Hi,

I have always had a love for some of the western australian plants and have grown some in pots in the past.

I Have recently had the thought of building a garden bed and filling with banksias, kangaroo paw, lechenaultias, grevillea, and mallee, mostly all coming from the west.

I understand that this will be incredibly difficult. But something tells me that some of my choices could succeed if given the right microclimate.

The main query I have at the moment is soil. Im reading all my books on bansksias etc and they say that they mostly grow in sand or gravel.

Would a garden bed, mounded to become effectively a big pile, be able to support these plants?

I was thinking of a thick layer of gravel as a help for drainage, then on top of that a pile of sand or sandy loam.

I live in Newcastle, which is on the coast and about 150km north of Sydney.

The garden will be on the north side of my house and basically in full sun. It is an open situation, with a lot of air movement.

At the moment the plants I am considering are:

Eucalyptus macrocarpa (grown before in a clay loam to flowering stage)

Banksia coccinea (do not expect it to survive but willing to try, its only $12)

Banksia mensiezii? ( grown before in pot culture)

grevillia magnifica

various hybrid Paws

Various lechenaultia colours

so does anyone have any suggestion or thoughts that I might find useful?

Thanks.