I have recently landscaped our back yard with a tropical theme. Besides the usual palms, ferns, bamboo, grasses and various flowing small plants like Xanadu, parrots beak etc, I have one spot I would like to plant a tree (or a fruit tree is ok too).

However, I do have some criteria. The local nursery suggested pointsania (know idea how to spell it, hopefully you get my drift though). My uncle suggested a mango tree. But they really don't fit my criteria. Hence this post to the experts - the average aussie gardener.

I want a tree where:

- my kids can climb (they love climbing and I prefer a tree rather than our roof).
- minimal chance of kids getting splinters
- the spot where it will be planted has lots of western sun, a north fence only a metre away (usual 6 feet colourbond), great top soil but typical South East Qld rocky clay under that. We're on top of a hill so we do get good winds frequently, and we're about 6km inland from the ocean (Gold Coast).
- don't want brittle wood/branches as kids will probably live up in the tree
- don't want roots that will destroy my other plants in the gardens on either side of it
- don't want one that drinks heaps of water - as we are on water restrictions probably forever
- we have Santa Anna Couch coming up to the spot - lovely grass (thick, lucious, green, no weeds - my pride and joy), so I don't want this tree recking my hard work with the lawn
- don't really want it to be more than 8m high - ends up being a risk to my house in severe storms
- can be a fruit tree, flowing tree or just plain old normal tree
- want leaves on it all year as I don't want to rake up underneath it all the time or see sticks in the air, as it also does need to provide some privacy from a 3 storey monster house behind me (we have a 1 storey house)
-
- can't really afford a fully grown one, so may have to start with a 1m tall baby - but would like it to get to its full height with a couple years, otherwise children will be teenages - oh dear that's a scary thought
- insect and disease resistant (will accept genetically modified, grafted, from other planets etc)
- but most of all - novice gardener proof, remember plastic plants even die with me

Well thats it - not that I am picky. Not too hard for you folks out there to solve?

It was initially the only tree in the backyard and by the following summer it had enough leaves to give a bit a shade to a wading pool which I would empty in situ. I have never seen a tree grow the way it did - perhaps it was the supply of wading pool water from a few summers. Another summer and it had a branch strong enough to support a toddlers swing. By the time he was old enough to climb a tree, it could be climbed (although at 3 he much preferred the roof!!).

The tree ended up with a bigger swing, a tyre swing, a rope ladder and most of the neighbourhood kids in it. It was magical. In summer we lived under it's shade, it protected the western side of the house from the summer sun, it became whatever the kid's imagination wanted it to be (a circus tent for one party, a fairyland with big painted butterflies hanging from it and candle lanterns made from plastic drink bottles for my daughter's 7th birthday party). The cicadas loved it and the possums used it as a pathway to the roof.

So it was deciduous (plenty of leaves for garden mulch) and the grass wouldn't grow under it (less for me to mow), in time some of the roots expanded above ground and we had the occasional stubbed toe, and it only provided privacy from the neighbour's overlooking kitchen window in summer.

We eventually moved and the loss of the tree was a sadness to us all. The new owners took out just about every tree I planted - but they kept that one.

The kids are grown up now but I still find them showing newer friends photos of their tree.

The elder son is now an outdoor education instructor and the younger one, a uni student, spends a lot of time on indoor rock climbing. And my daughter keeps a small album containing photos of her fairy party by her bed.

Jacaranda.