Oh, good for you Artie. I am still mixing my exotics with natives. My front yard has a cottage/potager theme. So I have hedges of westringia and lilly pillies, and lots of native irises, some very pretty runny postman as ground cover, grevilleas grouped together under the silver princess, three euc. ficifolia (grafted). But then I also have a nectarine, 2 dwarf peaches, black mulberry, white mulberry, apricot, 2 oranges... and, to my shame, I have 10 roses. To my astonishment, it actually works really well (I think).

Please let us know what you plant, and how you are grouping them.

cheers
Aggie

Wow - that sounds like quite a front garden, Aggie ! Mine is considerably more modest, and I'm trying to build it around simplicity, and the need to get some of my favourite trees in the ground. Although I was initially going to plant the Xanthostemon at the front, that has found its way to the far rear of my block, so I'm left with the Backhousia and a Blueberry Ash (Elaeocarpus reticulatus) - these will complement an already established Syz Leuhmannii. Underplantings are pretty basic - lots of lillipillies for screening on one side, and the aforementioned tropical Grevillea on the other side (mainly small and prostrate forms under 1.5 metres).

I know that my approach is a contradiction - many people seem to regard the front garden as a showpiece - but I dont want to spend too much time in the front garden - the back is where the action is with my 'fruit salad' :)

Amusingly, you are the second lady who has defied my 'no roses' edict today - each to their own :)

Artie
The way you described your front "exotic" garden brought all my memories flooding back.
We bought our place in 2001 and tore out the entire garden and replaced it with natives.
A real hodgepodge was in the front, nasty bougainvillea, Cocos palms (and those awful orange balls)and yes, roses, all behind a 2 metre high wire fence.
Along the front bank now are 7 Backhousia citriodoras, which will eventually be a hedge.
Next to them on either side of our driveway are 2 Livistona australis.
Behind the citridoras are 7 Cyathea cooperis.
Also in the front yard are a Xanthostemon Crysanthus an Evodiella muelleri, 5 Archontophoenix alexandrei and 2 Archontophoenix cunninghamia.
It's going to be the most spectacular jungle.
Go for it I say.

Roy

Thanks Roy - your front garden sounds like it will have the effect I'm trying to achieve in my *back* garden : dense plantings and tropical ambience.

My palms and tree ferns have suffered somewhat of late - a lot of wind followed by alternately warm and cold days - but I'm confident that they will bounce back when Spring takes hold.

Tearing *everything* out is tempting, but I cant bring myself to remove a couple of established Murrayas and two massive clumps of Golden Cane palm. As I said, its more about screening the world than creating a showpiece for me - the less the neighbours see of my patch, the happier I'll be :)

I am imaginig how fantasic both these gardens look as these should be a blue print for tropical type oz gardens
me im still love my heath land but wow wow wow

Thanks Warcrazy, but I dont think you'd be so thrilled with my garden in its current 'work in progress' state. I guess thats something that separates the 'serious' gardener from the average Joe : the vision (and patience) to take something from a bare block to an oasis within a few years.

As I await the next visit from my tree-lopper, I'm seriously considering having most of the exotic palms and one of the Poincianas take out before I try to plant anything else. The irony is that I continually lamented the lack of established plants in my old garden, but it all comes back to what the garden will look like in 3 years, not 3 months.

Speaking of heath, I noticed that Don Burke ('Indigenous') was thrilled to find a groundcover which stood up to anything (soil, sun, shade) in any part of the garden - Dianella. All I have to do now is find some in the local nurseries :)

Artie - there's something about gals and their roses ... I thought I could let go, but I just couldn't.

I have recently planted some annuals amongst my natives in the front - so together with the bulbs, poppies and alyssum, I also have leschenaultias, correas, k'roo paws, melaleucas. Amongst my grevilleas, I have some thyme and marjoram.

Come summer, I will be popping in sunflower seeds (nothing makes it feel more like summer than sunflowers).

My garden is definately overplanted, and definately fruit salad ... but it has some quiet aspects too - particularly the westringia hedge and the lovely silver princess in the background. Oh, and come summer, the 50 yr old frangipani will be covered in white and yellow flowers.