Garden
Beach club style For a chic, whitewashed resort look, the designer of this pool and planting in Sydney, NSW, Harrison’s Landscaping, combined white sandstone with a built-in planter filled with dark foliage plants. The contrast of the bronze foliage of the trio of magnolia trees and underplanting of giant lilyturf (Ophiopogon jaburan) against the white walls forms a stunning combination. The magnolia thrives in full sun while the giant lilyturf appreciates some shade cast by the trees above. Both plants require little maintenance and are low-mess.
Sculptural accents Cactuses and succulents, such as agave, yucca and echeveria, make excellent poolside plants. They look good year-round with hardly any care, produce practically no mess, thrive in sunny conditions and are generally pretty tough when it comes to getting splashed by a bit of chlorinated water. For the best effect, choose cactuses and succulents with interesting, sculptural forms like strappy, upright Mauritius hemp (Furcraea foetida) and finger-like blue chalk sticks (Senecio serpens). Planting them against a wall or near enough to the pool so their forms are reflected in the water will enhance the design’s graphic quality.
. Clean and green In this tranquil Melbourne backyard, a combination of fig trees (Ficus microcarpa var. hillii), clumping slender weaver’s bamboo (Bambusa textilis var. gracilis) and a low-growing ground cover looks effortlessly chic. To get a similar look, choose poolside plantings with interesting forms and foliage, saving colourful flowers for other areas of the garden. Ficus offers the advantage of having little leaf-drop and filling in quickly to provide dense coverage – useful for creating privacy around a pool or covering a fence with green. Like all bamboos, slender weaver’s does exhibit some leaf-drop, but the designer, DDB Design Development & Building, has cleverly set it back from the pool for easy sweep up. In the evening, subtle uplighting highlights the trunks of the ficus trees and ribbed stems of the bamboo. All plants shown in this garden thrive in full sun and with moderate water comment: love the look of the Ficus but recommend to only plant the ficus if this is within a contained planter box. These trees are known for their invasive and prolific root growth and without proper safeguards in place will cause long term ...
Readers comments - Just say no to bamboo. Always. Ignore any advice that says but THIS variety doesn't spread. They all do -- under, over and around cast-iron root barriers (ask me how I know). They will eat your house if you take your eyes off them. They also drop leaves and tend to need quite a lot of water to stay green. Seriously, please just don't.Small Leaf Lilly Pilly make a fantastic hedge. You can keep them small or allow them to gain height. They get flushes of attractive new pink growth and once they've taken root, are happy with just rain water. We have had them in our backyards in Brisbane, Melbourne and Toowoomba over the last 24 years and are our "go-to" tree for an attractive, easy care plant (they can be hedged nice and tight for narrow spaces). They grow rapidly too, so there is no need to buy large, expensive plants. Even tube stock from your local Council nursery will do the trick. And we have never had issues with roots being invasive. Can't recommend them enough.
Espaliering is the art of training a tree or shrub to grow against a wall or fence to create a flat, two-dimensional effect. It’s a technique steeped in history that dates back to ancient Roman and Egyptian times, but it was during the Middle Ages in Europe that the art of training trees was perfected. Fruit trees were artfully espaliered against castle walls to provide fruit and decoration, without encroaching on the courtyard space. The flattened trees were grown against brick or stone, which absorbed the sun’s heat and created a favourable micro-climate for fruit production.
Screen time Trees are excellent screening devices. If you’re after shade in summer but light in winter, opt for a deciduous cultivar. If you’re craving year-round shade and privacy, plant a tree with a dense canopy. And if you want to screen out your neighbours but let light in, choose a variety with sparser branches such as these olive trees with their elegant grey-green foliage. Tip: Keen to grow olives? Some varieties are purely ornamental so check with your local nursery for a cultivar that fruits well in your area.
Make a statement With the size of properties shrinking dramatically, many homes now have compact courtyards instead of sprawling gardens. If this sounds familiar, you can usually still find space for a statement tree in even the smallest space. Here, a statuesque fig takes centre stage and is illuminated from below by outdoor lights. Tip: Use a root barrier for trees planted close to houses, walls and plumbing.
Espaliered elegance If you have a sun-bathed wall and enough earth or a planter pot below it, then you can espalier fruit trees. Espaliered plants are trained to grow flat against a two-dimensional surface, such as a wall, instead of being allowed to form their natural, three-dimensional shapes. You can train branches to follow any shape you please by affixing wire to your wall, which acts as a trellis. It’s not for the lazy gardener and you need to be ruthless with your secateurs, but under good conditions you’ll enjoy a bumper crop of apples, pears, persimmon, citrus, fig, stone fruits and other edibles. Tip: Use treated screws and trellis wire so they don’t rust and stain your walls.
Bring the outside in Although there is no such thing as an indoor plant, there are plenty of plants that grow happily inside your home and many that even bear fruit. Sour citrus, such as dwarf lemon and lime trees, can do well indoors providing they’re planted near a window that basks in full sunlight. Give plants brief holidays outside when you can (but introduce them to the elements gradually), keep up the water and fertiliser and with some luck your efforts will be rewarded with an abundant fruit bowl. Fancy growing fruit trees that are more sweet and less sour? Many mulberry, fig and olive trees can happily fruit indoors too.
Make an entrance In times past, people grew two bay trees at their front entrance: one symbolising peace and the other prosperity. As legend has it, these handsome, herbaceous plants would always be slightly different heights because, according to lore, the world has yet to enjoy peace and prosperity at the same time. These slow-growing shrubs, which come in smaller dwarf cultivars, thrive in most conditions except frosty climes and full shade, and you can prune them into almost any shape or topiary you desire. Bay leaves are a welcome addition to soups, stews, pies, sauces and many a savoury dish, so it’s handy to grow your own tree. And once you’ve relished the pungency of fresh bay leaves you may never want to cook with their dried counterparts again.
comment from readers : NEVER and i mean never, plant bamboo near a pool. I have some near a fish pond and the mess they make is horrendous with constant leaf litter year round. Its impossible to keep the pond clean and the leaves get into everything We had bamboo running along our boundary fence and it dropped tons and tons of leaves all year round. I wouldn't choose it anywhere close to a pool. Maybe some varieties don't drop so many leaves, but I'd be cautious because the leaves also don't seem to break down over time either - you need to rake them up and dispose of them Speaking from experience I would also be wary of planting palms like Bangalow, Kentia and others that flower and seed! Those blasted flower bracts and then seeds falling in and around the pool are a nightmare! Also agree with others regarding the bamboo, not something I'd have by the pool, they drop copious amounts of leaves as well as the Bougainvillea . Don't get me started on Ficus....their root systems are notorious Pure insanit...
Looking for a fast growing, low-maintenance plant for your southern garden? The star jasmine might be just the thing. Also known as confederate jasmine, star jasmine is hardy in USDA plant hardiness zones 7B through 10. Actually, star jasmine is not really jasmine at all, but belongs to the Trachelospermum genus. It’s a bit slow to start, but grows vigorously after the first year. Star jasmine has small, glossy green leaves that are evergreen in warm climates. The fragrant white flowers appear in April through June, depending on your climate. This easy pairing of Alexander palms (Ptychosperma elegans) and confederate jasmine (Trachelospermum jasminoides) in a garden in Miami, USA, looks lush and tropical but doesn’t require much maintenance. Palms are a classic poolside plant – instantly making a mild-climate garden feel tropical. The jasmine is a particularly useful poolside ground cover. It thrives in bright sunlight, benefits from the increased poolside humidity and can fill in as a dense ground cover in just two years. In spring, the plant is studded with white blossoms that will perfume the pool with a sweet fragrance.
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