Hmmm, OK. I understand your points Laag. I'll go into this a little further then. We, as a family, spend most of our time either in the sun room at the rear of the house or on the wooden deck that is just off the sun room. Indicated on the plan by a rectangle with diagonal lines on it. That is the 'HUB' of the garden for us. The deck gets sun from 10am to about 4pm through the day. North of the deck between the cherry blossom and swing set, gets full sun all day long. To the North of the deck in the area of the cherry blossom is our family lawn area. We play there, enjoy the sun there (when it does peek out throught the clouds) and generally congregate there. So really from the north side of the house up to the north fence (including the kids play area) is where we spend most of our time when we are outside. The Swing set is clearly visible from the house and our kids spend a lot of time in there. When we have friends over, of course all the kids flock to the play house. Grown ups always nearby on the deck. So with that respects, the location for the playhouse was chosen in a prominent area, not hidden as you interpreted. The original plan for the house was that we would park the cars to the rear of the house, in front of the car garage on the gravel area, but it was not ergonomic and simply didn't work out. That area in front of the garage doors is always kept clear, almost as an open courtyard. Yes, the easy up paddle pool is always put up there, as is the kids blow-up bouncy castle/slide when the weather is fine. The 3ft wide concrete pavement that surrounds the house was on the insistence of my wife. Kids needing a cycle path to round the house. Note - the driveway into the property and at the back 'courtyard' area, is 3/4inch pea gravel. Great for drainage, crap for cycling on. Before I built the retaining wall and gravel area, the whole lot was simply a lawn. here are some old photo's... My wife and I hated it that way. It felt like we were living in the middle of a soccer pitch. Of course, for practical reasons we had to put a hard surface around to the garage doors which was part of the original design plan anyway. The retaining wall was an idea that we both liked having seen it while on vacation, so that had to be incorporated. And we wanted the closed in 'courtyard' feeling from tall trees with a passageway to the upper lawn almost as a passage to a "secret garden", drawing you from the deck, across the yard and in through the entrance, through the "small forest" and up to the..... And this is where the story ends so far... The tall birch trees are history, I'll change them for 10-15ft variety with lots of shrubs. That should give visual interest and varied structure to the border. BUT my concept works. I had a bbq a couple of weeks ago and just about everyone admired the entrance to the upper lawn and equally everyone suggested I needed more than just a lawn up there to REWARD whoever follows the path. EXACTLY what I wanted to hear!! So the story will continue, I just need some help. Quote - "These people either have a very different set of functions or are extremely incapable of designing. I have no idea which." You could be right Laag. Maybe I am incapable of designing.... i wouldnt be here looking for advice if I was able to whip up the right design off the bat!

Red Sea me funny how you mention Exotica nursery since that's where I got mine. Great place to visit and I enjoyed the fruit tasting table. I guess they're the only ones who have the white form available. I thought Panama Cherry, Latires, Jamaican Cherry, Muntingia and Strawberry tree were all interchangeable so I'm not sure. No prob about a trade. Just send me a PM. I did take a pic of my airlayer set up: I probably could of used a larger ball of peatmoss but it should be okay. Every now and then I use a syringe and inject more water in the mass to keep it moist.

Tree dimensions are largely determined by environmental conditions. Wet rainforest plants like Syzy. papy. grow much shorter in drier conditions. Its like feeding a pig more food. They get fatter with better conditions. Kenilworth is a far cry from tropical north Qld, the species will tolerate the harsher conditions but the optimum time of the year for good growth maybe only 2-3 months out there. So grow is slower and due to less humidity-lower rainfall and colder conditions the height will be shorter. Ive seen very large growing rainforest species put to a hedge situation. Syzygium malaccence-Syzy. tierneyanum-Xanthostemon chrysanthus- and many others. Give it a go. You wont end up with the hedge being 80% trunk!! From Kris

Hello, Great selection of seeds. Not sure if you are still a member or interested in still exchanging seeds. I am greatly interested in Siccagno di Valledolmo variety. Being a dwarf plant and extremely drought tolerant it must be a tough plant, how is disease resistance? I would really like to give growing this variety a try, please contact if interested. I have a Rosso Sicilian cross with a Henderson Pink Ponderosa, if interested. Not very exciting, but great production, big / tough plant, still going tough when all other varieties slowed down in the 2015 fall. Fruit looks more like a smaller Pink ponderosa than the Rosso. Once again great Sicilian selection. Let me know.