"Low maintenance" is where most garden advice goes to die — it usually means a strip of pebbles and three sad succulents. This design takes the opposite bet: choose plants whose natural shape is the design, so the garden looks intentional even when you haven't touched it since Easter.
The idea
Every plant here holds its own form without clipping, tolerates missed waterings once established, and doesn't drop the kind of litter that generates chores. The structure comes from repetition — drifts of one thing, not one of everything. That's the real secret of gardens that look after themselves: fewer species, bigger groups.
The palette
Vertical rhythm: Callistemon Slim. A narrow native bottlebrush that screens to 3 m without ever needing shaping, and feeds honeyeaters while it's at it. Five along the back fence replace a hedge you'd otherwise trim forever.
The rounded anchors: Rhaphiolepis umbellata. Leathery, salt-and-drought-proof mounds with white spring flowers. It's the plant equivalent of a good sofa — unglamorous, permanent, quietly holding the room together.
The native workhorses: Westringia Blue Gem and Tanika Lomandra. Blue Gem gives purple flowers most of the year on a shrub that shrugs off neglect; Tanika is the fine strappy grass you see in every professional landscape for one reason — it works, everywhere, always.
The living mulch: Creeping Myoporum and Liriope Evergreen Giant. Ground that's covered doesn't grow weeds. The myoporum knits a flat carpet across open beds; liriope handles the dry shade under the callistemons where nothing else volunteers.
How to plant it
Mass-plant in drifts: westringia in one sweep, lomandra in another, never alternating one-by-one. Mulch heavily once at planting (75 mm), water deeply weekly for the first season, then let the palette do what it was chosen to do. Total ongoing work: one light westringia trim a year and whatever the liriope catches from the mower. Prefer zero shovel time? Professional planting is offered right in the cart.
Good to know
This palette is fully compatible with the water-wise garden if your priority is the water bill, and the native showpiece if you want more birds. Browse the full Australian natives range, or price your own version in the garden pricer.