I am seriously considering, nay: I have made up my mind! that I will place palms along the south-western corner of the house…I will create a Mug’s map of the area for you and you can see what I mean.

The problem: summertime sun from about 15:00 hours to about 18:30 hours shining directly into the lounge room. In the lounge room is about an acre of carpet plus cloth upholstered chairs, a piano and a built-in wooden cupboard/sideboard. All this needs protection from this summer sun. The solution also needs to provide shade and shelter for the several varieties of froggies and pobblebonks that call the area “home”.

At the moment, the area has one leucaena close to the house, which needs to be poisioned and which we are constantly trimming back to the stump as these little leaves clog the gutters something shocking. Also we have some kind of yucca, which gives shelter (believe it or not) to the frogs, but it is taking over the area by self-layering. It has thorns down the sides of its leaves, which adds further discomfort to the area.

I have “ideas” of putting an above-ground spa in there eventually, instead of having a pool elsewhere. More manageable in terms of safety and supervision.

The area measures about 5 metres x 5 metres. The ground is pebbles on top of black plastic sheeting, bordered by local 6“x6” rocks.

I was thinking of tall palms – about 2 – then maybe something like bismarkia or a mix of bismarkia and another palm, along the western fence, and maybe those “bulb-bottom” type palms along the southern fence, to loosely define the area from the grass…

The soil is (AFAIK) self-mulching cracking black clay…

There are a few palm people from QLD on GE. One’s actually from Cloncurry.

i went to a palm forest on friday. they are beautiful shady areas.
the yucca gloriosa we’ve got is about to be pruned by axing off the side suckers.

Thanks Bubba Louie, Pepe…

Wonder what the palm from Cloncurry is? There is a Zamia palm from the Carnarvon Gorge /Springsure area: the aborigines used to eat the heart of it I think (after which it died).

Might have to cross the Bismarkia off: don’t know why I havent’ seen it before, but on the way across yesterday, I saw one that was at least 2 metres higher than the highset Queenslander it was beside…it looks like they don’t get any wider, just taller…

Mr D has told me he has “plans” for that area and suggested that I just buy BIG pots when on special and use them to landscape the area…this brings me back to looking at a blind for that window … $500 (last time we asked) for a good cedar, good cord and motor, blind, just for that window…

Back to the planning board, but the yukkas are going.

Hey D. Palms can handle being crowded a bit and give a better effect IMHO.
I’ve got an area of similar size to yours, maybe a bit more like 5m x 8m. It has about 5 bangalows planted in clumps of 3 or so, some Alexandras, a handful of golden canes, 2 shorter stumpy ones i can’t remember the name of, a few cycads and a triangle palm in the foreground. Underplanted with smaller palms, bromeliads and a small pond. Still lots of understory room and has created very dense shade. Oh there’s also an Asia bell tree in there too. You know those house plants that wilt and drop their leaves overnight when they dry out. Should see them in the ground. Crikey.

Here’s a foto you have probably seen before. It is a few years old now.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v239/m.longstaff/DSC01989.jpg

That looks stunning Longy

G’day hopper. Looks better now as it’s more established and the palms all flower these days. Including the triangle. Prolific. Lots of baby palms in the mulch.

All I can say Longy is that you appear to have a wonderful garden

appear to have a wonderful garden
++++++++++++++++++++++++
Nah i reckon not. It’s OK is all. But thanks anyway Hopper.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v239/m.longstaff/DSC01989.jpg

Oh. My. Goodness.

That looks splendid, Longy. Thanks for putting it up.

My plan was to have tall palms along the western fenceline, then to underplant inside the fenceline with smaller palms (understorey) and other tough “fern-y” or “palm-y”-looking plants…create a border along the southern side (the house walls form the northern and eastern boundaries), then place pavers and such in the middle, creating an area where an informal setting would provide somewhere for a set-down for a cuppa at times.

I had a look at a couple of palms at daughter’s school just now: they might be date palms I think…in a very small area but are nice and straight and tall…

Longy, if you could give me more names of the plants that you have in the photo, I could check them out at the nurseries, please? It’s handy having a photo like that to see what they grow up to…

OK, the bangalow palm is the one with the lace-like seed branches at about where the first green leaf starts?

I think this might be what I saw at daughter’s school.

I have just gone back and read your post again Longy…I think it was the photo that took all my attention for the past 5 minutes!!

The “triangle palm” is that fan-like one on the left…

Is that a liriope I see on the right-hand-side?

I’ll be back later, have a retail therapy (I wish) opportunity knocking on the door….the therapy bit would be if I get time to spare for a look-see at B…..gs

:)

Ciao

nice garden longy
lovely and cool places to walk thru’ – especially after a foot of rain.

Hey D. About the only plants i haven’t named are the ponytail palm in the foreground and some understorey stuff. What’s that yellow speckled thing
Your plan sounds good, just try and keep it 3 dimensional. Don’t make a row at the back, kind of stagger them a bit. Have a feature toward the front. Like i said, they love crowding. Their roots are not wide ranging so they can be close together. Once you have shade, in go the ferns and broms etc. Maybe some native violets in the dappled shade.
I’ll get an up to date foto when i get home and send it to you with more names of any plants i can see. Chuck in a few closeups maybe. I think there’s a bottle palm in there too. They stay fairly small.
Tree ferns work as well. Birds nest ferns etc. Orchids and stags and elks come later too.

nice garden longy
lovely and cool places to walk thru’ – especially after a foot of rain
+++++++++++++++
Unfortunately the foot of rain was here in PNG Pepe.
Shane it wasn’t at home. Be nice, I did go for a walk in the jungle this arvo and it is considerably cooler in there.
Oh crikey, thunder. Gonna rain again.

What’s that yellow speckled thing
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
A croton. Not to be confused with a cretin. (Which is what you call someone who can’t recall their croton.)

I had a lovely time at bunnings yesterday, bought two tiny zamias, there was 3 but one was bouncing around on top of the soil of it’s pot, having rotted a bit, so Fashionasta stuck it in the other pot with the good plant…

There were some very big fibreglass pots, but I am so “over” fibreglass after our experience with the fibreglass rainwater tank…what does anybody else think of these pots?

Am avoiding anything that says “requires constant moisture and humidity”…this is the southwest corner after all…

Saw some triangle palms when driving around one particular suburb yesterday: the local nursery there must have had a special on them 15 years ago…

Isn’t it amazing how, after hearing about some plants on this forum, suddenly you see them as you drive around?