Hi all, been on a here for a few months now just quietly observing and learning from the wealth of knowledge. Thought I'd make an introduction with my garden and make a bit of a log of progress as I go.

I'm based in a southern suburb of Perth, Western Australia which from what I understand has a bit of unique temperate/mediterranean climate of hot/dry summers and cold/wet winters.
Frost is possible but very rare in my area really only getting to lows of 2°c/35°f
Perth is known to have some of the worst sandy nutrient deficient soils in Australia however we are quite lucky in my area to have a bit of a mix of sandy topsoil and moist clay subsoil.

We purchased our modest 900sqm/9687sqf property 8 years ago without a single tree or garden other than a just starting to trunk, Syagrus romanzoffiana.
For a few years we didn't have much of a garden other than a few randomly placed frangipani trees and native grasses whilst we focused on renovating inside the house. (I have never been much of green thumb or even cared all much about gardens till recently.)

Most of my time and money went on modifying and drift racing cars but all that changed when I inherited a 30 year old severely stunted A. cunninghamiana and asked on the facebook group for identification where @tim_brissy_13 replied that it was infact a native palm to Australia and that peaked my interest (Before then in my eyes all palms were messy cocos/queen or washingtonia palms)
It was all downhill from there when I started to hyperfocus and research all about different species of palms and botanical nomenclature which sort of itched something with my autism and love of new knowledge.

Fast forward to just over a year back I decided to hand dig out cubic tonnes of sand and grass to create gardens whilst collecting as many palms I could get my hands on. We have quite strict biolaws here and are not able to bring live plants over the border quite easily from the eastern states so its quite limited to seeds only or buying from the limited palm specialist nurseries.

I have made a fair few mistakes resulting in sun and wind burnt palms, placing stuff in wrong locations and also over crowding stuff a bit too much but will hopefully all be worth it one day.
For now it's just creating the canopy which i'm hoping the mass planted Archontophoenix will provide.
Very happy to have criticism or advice with my work in progress.

Anyhow my current list of species is as follows:

• Adonidia merrillii

• Areca catechu

• Archontophoenix alexandrae

• Archontophoenix alexandrae × cunninghamiana

• Archontophoenix cunninghamiana

• Archontophoenix maxima

• Archontophoenix myolensis

• Archontophoenix purpurea

• Archontophoenix tuckeri

• Bismarckia nobilis

• Carpentaria acuminata

• Caryota albertii

• Caryota mitis

• Chamaedorea atrovirens

• Chamaedorea elegans

• Chamaedorea elatior

• Chamaedorea klotzschiana

• Chamaedorea radicalis

• Chamaedorea seifrizii

• Chamaedorea tepejilote

• Chamaerops humilis var. cerifera

• Chambeyronia macrocarpa var. flavopicta

• Chambeyronia macrocarpa var. hookeri

• Chrysalidocarpus decaryi

• Chrysalidocarpus lastelliana

• Chrysalidocarpus leptocheilos

• Chrysalidocarpus madagascariensis

• Chrysalidocarpus pembanus

• Chrysalidocarpus lutescens

• Howea forsteriana

• Hyophorbe lagenicaulis

• Hyophorbe verschaffeltii

• Livistona decora

• Phoenix roebelenii

• Pinanga coronata var. kuhlii

• Ptychosperma elegans

• Ptychosperma nicolai

• Ptychosperma propinquum var. macarthurii

• Ravenea rivularis

• Rhapis excelsa

• Roystonea regia

• Syagrus romanzoffiana

• Trithrinax acanthocoma

• Wodyetia bifurcata
  
  
  House when we bought it, nothing but dead grass.
  
  
  
  
  South facing patio garden, quite shady. Have A. purpurea, A. cunninghamiana, Howea forsteriana, Pinanga kuhlii, Rhapis excelsa, and Chamaedorea sp scattered.
  Hoping one day the bigger palms will emerge and make the canopy to replace the shade cloth.

3x Wodyetia biffurcata for the newly installed pool area.

We are in the middle of winter right now so everything looks a bit ratty.
This area has alot squished in here however they are all very young specimens and hard to make out.
There is about 20x young Archontophoenix sp planted along the rear fence line to make the canopy one day and a mix of Wodyetia, Carpentaria, C. madagascariensis, lutescens, pembanus, Bismarkia and two Areca catechu.

Little garden leading to my wifes veggie area. 3x double planted Archontophoenix sp, Chambeyronia watermelon and a hookeri, C. leptocheilos (Not doing too well) and a Wodyetia to the left.




Work in progress area, have some small fish and frogs down here.
Just a Chamaedorea elatior and a tepejilote amongst other plants and my small potted seedlings.








This side has the Archontophoenix albang hybrids multiplanted, Roystonea regia, Ptychosperma macarthurii, Carpentaria acuminata, Hyophorbe lagenicaulis and verschaffeltii, Chysalidocarpus lastelliana.





Other side of the front more Archontophoenix sp multiplanted, Wodyetia biffurcata, Adonidia merrilli, Carpentaria acuminata, Ravenea rivularis, Ptychosperma elegans, Roystonea regia, C. lutescens and a solitary pembanus, Chamaedorea radicalis.

Thanks for reading my ramblings.
Jayce.

Take no prisoners Jayce.

That's a fearless plunge into the murky depths of addiction...good stuff!

That’s a great start Jayce, looks good! I can tell you’re already a full blown palm nutter when you’re using the new correct name Ptychosperma propinquum for the old P macarthurii 🙂. Very glad to have played some part in adding a new member to this obsession!

Very full plate there! Looking good , as they get larger they will create a very lush jungle . Thank you for sharing. Harry

Hey Jayce. The bug has well and truly bitten. Well done. You have done a good thing taking early shots of the garden. Keep adding progress shots and you will be amazed by the growth over the years. We will enjoy it too. I see you’ve planted bamboo too. That’s my sort of garden. In 5 years time that will be a thick jungle. Keep the water and fertiliser up in summer and it will explode.

😁🌴🌴🌴🌴🌴🌴🌴🌴🌴🌴🌴

It seems like yesterday that in my garden there were only small palm trees, now some reach the roof of the house