Rethinking the WA Garden: Firewise, Waterwise & Rewild
At the 2026 Perth Royal Show, The Forever Project once again demonstrated how beautiful Western Australian gardens can be designed with more than aesthetics in mind.
Created in collaboration with Water Corporation and Synergy, this year's display explored how thoughtful garden design can help conserve water, support local ecosystems, reduce ongoing maintenance and incorporate Firewise principles — all without sacrificing the tranquil, inviting outdoor spaces we love.
StrataGreen was proud to support The Forever Project with products featured throughout the display, including Formline Landscape Edging, RhinoWeld Gabions and selected tree planting products.
For visitors to the Royal Show, the garden provided something more than inspiration. It offered practical ideas that can be taken home and incorporated into gardens across Western Australia.
A Garden Designed for Western Australia
Creating a resilient garden starts with understanding the environment it needs to thrive in.
Perth's climate presents its own challenges, making choices around plant selection, water use, soil, garden materials and ongoing maintenance increasingly important.
The Forever Project display brought these considerations together, demonstrating that a more resilient garden doesn't need to feel sparse or purely functional.
Instead, thoughtful design can create a garden that is lush, inviting and full of life, while being better suited to our local conditions.
Water Corporation provides extensive resources to help Western Australians make these decisions. Its Waterwise plant directory helps gardeners identify plants suited to their local area, while its Waterwise Garden Hub covers everything from garden design and soil health to efficient irrigation and plant selection
Making Every Drop Count
One of the key ideas behind a Waterwise garden is simple: create a landscape that works with our climate rather than against it.
Plant selection plays a significant role. Choosing species suited to local conditions can reduce watering and maintenance requirements once plants are established. Grouping plants with similar watering requirements can also help water be applied more efficiently.
The result doesn't have to be a compromise.
Water Corporation's garden resources demonstrate how climate-appropriate design can still create attractive, thriving outdoor spaces while using water more thoughtfully. Their garden design guidance also covers practices such as hydrozoning, efficient irrigation, improving soil and choosing appropriate Waterwise plants.
For anyone planning a new garden or reconsidering an existing one, the Waterwise Plants directory is an excellent starting point. You can search by suburb or plant name to discover options suited to where you live.
Bringing Nature Back Into Our Gardens
Another important theme of the display was rewilding.
Our gardens can be more than decorative spaces. With considered planting and design, they can contribute to a broader urban ecosystem, providing food and habitat for birds, insects and other wildlife.
Native gardens can be particularly valuable in this respect. Water Corporation notes that native plants adapted to local climate, soil and environmental conditions can require less water and maintenance, while native garden designs can also provide year-round flowering and attract birds and wildlife.
It's a different way of thinking about the backyard: not as something isolated from the natural environment, but as a small part of it.
Thinking Firewise
Water wasn't the only consideration explored within the garden.
The display also incorporated Firewise garden principles, continuing an important theme from The Forever Project's previous demonstration gardens.
Firewise garden design considers how the selection, placement and ongoing maintenance of plants and landscaping materials can contribute to bushfire preparedness.
Within the Royal Show display, visitors could see examples of these ideas incorporated into an attractive finished garden, including considered plant selection and the use of crushed recycled brick in place of conventional organic mulch.
Importantly, Firewise landscaping isn't about creating a garden without plants. It's about making more considered decisions about what is planted, where it is positioned and the materials used throughout the landscape.
Water Corporation's Waterwise plant resource also directs Western Australians in bushfire-risk areas to DFES Firewise gardening resources when considering garden design and plant selection.
Formline & RhinoWeld in the Landscape
We're always excited to see how products we work with every day are incorporated into finished landscape designs.
Throughout The Forever Project's Royal Show display, Formline Landscape Edging was used to create clean definition and structure between landscaped areas.
Formline provides designers with the ability to establish crisp lines and curves within a garden while keeping different landscape materials and planting areas clearly defined.
RhinoWeld Gabions brought another material and texture into the space. Filled with stone and incorporated as landscape features, welded gabions demonstrate how functional landscape materials can also contribute to the overall character of a garden.
Rather than being the focus of the garden, both products became part of the landscape architecture — helping give structure to a space deliberately designed to feel natural.
The display also incorporated tree planting products supplied by StrataGreen, further connecting the garden with the products used by landscape, horticulture and revegetation professionals every day.
Creating a Garden That's Easier to Live With
Perhaps one of the most practical lessons from the display is that sustainability and lower maintenance can go hand in hand.
Choosing plants suited to the environment, considering their mature size and water requirements, improving the soil and designing irrigation appropriately can all influence how much intervention a garden requires in the years after it is established.
Water Corporation's Waterwise Garden Hub provides practical advice specifically around creating resilient gardens, supporting healthy soil and optimising irrigation for better garden performance.
For Western Australians looking to create their own garden, it's a valuable resource worth exploring.
About The Forever Project
The Forever Project has long been a leader in sustainability education, helping communities understand how practical changes to our homes and gardens can contribute to more resilient and environmentally responsible lifestyles.
Their demonstration gardens bring those ideas to life, allowing people to walk through a completed landscape and see how concepts such as Waterwise gardening, Firewise design, rewilding and sustainable material choices can work together.
StrataGreen is proud to continue supporting The Forever Project and the work they do to encourage more sustainable landscapes throughout Western Australia.
Our involvement reflects a shared belief that creating a better garden doesn't have to mean choosing between beauty, functionality and sustainability. With considered design, each can support the other.
A Better Garden for the Future
The 2026 Perth Royal Show display provides plenty of inspiration, but perhaps its most important message is that creating a more resilient garden doesn't require changing everything at once.
It might begin with choosing a Waterwise species for the next garden bed. Replacing a high-maintenance plant with something better suited to our climate. Improving the soil. Rethinking mulch around vulnerable areas. Creating habitat for local wildlife. Or simply becoming more conscious of how much water the garden needs.
Together, these decisions can help create outdoor spaces that are beautiful to live in, easier to maintain and better suited to Western Australia's environment.
We're proud to have played a part in bringing this year's display to life alongside The Forever Project, Water Corporation and Synergy, and to see StrataGreen products incorporated into another landscape designed to inspire what our gardens can become.
