Browse Forums Landscape & Garden Design 1 Dec 07, 2017 4:14 pm Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Hi, I'm quite new to gardening and want some advice please. I live in the Hills District in NSW and the front yard gets a lot of afternoon/evening sun. Land is on clay soil. Attached above is a photo of my front garden and I'm think of planting some gardenias in the region highlighted with the black circle. The red circle is around an existing gardenia. Is this a good idea? I'm hoping they will all grow together into one longish gardenia bush. Important thing for me is the overall height should be lower than the bottom f the window as I don't want to block sunlight into the front room. Also, does anybody know what sort of tree that is (the tall tree between the circles)? Just curious Regarding the bottom photo, what should I plant in the areas highlighted by the purple and orange boxes? I was thinking a pomegranate tree? My parents have one and it fruits and is not very big. There used to be a very tall tree where the purple box is but that was removed as the roots kept damaging and blocking the sewer line which runs directly under that area. Also that tree blocked a lot of light from the adjacent Buxus hedge so the back part of the hedge was virtually dead (largely recovered now that the tree is gone). Any advice would be greatly appreciated Thanks, Claude Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Re: Advice please - what to plant?? 2Dec 20, 2017 8:03 am Howdy. I am in no means a landscaper, but we are in the middle of doing our backyard and I did some research on this sort of stuff. Keep in mind, we are in Melbourne and it's a different climate, you would need to check whether these would suit yours. In your black circled area, I have an area in my yard where I want something to grow to a similar height, and I am planning to put in a few Choisya ternata (Mexican Orange Blossom). It goes up to 1.5m high, and if that exceeds where the window starts you could just keep it trimmed. Another I have in my list that can cope with sun is Berberis thunbergii (depends what colours you want in your garden as this is quite red/purple). I took gardenias out of my plan because I heard they can be tricky, but if you have one already growing, then that's a good sign! I'm not sure what the tree is, but maybe a ficus? Some kind of fig? Don't quote me on that. As for the orange and pink squares, I wouldn't be planting a tree if you're concerned about pipes, or cutting off the light from the hedge. What about a ground cover? We have Trachelospermum asiaticum (Jasmine) but I am a bit disappointed by it as it hasn't flowered since planting (18 months). On my list I have Evolvulus pilosus as being good in full sun. If you wanted some height, I personally don't think you can go wrong with Salvias (but get one that only goes up to 30 or 40cm). The other small shrub we have that's doing well in full sun is Caryopteris x clandonensis 'Lisaura' - I love the lime green foilage - it really stands out. That's my 2 cents worth! Others may have some input also. My Hamptons build (completed): viewtopic.php?f=31&t=63370 Moved in Wednesday 11th Dec 2013 Front landscaping completed June 2016 Re: Advice please - what to plant?? 3Dec 20, 2017 9:57 am Hi Cinder, thanks so much for the advice. It is very helpful and I’ll keep it in mind. Thanks Claude 0 3484 Versaloc is a mortarless besser block system that still needs a properly engineered footing. If you just do a 400x200 footing it will fail in time. At 17m long you need it… 1 3420 A question. Im in Queensland and building a new home. We managed to reach practical completion 6 weeks ago but we haven't heard any date for handover yet. Who should we… 0 3054 |