The first task - provide shade
"We busily set about planting lots of fast growing native trees such as callistemons, grevilleas, native frangipani, buckinghamia, swamp bloodwood (red flowering gum), paperbarks, wattles and golden penda, to name just a few.
Welcome birds and wildlife
Those trees now provide us with most of what we need for our garden - shade and mulch - as well as bringing beautiful birds daily to visit and feed.
We enjoy the company of rainbow lorikeets, rosellas, many varieties of honeyeaters and of course, butcher birds (who serenade us with their wonderful songs), crested pigeons and many others.
Our beautiful blue tongued lizard keeps our plants free of snails - even though he nearly scared a tradesman (who could only see his head) half to death last week! He imagined something much more frightening at the other end of the head!
Colour our world!
When the trees were large enough to provide some shelter, we planted coloured foliage plants of many kinds such as cordylines, dracaenas, crotons, caladiums, calatheas and others.
We have had a love affair with bromeliads for over thirty years - long before they became 'fashionable' in Australian gardens. Our bromeliads flourished in their new environment and we added to our collection and now have a comprehensive collection of many varieties.
I have experimented with growing them in different conditions and varying intensity of light and the resulting brilliant colours are delightful.
A few years ago, our garden was all but destroyed by a huge hailstorm and it took a long time to recover - that was the catalyst for the building of some greenhouses to provide protection.
We couldn't bear the thought of going through that experience again so the greenhouses are now an integral part of our garden.
Our orchids provide exquisite blooms and wonderful perfume.
Over the years, other flowering shrubs and small flowering trees such as our calliandra (much loved by the birds), petrea, star jasmine and others grow happily in the garden.
We also have some of the old favourites such as daylilies, hippeastrums, geraniums, azaleas, camellias, nasturtiums and agapanthus growing and every now and then, we plant a large saucer or two of petunias for a riot of colour.
We have added water-wise plants such as agave, succulents and cacti and ornamental grasses.
We've built two small ponds joined by a little stream and waterfalls. I can't imagine a garden without the restful, calming sound of gently running water - and the frogs think it's pretty good as well!
We have installed alternate watering systems to service our garden - so we don't have to use the city water supply. We use mainly mulch and nutrients from the trees to fertilize - but have always used good old Osmocote - so reliable and beneficial for plants of all varieties.
Our garden - a joy and haven for us, our grandchildren and wildlife
To begin with, our garden was reasonably orderly - but it soon became apparent that the kind of garden we wanted was a wild garden - one which evolved rather than was planned! It's not the kind of garden that will ever win a garden competition - but for us, it is a joy and a haven.
For our grandchildren, it's a place to allow their imaginations to run riot - especially as we're in the early stages of adding a small garden railway and eventually planting miniature plants to scale - a future project.
For some of our beautiful birds and wild creatures who have been robbed of so much of their habitat, we hope it will remain a refuge. They give us so much in return."
Jan & Ken Stockwell
