Australia is not a continent where succulents have diversified greatly, compared to Africa and the Americas. We have a few representatives of a few succulent families, e.g. Aizoaceae: Carpobrotus - 4 native species, only slightly different from some of the S African and S American species; Sarcozona - 2 species, genus endemic, rather similar to Carpobrotus; Disphyma - 1 species, also in NZ and S Africa. There are other slightly less succulent native species in genera like Tetragonia (6 native), Gunniopsis (endemic, 14 spp.), Trianthema (11 native). Portulacaeae: Many spp. of Calandrinia, now treated by some botanists as genus Parakeelya. These are quite succulent and have colourful flowers but are mostly annual and so seem to be disowned by succulent fanciers. Also 1 native Anacampseros sp. Euphorbiaceae: a few Euphorbia spp. with succulent stems, e.g. E. plumerioides (also in Asia), E. stevenii, E. tannensis. Asclepiadaceae: Sarcostemma - 3 native spp., true stem-succulents with twining or scrambling stems. But why not Hoya (7 native) and Dischidia (4 native)? - they have quite succulent leaves. Chenopodiaceae: now here are a lot of succulent species, in genera such as Maireana, Sclerolaena, Enchylaena, Sarcocornia, Halosarcia, Tecticornia, Sclerostegia, Pachycornia, Suaeda, Salsola. But they tend to be either leaf succulents with dry twiggy stems, or saltmarsh plants and have no appeal to succulent fanciers. Rubiaceae: why aren't the ant plants Myrmecodia (3 native) and Hydnophytum (1 native) regarded as succulents? They look pretty succulent to me. And finally, there are a whole lot of plants in various families that have large perennial tubers. If we went by the current fashion of growing these exposed to the air, we could add quite a few Australian 'succulents'. Like a Dahlia is a succulent? And then there are the monocots - Doryanthes? Bulbine? Borya? Xanthorrhoea even? (no less succulent than some Agave or Yucca spp.) What is a succulent?

There are parts of Australia where it snows, but there wouldn't be anywhere in Australia that has cold of the sort you get in North-east US. I'd be pretty sure midyim berry wouldn't even tolerate more than a slight frost for a few days each year, and even then it would look pretty poorly until the summer rains of its native climate came and revived it. (It does like to be dry throughout winter). You might be able to nurse it along indoors, if you want badly enough to eat something that has subtle hints of cinnamon and turpentine in its flavour. Then again, it wouldn't be easy to provide it with the sort of winter day-length to which it is accustomed, unless you had some of those special "daylight" lights. I've seen ruby saltbush growing near the beach (on almost pure chalk) in South Australia. It gets cold down there - a typical mediterranean-style climate - but I suppose snow on the waterfront is rare. You'd probably need to get seed collected from the right part of Australia to have Buckley's chance (and do look that Australian expression up) of it's surviving the cold. There is enormous variability in the Australian plants gene pool. I think, for instance, that you could be sure of failure with ruby saltbush seed from my area. Are these plants actually available in the US? You could ask people who have grown them there - or is that what you're trying to do on this site? I'm inclined to agree with the writers above on the unwisdom of importing plants from another ecosystem when so much damage has been done worldwide by feral weeds already - but I'd be putting my money on your chances of rampant failure with most of our bush tucker species. I also wonder why you'd go for Australian bush tucker when there must surely be some interesting indigenous north American food plants. Is there a US equivalent of the Australian bush tucker movement? Trish

I don't know why the native grasses are so stunted on our property. I'm sure irrigation has something to do with it. Plants of the Southwest has a giant sacaton that is over 6' tall, and I see deergrass that is already 4' high and just starting to put out flowering stems, but these are all in places where they water regularly. Mine were watered during their first year, then just sparingly after that. Of course we also have all the critters who crop everything to the ground during the dry season which runs October to June. I'm mystified at why Karl F and Karley don't do well for you. KF is planted all over the city. If it's watered regularly it can top 5'. Mine is about 4' with pretty seed heads like a bunch of masai spears. Last year Karley was about 5', a huge fountain of muted rose plumes. We don't have rain in the fall, so it stayed tall and graceful. I had to move it, it was too big for the bed. It survived the move but it may take a year to settle down. I have Korean feather reed too, also Avalanche and Eldorado. All seem to be surviving which counts as success here. They're about 2' (Avalanche and Korean fr, both from last year), and 1' (Eldorado, this year). Nothing is watered heavily. All of these are doing better than the natives which mostly are barely above the ground. I have Mexican feather grass and New Mexican feather grass which are 2-3', very striking, but they're the exceptions. The big joke is ricegrass. I have 3 from PoSW, planted last year, which are little tufts about 4" tall. But with the higher rain this year, ricegrass has sprung up everywhere, looking a million times better than my PoSW sprouts. And the best of all is the clump growing in a crack in the road, a gorgeous spray of bright green and silver.

I like your style, Steffen. However, what looks better is in the eye of the beholder & so many beholders are beholden to English or northern hemisphere style gardens. Personally, I find a strong element of cultural cringe in such a stance but each to his/her own, perhaps, notwithstanding the fact that so little is left of Australia's native vegetation & its attendant wildlife. I suspect that the loss of Australia's natural environment will have to reach a critically low level before people lift their noses from their dumb phones & start wondering what happened to the Magpies. This approach seems to be happening at last in England where I've heard there is a growing interest in planting local species in cities in order to help the return of long lost wildlife. If your garden experiences a degree of natural water logging in winter then clearly plants that are adapted to the conditions are the way to go. Earth mounds & holes filled with better draining material are for those who enjoy exercise or are time rich! Great to hear that you have a native lawn. What grass species did you use & has your lawn produced seed & attracted any see-eating native birds yet?