozzle quietly killing a corner of the garden.
⏱ 90 minIntermediate📐 Makes: Retic audit record - 04
Fertilising Perth sand: little and often, and the phosphorus trap
Not written yetSand holds nutrient about as well as a colander holds soup, so heavy feeding mostly ends up in the groundwater. Slow release, low rates, more often — and the WA natives that phosphorus will kill outright.
⏱ 60 minIntermediate - 05
Pruning: what, when and why
Not written yetThe three reasons to prune, the cuts that work and the cuts that create problems, and a Perth timing guide — because pruning at the wrong time costs you a season of flowers or invites disease.
⏱ 90 minIntermediate - 06
Lawn care through the Perth year
Not written yetMowing height by species and season, dethatching, coring, wetting agents, fertiliser timing and the annual spring renovation — the routine that keeps a Perth lawn alive through summer without breaking the roster.
⏱ 90 minIntermediate - 07
WA pests and diseases: black beetle, couch mite, millipedes and dieback
Not written yetThe problems you will actually meet in a Perth garden, how to identify each one correctly before you spray anything, and the least-damaging effective response.
⏱ 90 minIntermediate - 08
Weeds in WA gardens
Not written yetThe common invaders, the declared pests you are legally obliged to control, why kikuyu and couch escape into beds, and the non-chemical methods that work when you stay ahead of them.
⏱ 60 minFoundation - 09
When to renovate, replace and rethink
Not written yetGardens have lifecycles. Knowing when a plant has finished, when a surface needs relaying rather than cleaning, and when a whole area needs redesigning is what keeps a garden getting better instead of slowly declining.
⏱ 45 minIntermediate