Gardening with Casey Joy

Gardening with Casey Joy Helping people grow beautiful, natural & edible gardens with ease, joy and excitement; one step at a time.

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Vegan and vegetarian meals improvised out of my garden! ...And cake :)

25/08/2026

I only add these three things to my soil as firmly believe soil improvement should be simple and straightforward (otherwise we won’t do it!).

Clay to fix the soil structure, manure to add nutrients, lupin mulch to protect from the sun. In my experience, everything else (soil wetters, powdered fertilisers, coffee grounds, liquid feeds, soil ‘improver’ etc etc), is a waste of time and money, and can sometimes make soil worse in the long run.

If you’d like my full guide to fixing sandy, dry, lifeless Perth soil, comment SOIL and I’ll send you the link to grab a copy in time for spring 🌻

25/08/2026

If you have no time to garden right now, and everything is looking chaotic and cluttered, the best thing you can do for instant impact is add something solid - an urn, archway, birdbath, even a big pot. It helps focus attention on one part of the garden, and can actually make the wilderness seem more intentional!

For more design tips you can implement one at a time, without needing a total garden overhaul, comment DESIGN and I’ll send you the link to my self-paced online garden design course ❤️

20/08/2026

Think of your next walk around the Perth burbs as window shopping for plants and you might be surprised how many excellent plants you discover!

I’ve been doing this lately with hedges and it’s been so helpful for seeing the different heights, flowering windows, colours and leaf shapes of different plants, plus the sorts of conditions they seem to like. And it costs nothing!

For a ready-made guide to plants I find very reliable (and beautiful!) Comment PALETTE to grab a copy of my guide to 36 easy-to-grow trees, shrubs, edibles, flowers, climbers and bulbs that actually like Perth! 🌻🌞

20/08/2026

Here’s 3 perennials that are good for Perth👇🏻

1. Dogbane (super tough small shrub with little lavender flowers)

2. Echium (lovely big, spiky Mediterranean shrub - the bees love the purple flower spires in spring!)

3. New Zealand Rock lily (a great one if you want flowers in a partly shady spot - strappy leaves and white flowers in spring/summer)

Want the full list of my favourites? Comment PALETTE for my guide to 36 of the hardiest and most reliable plants I grow in my garden 👇🏻

Most of the plants in this guide are perennials, and those that aren’t are ones that self seed really easily, so you can plant once and kinda let them pop up wherever they like after that.

We have this idea that gardening has to take so much time, but if you select good plants for your area and focus on long-lived plants that give your garden a beautiful structure, you’ll find it doesn’t actually need constant maintenance.

P.S. if you don’t already have it, my guide to fixing Perth’s sandpit soil is really useful to pair with the plant palette - everything you’ll grow here will do better if given your soil some love (this is true of natives too, although they require slightly different soil). If you want to grow exotic plants, or veggies, fixing your soil before spring will make everything a TONNE easier.

Comment SOIL and I’ll send you the link to grab my guide 🪱

18/08/2026

Gardening: it’s fun! (Follow for more deep pearls of wisdom 🤣)

Really though, I make a mess in my garden ALL THE TIME! I’m always tearing stuff up, laying paths, moving things. I love reimagining sections, adding new spots to sit, testing out new ideas.

I couldn’t imagine it any other way. But I think the way we are often presented with aspirational gardens makes us think the goal is to create this finished, perfect thing.

For one, that’s not possible! Gardens will always change, will always need editing and reimagining and tweaking - even the very best ones do. But more importantly, if they could be finished and fixed and unchanging, would you actually WANT that?

For me, the pleasure of having a garden is in the CREATING of that garden. And that process is often grubby, and chaotic and it always gets worse before it gets better.

So, if you’re putting off ripping up your godforsaken astroturf because of what lies underneath it, or procrastinating ripping up your pavers because of the mess it’ll make, please know that almost all gardens HAVE to get worse in order to get better - that it’s a totally normal part of the process, that once you relax about it it’s actually really fun, and that I’ll be right over here making a mess with you!

(And if you want help getting your confidence up to start turning a bare and empty backyard - or a fully paved yard - into a mess and THEN into a garden you love, comment BLANKSLATE and I’ll send you the link to my super straightforward guide to building a garden outta nothing!)

14/08/2026

More plants to grow with kids 👇🏻

Edibles:
- Edible flowers (nasturtiums, calendula, violas)
- Snake beans (a good one for summer - the beans grow a foot long!)
- Beetroots, carrots and radishes (wait til late autumn to sow carrots, but you can sow beets and radishes now - sow direct where you want them to grow)
- all Mediterranean herbs (rosemary, sage, oregano, thyme) - these work well in pots too so you could make a potted herb garden together

Plants for potions (these are fragrant plants but aren’t safe for eating so make sure your kids aren’t attempting to drink their potions 🤣)
- wormwood (artemesia)
- passionfruit marigolds (tagetes lemmonii)
- salvias (flowering shrubs in the sage family - many have fragrant leaves and lovely flowers for posies)
- elderflower (a small tree with beautiful lacy flowers in spring)
- frangipani (fragrant flowers to put in bowls of water in summer)

Plants that make a garden feel magic/otherworldly
- hollyhocks
- Chinese lanterns
- All bulbs! Bulbs are the best to plant with lids - so fun to plant and pretty tough. Get summer bulbs now, so look for hippeastrums, gladioli and lilies. Check out Garden Express and Tesselaar Mail Order Plants 🪴 (not sponsored).

If you’d like the full free guide to everywhere I buy my plants, comment BLACKBOOK and I’ll send it to you ❤️

P.S. Got dry & sandy soil??

If you’d like help fixing your soil before you start planting (highly recommend - you’ll have much more success in your garden with healthy soil!) comment SOIL to grab my soil guide written specifically for Perth gardeners with sandy soil.

And if you’d like a concise list of robust plants that I love to grow in my garden (edibles, trees, flowers, climbers and bulbs that tolerate our summers, propagate easily and look beautiful together) comment PALETTE and I’ll send you the link to grab my Perth Palette guide - 36 plants that can be combined in different ways to create 6 distinct garden styles (cottage, jungle, shady, Mediterranean, balcony/courtyard, and edible) - it’s like a capsule wardrobe of plants that actually like Perth! ❤️

Ok that’s all from me for now. Wishing everyone a beautiful weekend of ga

12/08/2026

Here’s ten trees to add now!

For a small garden:
1. Citrus trees (orange, lemon, lime, cumquat, kaffir lime, mandarin etc)
2. Crepe Myrtle (gorgeous spring/summer blooms and autumn foliage)
3. Bananas (fast growing, shallow roots, delicious fruits!)
4. Olives (silvery evergreen foliage, can be hedged or grown as a tree - cockatoos like the fruits)

For a medium garden:
5. Pomegranates (can also be grown in a big pot)
6. Silver princess (beautiful weeping eucalyptus with pink blooms)

For a large garden:
7. Macadamias (large evergreen tree, tough grower and delicious nuts!)
8. Mulberry (fast climbing tree with delicious fruit - what childhood dreams are made of! Can be pruned to keep smaller if you like)
9. Acorn banksia (a lovely local banksia - great for the birds with beautiful orange flowers)
10. Pecan (still looking for a nursery that stocks pecans - if you find one, nab it!!! The best thing in our garden is our pecan, such a beautiful tree, the carnabys cockatoos love it, it’s the best!)

If you’re growing a native tree, hit up Green Life Soil Co Perth WA (not sponsored) to get a native soil mix.

And if you’re ready to buy some trees, check out Guildford Garden Centre Dawson’s Garden World, APACE WA, Zanthorrea Nursery and the Fruit Tree Man. Also not sponsored by any of these guys - I just like our local nurseries! 🥰

If you want my free guide to everywhere I get my plants, trees, seeds, soil etc, comment BLACKBOOK and I’ll send it right to ya!

And if you’re planning to plant one of the non-native trees on this list, comment SOIL and I’ll send you the link to grab my soil guide - it’ll help you get healthy trees and a much happier (read: less dead) garden this summer!

A few more plants that work well in these spaces:- bananas (non-invasive roots & a lovely tropical feel!)- wisteria (cou...
11/08/2026

A few more plants that work well in these spaces:

- bananas (non-invasive roots & a lovely tropical feel!)
- wisteria (could be a lovely climber along the fence if it gets enough sun - paint the fence before you clad it as the wisteria will be leafless over winter so you’ll see the fence)
- cast iron plants (very tough leafy plant, impossible to kill and good for hard-to-plant/neglected spaces)
- monsteras, philodendrons and fatsia japonica (good jungle-y options if your space is fully shaded)

If you’d like more ideas for tough plants that can thrive in Perth gardens, I have written a guide to 36 of my favourite trees, shrubs, climbers, bulbs and edible plants - it’s like a capsule wardrobe for your garden, and it’s organised into ‘recipes’ so you can pick a recipe of plants that combine beautifully depending on what style of garden you’d like. Comment PALETTE to grab a copy

And don’t forget that EVERYTHING in your garden becomes easier when you have healthy soil. If you’d plan to grow edibles or exotics, get your soil in tip top shape first. Comment SOIL to grab my soil guide specifically for Perth gardens with sandy soil that refuses to absorb water - you can fix your soil up over a single weekend and it will make gardening a lot more successful! Comment SOIL to grab a copy!

Got a specific small-garden question for me? Stick it in the comments and I’ll do my best to help!

09/08/2026

Comment DESIGN if you’d like my help redesigning your garden for spring and I’ll dm you the link to my online self-paced design course.

It’s full of practical, step-by-step advice (like in this video) for creating a beautiful garden, with DIY landscaping methods (you can do it! It’s fun!!), plant layering suggestions, inspiration boards, tree placement tips, videos from my garden, and a whole lot more.

Now, onto the trees. There are so many wonderful trees to choose from, here are ten easy ones that I love:

1. Crepe Myrtle (small growing, deciduous tree with beautiful flowers)
2. Macadamia (a big evergreen one, great for carnabys cockatoos)
3. Orange trees (I reckon blood orange has the best flavour)
4. Lime trees (try Tahitian lime!)
5. Lemon trees (eureka lemons have a longer fruiting window and thicker skin, Meyer lemons are sweeter, juicy and have thinner skin)
6. Pomegranate (deciduous and so tough and beautiful, with lovely red fruits and flowers)
7. Banksias (come in so many sizes, if you ask at your local nursery they’ll help you choose a good size - great for birds!)
8. Cape wedding tree (gorgeous cottage garden style large shrub - great for a shady spot!)
9. Curry leaf tree (beautiful evergreen with edible leaves)
10. Sandpaper wattle (ours is blooming now! It’s a sort of sprawling large shrub depending on how you prune it, and very pretty!)

If you’re looking for quick and simple design advice for a TOTALLY BARE BLOCK and you have no idea where to start, comment BLANKSLATE and I’ll send you the link to my guide to starting a garden from nothing - more tree suggestions, easy layout advice and practical tips to get plants in the ground!

06/08/2026

Another tree rant!

To be clear, I’m not saying plant a Moreton bay fig tree in your 5sqm backyard.

I AM saying that our kneejerk fear response to planting trees broadly is overstated, misplaced and actually dangerous, given Perth’s tree canopy is getting worse by the day.

We need to shift the narrative from one that says ‘trees are burdensome and hazardous’ to one that appreciates the massive benefit they offer us individually, as a society, and to our environment and the animals we share it with.

We have domesticated ourselves to the point where something as benign as a TREE is talked about as if it were WILD and UNTAMEABLE.

If you are nervous about planting trees, if you think they’ll run away with you, remember this: There are many, many kinds of trees. There will be MANY that will work beautifully in your garden, however big or small it may be. And there are giant oaks that have been tamed and pruned to be no bigger than a daisy bush.

Also, if you are lucky enough to have a big tree in your garden, and someone is trying to spook you about it, know that there is some rich dude a few blocks away from me who CRANED IN a bunch of giant mature trees three days ago. Your mature tree might be the biggest asset in your backyard. And anyway, the birds love it, your brain gets high on it!

Plant trees Perth, or we’re all gonna get super sunburnt real soon!

If you have a beautiful tree in your backyard, please chime in to say what it is and how big it is and to let us know that ALL YOUR PIPES ARE FINE!

Let’s shift the narrative around trees from one of fear to one of appreciation.

Let’s change how WA talks about trees so those who represent our interests (like John Carey) will feel encouraged to start representing the interests of the trees too!

And if you wanna get more involved, search for the WA Tree Canopy Advocates group in your local area and give them a follow (I’ve tagged a bunch in this reel)

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Perth, Western
Perth, WA

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