The Wild Look in Native Landscape Design

Have you noticed the wild native look is back in vogue? If you’ve visited one of the recent Melbourne International Flower and Garden Shows, or you’ve scrolled Instagram lately, you’ll have seen stunning garden designs that celebrate the natural shape of plants, with less formal hedging.

They look great just after the landscapers have finished work, but too soon they often become a degraded wasteland.

You see, long-lasting wild gardens don’t just happen by accident. Through careful planning, we can achieve gardens that look like an idealised version of nature. We can embrace the trailing stems, tufted plumes and wild branches instead of trying to turn every plant into a fridge or a hockey puck shape, as the late great Cath Turnbull from Plant Amnesty used to point out.

In this article, you’ll learn how to design, create and maintain beautiful wild gardens while avoiding the pitfalls of mal-pruning, invasive weeds, short-lived plants, and other challenges.

The Challenges of the Wild Look

The wild look is all the rage at the moment in landscape design, but it’s important to understand when this style is beneficial and when it can become problematic.

For instance, while a while we may love small ephemeral flowering plants like paper daisies and yellow buttons, they’re usually quite short-lived. You see, these plants fulfil a particular ecological niche: they live fast and die young.

They produce hundreds of thousands of seeds which feed all sorts of wildlife, but as soon as a tough year comes along (whether drought, heat, flooding, cold, etc.), they just die and wait for their seeds to replace them when conditions improve.

Unfortunately, in an urban landscape setting, the mulch prevents them from reseeding, or they become outcompeted by weeds in bare soil. Best case scenario in a few years, you’ve got large bare patches, or worst case scenario, you’ve got large patches of weeds. Unless, of course, you invest a lot of money into ongoing maintenance and replacing plants.

Mulch doesn’t just pose a problem to seed germination; some natives don’t like it at all, particularly those originating from poor uncovered soils. They’d rather the sunbaked soil surfaces they’ve adapted to, which are less likely to stay moist. Mulches that haven’t been properly composted can also harbour diseases such as phytophthora.

Plants can also die due to competition, drought, poor soils, rich soils, excessive rain or irrigation. An overgrown or impenetrable garden can attract snakes and become a fire hazard. There’s a lot to consider in order to get the wild look right.

We’ve learned from past experiences, particularly from the 90s when Ozbreed supplied over 10 million plants for the Sydney Olympics. Within five years, many of these sites failed, turning into weed-infested areas. Now we’re much more particular with the plants we breed and recommend, which always need to be no fuss, functional and reliable.

Pruning for the Wild Look

Another problem is that shrubs become overgrown and/or leggy. We don’t want to prune them into a hedge shape, but we don’t know how to prune them to encourage the natural shape. There are two pruning methods I want to introduce you to:

The first is the coppicing method, where you prune a shrub about 30cm or so above the ground. The best time to do this is late winter or early spring, so the plant can re-sprout in its natural shape.

Many gardeners are afraid to do this because it feels cruel and leaves a bare spot in the garden, but it can actually extend a shrub’s life and they’ll look good again in a few months. Callistemons, lilly pillies, wattles, grevilleas and banksias are examples of native plants that love to be coppiced.

If you only want to remove a branch or two, consider selectively pruning to a branch no smaller than one third of the branch you’re cutting.

This tip is good enough for shrubs, but leave tree pruning to qualified arborists as there’s quite a bit more theory to learn than we’ll discuss here. And trees tend to be more sensitive to mal pruning – especially when you’re cutting thick branches.

While non-selective pruning cuts such as tip pruning can encourage a plant to become more bushy, it’s important to be careful of avoiding constant hedge pruning as this can lead to formal shapes over time. At first you think you’re just pruning branches off the footpath, but then all of a sudden you’ve got a hedge with a straight line – the opposite of the wild aesthetic.

Designing Low-Maintenance Wild Gardens

The key to a successful wild garden is balancing the wild aesthetic with low maintenance requirements. This is where plant selection becomes critical. You want to use plants that not only look wild and natural but also require minimal maintenance. 

 Our head breeder, Todd, has had extensive experience in breeding plants for wild landscapes over the last three decades, and he offers invaluable insights into how to create and maintain these captivating yet manageable environments. 

Plants for Wild Gardens

Lomandra

The Lomandra works well in both wild and low-maintenance landscapes. Instead of dome hedging them, cut them to the base every few years to let the new growth get a breath of fresh air. 

Dianella

These are excellent base plants for long-term low maintenance. Some, particularly T. tasmanica varieties, can tolerate full sun to heavy shade. Ideal for those tricky positions that get more sun in summer than in winter. 

Pennisetum, Poa

Many types readily go to seed, spreading unwanted weeds around the landscape and wider environment. We breed plants that won’t seed everywhere, such as Nafray® Pennisetum, making them ideal for low-maintenance gardens. 

Westringia

Left unpruned, the Westringia fits perfectly into the wild aesthetic. There are ground-covering varieties, tall shrubby varieties, and even two plants that can withstand wet feet: Mundi™ and Grey Box™ Westringia.  

Callistemon, Syzygium, Banksia, Grevillea, Acacia

Callistemon, Syzygium, Banksia, Grevillea, Acacia: Coppice these plants every few years instead of constantly hedge pruning. Alternate between which plants you prune, so that you’ve always got some foliage to look at. 

Pandorea

Pandorea is perfect for rambling through the landscape. Most types tend to go a bit wild and/or defoliate at the base. Ozbreed Flat White™ Pandorea keeps its foliage and stays compact against surfaces, whether climbing up, rambling over, or cascading down garden elements. 

Scaevola

If you’re after a longer-lasting wildflower, fan flowers fit the bill perfectly. They’re a trailing ground cover that tends to do better in poor soils, and will flower for most of the year.

We have two cultivars that perform extremely well, one of which is older than 15 years, and they even flower through winter in warmer climates. I like to call them roadside cottage plants, because they fit into both categories.