Front garden design

Fonzi

I have a sad garden at the front of our house and is not very appealing to look at. I was hoping to pull it out and do something simple and tidy to suit the Sunshine Coast heat. I would really love some ideas on how to lay this out. I would like to keep the small trees and dress smaller plants around them.

Added a few photos

BradN

Hi @Fonzi,

Being on the Sunny Coast you have a great climate with plenty of options for different kinds of gardens. What sort of look do you want? Do you want something a bit tropical and colourful with different kinds of Hibiscus ? Acalypha wilkesiana, also known as the Fijian fire plant or beefsteak plant will give you plenty of colourful foliage and can be kept to whatever height or shape you prefer.

Those small trees would have been planted as a privacy screen meant to be kept around eye level, but they haven't been pruned properly and they're now too tall and not providing much privacy. You could try cutting them down to eye level and seeing if that will stimulate more growth lower down to green things up and start providing privacy again. Or you could take them out and replace them with something else. 

You could also think about keeping some of the other plants you have. Those Philodendron "Xanadu" with the fishbone leaves are good little well-behaved plants that suit that sort of spot. You can green them up by giving them a deep watering and then adding some Power Feed diluted in the watering can and scattering some slow-release fertiliser on the soil of the garden bed.

Near the letterbox there you've got a nice Raphiolepis (aka Indian hawthorn) that's getting a little bit overgrown by the Xanadu. If you cut the Xanadu back a bit you can keep the Raphiolepis as a flowering shrub or trim it into a formal, blocky hedge shape. 

So many options!  It might be easiest to start by deciding what basic look or theme you want - tropical, native, succulent or whatever. I'm sure others here will have plenty of suggestions.

Cheers,

Brad