Front Landscaping - tree/shrub suggestions please!

Megera · Feb 07, 2016 12:14 pm

Hi guys,

Looking for some advice on plants (trees, shrubs) for our front landscaping. We've got a west facing front yard that is approx 4mx8m (will confirm length) and is sloping towards the street. We are planning two semi-raised beds, terrace style. The top one being 2ish metres wide and having some sort of smallish tree or shrub to give the house a bit of shade. I'm thinking along the lines of a flowering gum or grevillea (I'd space two or three across the front). I can't find any information about how invasive the roots of a flowering gum are and if I'm foolish to plant one so close to my house/slab. The bottom bed will have some small to medium plants. I'm not too concerned about what to put in there, it's mostly trying to figure out the top level.
If the flowering gums aren't suited I could always plant one as a feature tree off to the one side (driveway side).

If anyone has any suggestions I would really appreciate it! (We are in the outer west of Melbourne and would like to just put natives in the front because of how hot it is out there).
I'll try to add some pics, tapatalk wouldn't let me start a new topic for some reason.

Megera · Feb 07, 2016 12:16 pm

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grom40 · Feb 18, 2016 12:07 pm

Hi Megara,

Just an idea but my front yard is similar to yours (slight slope, west facing so gets the hot afternoon sun) and I'm also located in Victoria and I decided to put in a dry creek bed. See pics here viewtopic.php?f=19&t=55778&p=910492 The plants up against the fence are grevilleas and they've grown nicely in pretty average, clay-ey soil. The other plants (mainly grasses) are also pretty tough and have grown nicely with minimal watering required. The only real casualty I've had is one bush that snapped off in the wind lol. Of course the post is almost 4 years old and the look of the garden has changed a bit since then (the level of plant growth is amazing really) so I can post some more recent pics if you want (don't have any on me at the moment).

If I were you I wouldn't put a flowering gum close to the house; they tend to grow pretty big!

Hope that helps ::lol::

Megera · Feb 18, 2016 12:56 pm

grom40

Hi Megara,

Just an idea but my front yard is similar to yours (slight slope, west facing so gets the hot afternoon sun) and I'm also located in Victoria and I decided to put in a dry creek bed. See pics here viewtopic.php?f=19&t=55778&p=910492 The plants up against the fence are grevilleas and they've grown nicely in pretty average, clay-ey soil. The other plants (mainly grasses) are also pretty tough and have grown nicely with minimal watering required. The only real casualty I've had is one bush that snapped off in the wind lol. Of course the post is almost 4 years old and the look of the garden has changed a bit since then (the level of plant growth is amazing really) so I can post some more recent pics if you want (don't have any on me at the moment).

If I were you I wouldn't put a flowering gum close to the house; they tend to grow pretty big!

Hope that helps ::lol::

Thanks so much for your reply! Wow! That looks fantastic! I'd definitely love to see some updated pictures if you get a chance.

I'm very skeptical about the flowering gums but people keep recommending them to me..?? I think it's mostly for the shade factor.

We still haven't done anything out there, we've been trying to get the backyard sorted before the fences go up and put access is restricted!

Thanks again for your reply!

HomeAngels · Mar 04, 2016 9:06 pm

Our old house faced west and our bedroom windows suffered in summer. We planted an ornamental pear tree. It took a few years to get bushy but it was amazing. Because it's deciduous it provided shade in summer and let the sun in in winter. We planted it approx 2 metres from the house. Admittingly it would have looked better a little further away but it never provided any problems in the years that it was there. We planted it in 2006 and this photo was taken in 2014.

http://i1179.photobucket.com/albums/x400/smallnads/Mobile%20Uploads/IMG_3310_zpsiviavcss.jpg

Megera · Mar 05, 2016 7:56 am

HomeAngels

Our old house faced west and our bedroom windows suffered in summer. We planted an ornamental pear tree. It took a few years to get bushy but it was amazing. Because it's deciduous it provided shade in summer and let the sun in in winter. We planted it approx 2 metres from the house. Admittingly it would have looked better a little further away but it never provided any problems in the years that it was there. We planted it in 2006 and this photo was taken in 2014.

http://i1179.photobucket.com/albums/x400/smallnads/Mobile%20Uploads/IMG_3310_zpsiviavcss.jpg

Thanks for your reply! That looks great and gives me a good reference for spacing :-)

Megera · Jul 07, 2016 5:17 pm

Thought I should update this thread with what we ended up with:

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We ended up with a bigger top level and a smaller second level and a narrow bottom level. We lined things up with where the water tap & mailbox are.

We chose 3 dwarf flowering gums (2x "purple patch" 1x "euky dwarf") for the top level with two different grevillea ground covers (2x "wooly bear" & 2x "mt. tamboritha")
On the second level we have 3 types of grevillea shrubs (2x "rosy morn", 2x "rosy's baby", 2x "bronze rambler")
On the bottom level we will probably put in some native grasses (to be done at a later date).

I'm really happy with how it's all come together :-)

(Sorry for no better pics with the pants in, it's been bucketing down since we got everything planted).

Gaudi · May 27, 2017 6:29 pm

Megera

Thought I should update this thread with what we ended up with:

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).

Looks great!! And love those plants you mentioned. Have you had any issues with the lack of retaining wall going Ng up along driveway with soil/mulch spilling over. I'm guessing retaining wall soil level parallel with house is higher than the driveway level.
I have a similar front yard, slope less so looking at one retaining wall.

Megera · May 27, 2017 7:58 pm

Gaudi

Megera

Thought I should update this thread with what we ended up with:

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).

Looks great!! And love those plants you mentioned. Have you had any issues with the lack of retaining wall going Ng up along driveway with soil/mulch spilling over. I'm guessing retaining wall soil level parallel with house is higher than the driveway level.
I have a similar front yard, slope less so looking at one retaining wall.

Thanks! Nope, none at all and ditto on the other side. We gently sloped things so it all sort of matches/evens out.

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Megera · May 27, 2017 7:59 pm

I'll try and remember to take a current pic, things look quite a bit different now that the trees have grown a bit.

Gaudi · May 27, 2017 8:14 pm

Megera

I'll try and remember to take a current pic, things look quite a bit different now that the trees have grown a bit.

That's great!
Hopefully new landscaper out next week has some great ideas as I need to get a revised landscaping plan to council.
Current picture would be great.