Seventeen years ago my garden was a bare flat paddock – a few acres we had marked out for the site of our new house, on a large windswept and tree-less black soil plain. The soil is rich but heavy, unstable clay; the exposure (to heat, wind and frost) was unbelievable, and we only had bore water. So the deaths and disasters were too numerous to list – and led to a policy of ‘survival of the fittest’!

I have a Santa Ana Couch lawn, which I love and does well here, and now that the trees have grown a bit, the garden is a shady oasis (still in the middle of a treeless plain!) In the main part of the garden I have planted a variety of trees, including golden gleditsias, celtis, four varieties of ashes, three varieties of elms, Manchurian pears, a silver pear, tallow woods, a Russian olive and a few natives (mostly golden melaleucas). Around the outside part of the garden I have planted clumps of eucalypts as windbreaks and Chinese elms along the fence.

Just when I thought the garden was looking good, along came the drought! During these recent years of drought, I realised that many plants will not tolerate nothing but bore water (unrelieved by any rain) – and this, combined with the endless searing hot winds,  has taken a heavy toll on my garden. A great many roses died, and I was surprised at how many supposedly ‘tough’ plants died – such as my crepe myrtles, and a lot of natives that were supposed to windbreaks. But the whole drought experience has been a good learning curve – it showed me what I should be growing with the climate and soil that I have. The exotic trees all survived, where a lot of natives died! I am now concentrating on planting more of what survived the drought,  and will try to not be so ambitious in future!

Directions: 4 kms along the Baradine Road, turn left to Pilliga. Travel 4 kms and turn left onto the Billeroy Road. Travel 10 kms. Turn left at the double white gates and white mailbox. 1 km to the house. Refreshments available.