"not alleopathic, just very efficient at squelching the competition." Thanks, LZ!! That sounds sensible. Around here, (and you're right, foggy it ain't) this season, when all is terribly dry and brittle everywhere and will be for months, I think I'll leave a layer on the ground of both eucs and the ironwood, and put the mucho extra in the long term bin, watering it every now and again. If I run out of browns for the house pile, in they'll go, in smallish amounts. The house pile is ready for the second pile after about two months - the second I do nothing to and in a month it's useable for lasagna. A thought - our rainy season is October to March. That's it for the year, BTW. If all the allelopathic qualities drip down from fog, would rain do the same thing? That would make dripping leaves "poisoning" the ground 5 months, then the fallen dry ones relatively harmless, ergo useable. I don't want to over think this, but it's very interesting as a general idea about which trees do what and how to deal with them. Thank you all for your reasoned and thoughtful ideas on this!!!! Yes, Israel is a world leader in drip irrigation. Oddly enough, mostly small gardeners use it, larger market farms and agricultural growers use it less. Most of the cutting edge green low tech is not used here, but exported - knowledge and tools - to Africa and Asia, but for some cuckoo reason, it's not used here including low water, solar stuff and all the rest. And pn, see ya on HT!

Casuarina equisetifolia is a beautiful tree but as with so many trees, it is not necesarily graceful in youth. But it will develop its proper form with age. Although others commonly recommend cosmetic or compensatory pruning at planting, research shows that leaving as much foliage on the plant as possible at planting will allow the plant to produce more roots more quickly and hence anchor the plant and further aid in establishment. Especially don't "top" it. Joe

Euphorbias seem to make a nice hedge/screen. I have red euphorbias that are about 6-7' tall right now, and they have beautiful red foliage year-round, but they don't fill in super full. Maybe I'm just not pruning them harshly enough though. I have a neighbor who butchers hers every few months and they always come back like gangbusters! I also have a hedge of Mexican pointsettia. I haven't been able to find out the official name of this plant. None of the pictures that come up on the web show what this plant is, but that is what it is called in all the nursuries I have seen it in here. It has small leaves, about 1 1/2" X 1/4", but it fills out nicely, better than the red euphorbia for a screen. In the winter (about November-February), the leaves all turn white, and it has a very delicate smell that is reminiscent of almond-flavored things. I have had my plants in the ground for about a year, and they are about 4' tall. I don't know if they are going to get much taller or not. If you look in the nurseries now, you could probably still find these with some of their white leaves. We are about 1/4-1/3 mile away from the ocean, so we get a little salt spray but nothing extreme. I'm sure a good nursery would be able to tell you about the salt tolerance. Both plants seem pretty drought-resistant, and I haven't had any trouble with bugs on the red euphorbias. The Mexican poinsettias do attract whitefly, but it doesn't seem to cause any real problems. Happy gardening!

You problably should consider African Sumac.It should be well adapted to your area.It can be a small tree or a large shrub depending on how you prune it.