Buddleia are fairly tough. I have them on a dry bank and they do well. Also Echium - they are supposed to be frost tender, but mine do very well in the frost. The old favourites like lavender and rosemary will survive the dry, cold and heat.

We had the same problem when we moved here - terrible soil. I started taking a trailer down to the local saleyards and shovelling manure. To make a garden bed, I put the manure down to a depth of about 10-20cm, then a 10cm layer of straw on top. The worms do the rest of the digging in. The garden beds this creates rarely need to be watered. The plants are vigorous and rarely suffer from pests or diseases. It seems a lot of work initially, but once it is down, there is not much to do weeding, watering or pest-control wise.

Ok sounds like good names to start with! Thanks!
I have horses and cows so manure won't be a problem..
This is going to sound incredibly stupid, but do I plant the plants in the manure/straw, or down in the soil?
I'm guessing the soil, but 20 - 30cm is quite deep for some plants isn't it?
And how long should I wait before planting, once I put the manure and straw on?

Hi Maddy Have a look at the link below lots of interesting natives on it. I find that the Grevillea banksii do well here 32kms south of brissie after about 6 months in the ground I have never watered them again and that was four years ago I also have grevillia pteridiifolia it oozes nectar so I get plenty of birds here, there are so many Grevellias out there sometimes it is a hard choice.

Same with the Callistemons they are covered with flowers at present and the birds visit all the time. Callistemon tinaroo grows quick and has a weeping habit cream flowers so beautiful I have heaps of red ones too, if you want to see some pics e-mail me.

Most of my plants are in raised beds, do not plant them deep as the heavy showers we get will waterlogg them, be very carefull with manure as natives dont like most of it I would not put any in the soil when I am planting them it is much better to prepare your soil months before hand giving it time to decompose, dont forget the compost and if the soil it too hard gets bags of Gypsum and mix that through.

I have lots of native trees planted Xanhostemon chrysanthus ( golden penda ) Brachychiton acerifolius ( Illawarra Flame tree ) Stenocarpus sinuatus ( Firewheel tree) Flindersia brayleyana ( Qld Maple ) is a fast grower, I also have Backhousia citriodora ( Lemon scented myrtle ) also the ( grey myrtle ) Backhousia myrtifolia to name a few.

Good luck with your garden and do let us know how is goes and what you plant..Cheers..MM.

Here is a link that might be useful: Flora for Fauna

I would love to see any and all picture you have of your garden! I'll email you now :)
It sounds lovely!
I'd like to have some sort of garden going by Dec/Jan.. so what should I be doing to achieve that?
Just digging up the area, mixing through the manure/compost/whatever.. leave it to degrade for a one or two months, then planting partially grown items?

Should I be watering it as it's degrading?
And what about the straw?

Acacias are great and fast growing - they don't live long but with such a large area you can afford to lose a few. See what is growing well locally and go with those.
I'd get a few giant trees planted first - I'd agree with misty's recommendation of the Qld maple.
It might be worthwhile to get planting soon before the weather gets too hot. Hopefully they'll be big enough to be able to cope with the frosts next winter.
You should probably get along to a good native nursery.

Local natives sound like the go to me. Most councils have a list of local natives. Check them out. I love callistemons, correas and grevilleas, so do birds. Globe artichokes are very hardy, quite attractive and provide the odd yummy meal. I'd add thyme to the lavender and rosemary already mentioned. There's a lovely creeping thyme that makes a wonderfully fragrant ground cover.
I've been to the Esk area but can't remember the soil type there. If it's sandy add lots of organic matter (manure's good). If it's clay, do the same but fork open, don't turn the soil beforehand. This isn't too difficult, even in heavy clay, after rain. Just wiggle the fork in, push it back and forth a little and move on.
Cover the area with a good 10cm of manure. Water well. Then deep mulch over this and water again, if you can spare the water.
Beds created this way shouldn't be planted in straight away. It's a bit rich and will heat up a little initially. Wherever you want to plant, dig the soil and mix it with some organic matter like old dry grass clippings or well-aged manure or whatever you like, even shredded newspaper. This can be mounded to raise it a little. Plant in this. Over time, the surrounding manure will feed whatever it is you've planted. If it's only a small item, just dump some potting mix down and plant in that.
If there are areas that are bare but will be used later, take a rake to it to roughen the surface, thickly broadcast some kind of green manure (I use el cheapo birdeed mix from the supermarket mixed with peas in cooler weather or beans in warmer weather, also el cheapo stuff from the supermarket like soup mix or something), tamp it down (I just walk on it), cover with about 2cm of mulch and water well. A lot of this will sprout, especially if you can water it again occasionally, but don't worry if you can't. This can be slashed when it's about 30cm high and left as mulch. The roots will have begun breaking up the soil.
Hope this little bit helps.

I plant into the manure. I leave it for about a week, then plant out. The manure gets broken down and mixed into the soil by the earthworms so in a year or so the manure is the soil. The plants absolutely thrive in the stuff, and I have grown dozens of roses by sticking the cuttings into the manure in the vegie garden, then ignoring them. They grow like crazy! Bulbs, perennials, annuals, shrubs, trees and vegies - they all love it.

I would avoid planting too many natives near your house - have just spent the weekend watching my in-law's neighbours chopping out their white-ant infested native garden. They were all through the mulch, in every tree and shrub and finally got into the house. The damage bill will be more than $20,000.

Re natives: if you want to plant them in compacted, really poor soil, how can you build up the soil without adding manure to it? Or do you have to add the manure months in advance, to give it time to break down before planting the natives in it? I'm assuming that there isn't enough/any compost available (as there almost certainly wouldn't be in a new garden, esp. a garden of this size).

If the manure is left on top of the soil and not against the plant, I see no problem. The nutrients will just dribble through slowly, especially if the place is on the dry side.

My wattles are planted in a row down the hill - the one at the top of the row is 5 times bigger and fatter than the others because it has its roots firmly in the manure in a garden bed at the top of the hill. In fact, it is pretty well draining the guts out of the garden bed... Manure is probably a soil conditioner, not a fertilizer, which native plants can't handle.

Ok general consensus is manure = good?
So digging through the manure, waiting, then planting?
Or planting, add manure on top, grow?
I'd be planting natives and other species..
And this specific garden is about 150m downhill from the house.

If you are planting natives, then I wouldn't bother with the manure - mainly because of the effort involved. If you are planting other species, I would plant, then put manure and mulch around them on top of the soil. We have planted about 100 native trees and about 1000 decidious trees, shrubs and conifers. We have fairly poor soil. The decidious trees we planted then manured AND mulched have gone ahead in leaps and bounds. We intend to do the rest this year. The natives we mulched (not manured) are doing really well. Manure probably wont kill the natives, but why do all that work if you don't need to? I always put the manure on top and let the worms dig it in. I'm very lazy ;-) We used a Dingo machine, with a 60cm auger, to dig the holes. We hired it for the weekend. It was worth it. We really old and didn't want to get that tired... Besides, we planted the whole lot at once. That's a lot of planting. Our house is on the top of the hill with garden down the hill. There is probablt enough nutrients moving down the hill to help the native trees without adding to it. I never waited for the manure to do anything - just used it straight off. If I was planting perennials into the manure I might wait a week, but most times never worried. Nothing ever died. I tend to go for the minimum effort, maximum result kind of gardening.

If you are starting off from scratch plant pioneer trees first. These are the local local species (typically Eucalypts)that grow well naturally in your area. Build up your framework of trees and large shrubs and then you can plant your more sensitive species in the shelter of your pioneer trees.
If you are in a high wind prone area and parts of the Brisbane Valley can be, be careful about planting trees that develop a large fork as these tend to come down during westerly winds.

Doug.

Madddy - if your summers truly are boiling (like Perth summers over here) then I wouldn't be doing too much planting now - you may want to spend the time landscaping (rocks, garden bed design, paths, etc) and soil improving - for those areas where you aren't planting natives.

As for soil condition for natives - the main problem we have in WA is our very waxy and water repellent soil - so the main thing I have to do is compost/put organic stuff into the soil to help with the water drainage and retention. This has helped with the success rate of my natives. You probably shouldn't manure them - they don't really need it.

The very best time to plant out your natives would be end of summer, early autumn - when the earth is still warm, and it starts getting wet again. There is nothing quite as heartbreaking as planting a whole lot of plants around the end of spring and seeing them all wither and die in the summer heat.

Your acreage sounds delightful. Good luck. Plant lots of local native plants - the birds and wildlife will love you for it. And lots of things to eat !!

I personally recommend for small but cute flowers Petunias. They are flowering at the moment and will get some nice pretty little flowers on them plus they will do great in pots. I also recommend Salvia Splendens but they are more of a bright red flower altho there are other varities. I may have some seeds soon if you would like they look like the ones in the links below. the red ones that look kindy spikey are the salvia's they are as easy as chips to grow. Where abouts are you again I may be able to strike some but I can also bring up some seeds. They will self seeds and are drought hardy. They are also frost hardy.the petunias are not so frost hardy but will put up with light frost. the others are the petunias big flowers low growing shrubbery but are very beautiful. I live on the gold coast at Mudgeeraba five mins from robina train station. I'm josh by the way, I'm 17 and currently finishing of my year 12 diploma at high school.

http://tinypic.com/dx1s1j.jpg
http://tinypic.com/dx1thg.jpg
http://tinypic.com/dx1ts3.jpg
http://tinypic.com/dx1tzb.jpg

the only catch is you might have to copy and paste the adresses one at a time into ur browser. Let me know what you thing probably best to email me at mrhoneycutt@internode.on.net. cheers belladonna12

Hi maddy

good luck with your new garden

I'd suggest getting as much cane mulch as you can afford - in the big round bales - and spread it everywhere a couple of feet thick.
this will do wonders for your soil - I had a terrible block last year (on the sunshine coast) and piled on the cane mulch - I can now dig with my bare hands down at least 6 inches. The worms love it and the plants do too - - also helps with saving water.

Hi Maddy, Your climate sounds something like ours. We have limited water supply from a dam, so I use drippers on all my plants, with thick straw mulch.

I have access to a nursery that sells a large variety of plants in tubes for $2, so I buy lots of these. That way I can find out what is suitable for my area without it costing me heaps. Whatever dies is not a great loss, and whatever grows I buy more of or make my own cuttings and do repeat planting.

My colour scheme is blue/mauve/pink so I can make a few suggestions:
Roses - a remarkably tough plant, flowers repeatedly from October to May. You'll get the dark red here - lots to choose from and you must have Mr Lincoln (what a perfume). Check out the Roses in Oz forum.

Salvias - come in red and blue/purple. Don't need a lot of water. Come as perennials and annuals. Cut back in winter for new growth in spring.

Buddleias - tall, lanky shrubs, can be kept trimmed. will flower all summer with varying shades of blue, purple and magenta. Butterflies love them, and they have a lovely perfume.

Verbenas - a low growing plant - probably 30-40cm high and spreads. Comes in blue, purple, pink, mauve and combinations; I've just discovered one called Hunter Red. These do well in my climate. There are many varieties, and the ones that do best for me have a broader leaf with a serrated edge. They flower all summer too.

Lavenders - all sorts - french, italian etc. I have a tough, common one called Lavandula Vera, which has been flowering for a couple of months now. It doesn't mind being cut back well, whereas some of the others can be a bit finicky if you cut back into old wood.

Daisies - my garden has been alive with colour since winter with daisies. The common white and pink daisy bushes which I refer to as marguerite daisies. I also have felicia amelloides - dainty blue and mauve flowers on a low shrub. And the African daisies - osteospermum and dimorpotheca, grow like a weed but are just a mass of colour at the moment.

Native hibiscus - alogyne huegelii. This is my latest discovery. I planted one twelve months ago and it is now covered with large, deep purple, crepe paper flowers shaped like a hibiscus. I can't grow hibiscus because of the frost. this one is supposed to be slightly frost tender, so I planted it below a big tree. It has grown into a 1m x 1m bush and is a sight to behold. Chase this one up at your nursery. I am planting more of this one - all around my garden...

And I nearly forgot Agapanthus - it seems you either love or hate this plant - I LOVE it, unashamedly. For colour at Christmas you can't go past it. And they thrive on neglect!

Don't forget happy Wanderer if you want a purple climber to cover a fence. I also have good success with the potato vine Solanum Jasminoides - both the white and the Monet's Blue - evergreen climbers, don't mind the heat or the frost and "respond well to trimming" (in other words, grows so well...

I been out in the garden today - the red verbena is called Fox Hunter, not Hunter Red. Another suggestion for the garden is Rosemary, of which there are lots of cultivars.