July 2000
Armed with my success and the knowledge gained in the pool area, I turned my eye to another area, An area that leads from the house to the pool area. At that stage it was a woodland garden with autumn foliage trees including maples, dogwoods, crabapples underplanted with unusual a nd rare cool climate plants. Even though a few of my cordylines had crept into this area it still looked so drab when the leaves had fallen off the trees and lacked the vitality of the pool area. Out came the trees and in went some Bangalow palms and Golden Cane palms; more cordylines, calatheas, ctenanthes, gingers, cycads and a bat plant were also added. There was a straight path that led from the house to a larger paved section at the bbq. All of the paving was pulled up, the pathway changed to a curved pathway and replace with paving laid as steppingstones surrounded by river pebbles. This added to the informal tropical look within this area.
Over the next few months as the weather warmed up atherton palms, fishtail palms black palms and triangle palms have been added to the canopy with Licuala palms, bromeliads, ctenanthes, marantas, and more cordylines were added. Early this year foxtail palms, more triangle palms wedding palms, crotons, calatheas, diffenbachias and more cordylines in the understorey. The bangalow palms were later removed as I thought their foliage was too heavy in this area, more golden cane palms were added, these gave the area a softer, lighter look. Now the canopy consists of foxtail palms, golden cane palms and wedding palms in one section, while triangle palms are in another.
August, 2001.
The magnolia was removed and replaced by three Bangalow Palms. My neighbour did a few changes to his yard just before winter, and this affected the microclimate in this area; allowing the cold air to flow into this area. This made me decide to have my microclimate independent of any thing outside of my own yard. Since then 10 more bangalow and alexander palms have been added to provide a canopy. The pavilion, to cover the BBQ and table area, has been started; it will also help with the microclimate. The palms and pavilion will help to keep the understorey cooler in summer and warmer in winter. More cordylines have also been planted. Bamboo flares have been placed along the gravel path, leading to where the pavilion will be.
Over the last few months we have been hit with very windy weather (for Sydney). It seems that every time I added more advanced palms to my garden; the strong winds come soon after and the palms take quite a battering. Over recent weeks I have started on the front garden. Advanced Bangalow palms and golden cane palms have been planted, smaller ones will be added between the larger palms.. The tropical foliage garden has been gradually taking over my whole yard. Last summer I started on the last section in the backyard. Even though the area has an 18 month old Duranta 'Sheenas Gold' hedge, the area still looked flat. So last summer I started to transform this section, it is going to be the most challenging as the frosts do settle here. I removed the silver birches and buddleias and added Bangalow palms as the canopy. Underneath these ctenanthes and native gingers have been added for now.
Bamboos are a plant that has interested me, and I have started to grow these.
April, 2002.
This area has changed in appearance over the last year. Some golden cane palms have been added, more cordylines and bromeliads have been planted around the garden edges. Pedestals have been placed for the lanterns and flares have been added. It now has a tropical atmosphere. My cordyline collection has now grown to over 230 species, cultivars or forms. The pavilion is now finished.
May, 2003.
There was very little left to be done in the front garden and it is now finished. During summer I added more small Fijiian Fire plants and they are now around a metre high.
The bottom garden has had some changes recently. The camellia hedge was removed from on top of the brick wall and a hedge of golden canes was planted. Under this I planted cordylines, crotons and bromeliads. After winter had passed and after a busy time at work, I got the chance to look at this with new eyes, i.e. I didn't pay much attention to it and had forgotten what it looked like. I decided that I didn't like the hedge and transplanted the golden canes into clumps further back into the garden, this allowed me to scatter large bromeliads throughout this area.
