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redlandsgilly

So many trees, so little space...

RedlandsGilly
10 years ago

Hi all, I need a reality check and some advice on converting my backyard lawn to garden. In summer it is a heat sink and so I have a dream to convert it all to cool shade and tropical splendour. The yard itself is 10m x 15m and we've already started by plonking a poinciana in the middle. I was and still am dubious but my other half insists it will be fine. Whatever, it's in, it's growing nicely.

I'm undertaking the project bit by bit. We live on compacted rocky clay which we are mattocking and newpapering and mulching to get rid of grass and condition soil as we go.

The bed I'm working on at present is about 7m x 3 to 4m wide. I want it to be a shady garden with a rainforesty understorey. We've put in some golden canes, cordylines.and a frangipani so far.

My problem is at the moment I still have very little shade in this garden. The poinciana is still too small (about 6ft tall now and approx 5 metres away) as is the frangipani. Obviously, eventually they will grow and probably the cover the lot but in the meantime would I be crazy to plant some other small trees in this bed to help this along so i can get started on planting understorey? I am looking at a corymbia ficafolia and a little gem magnolia. They would be about 6 metres apart. The frangipani would be 3m from the corymbia and 2m from the magnolia.

Am I mad to consider more trees? I don't really know what I'm doing so any help would be gratefully accepted.

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