Hi Maddy, Your climate sounds something like ours. We have limited water supply from a dam, so I use drippers on all my plants, with thick straw mulch. I have access to a nursery that sells a large variety of plants in tubes for $2, so I buy lots of these. That way I can find out what is suitable for my area without it costing me heaps. Whatever dies is not a great loss, and whatever grows I buy more of or make my own cuttings and do repeat planting. My colour scheme is blue/mauve/pink so I can make a few suggestions: Roses - a remarkably tough plant, flowers repeatedly from October to May. You'll get the dark red here - lots to choose from and you must have Mr Lincoln (what a perfume). Check out the Roses in Oz forum. Salvias - come in red and blue/purple. Don't need a lot of water. Come as perennials and annuals. Cut back in winter for new growth in spring. Buddleias - tall, lanky shrubs, can be kept trimmed. will flower all summer with varying shades of blue, purple and magenta. Butterflies love them, and they have a lovely perfume. Verbenas - a low growing plant - probably 30-40cm high and spreads. Comes in blue, purple, pink, mauve and combinations; I've just discovered one called Hunter Red. These do well in my climate. There are many varieties, and the ones that do best for me have a broader leaf with a serrated edge. They flower all summer too. Lavenders - all sorts - french, italian etc. I have a tough, common one called Lavandula Vera, which has been flowering for a couple of months now. It doesn't mind being cut back well, whereas some of the others can be a bit finicky if you cut back into old wood. Daisies - my garden has been alive with colour since winter with daisies. The common white and pink daisy bushes which I refer to as marguerite daisies. I also have felicia amelloides - dainty blue and mauve flowers on a low shrub. And the African daisies - osteospermum and dimorpotheca, grow like a weed but are just a mass of colour at the moment. Native hibiscus - alogyne huegelii. This is my latest discovery. I planted one twelve months ago and it is now covered with large, deep purple, crepe paper flowers shaped like a hibiscus. I can't grow hibiscus because of the frost. this one is supposed to be slightly frost tender, so I planted it below a big tree. It has grown into a 1m x 1m bush and is a sight to behold. Chase this one up at your nursery. I am planting more of this one - all around my garden... And I nearly forgot Agapanthus - it seems you either love or hate this plant - I LOVE it, unashamedly. For colour at Christmas you can't go past it. And they thrive on neglect! Don't forget happy Wanderer if you want a purple climber to cover a fence. I also have good success with the potato vine Solanum Jasminoides - both the white and the Monet's Blue - evergreen climbers, don't mind the heat or the frost and "respond well to trimming" (in other words, grows so well...

Yes I love them too, as do the birds. The previous owners built the house and were keen to leave us with photos of the new gardens. We have 3 huge red callistemons at the front which show up in their photos as tube stocks....basically sticks in the ground. They are huge and very healthy now so I am guessing they would be about 25 years old. Just pray that the wind doesn't blow in the direction of your swimming pool too often!!!! Grr its a real pest in that manner.

g'day roy, there are around 3 leaf eating bugs for gum trees they all look similar to each other but surprisingly have different scientific names (don't have them to hand) they look a bit like an oversize lady bird, our method of treatment as to do an early morn' collectin and drop them into a bottle with some kero' in it same treatment for their larva when you find it. these bugs can all but denude a tree of foliage but for the main the tree will revive over winter, i think the best control method is to attract the noisy miners into you garden they will take care of the larva and hence the beetle, the honey eaters will also help. search for eucalyptus leaf eaters. this may help len Here is a link that might be useful: lens garden page

I dunno, sometimes I type out a response/message press the right butoons, come back the next day and it hasn't worked. My fault or this sometimes unstable site? Anyway, I agree with Ted except I thought that black scale was 'hard' scale, not that it makes any difference the remedy is the same. My reference (Encyclopedea of Aus Gardening) says that native honey-eater birds usually keep the scales under control. Do you have any of those about, pennyw? B.