I would get rid of all the lawn from the street to the rock retaining wall. Then I would use the slope of the hill to layer shrubbery from tallest to shortest. This would give you privacy from the street, invite birds into the garden and save you mowing on a slope. You have a nice small patch of grass next to your paving to provide the flat green space that is restful for the eye - do you really want more? Depending on where you are plants like grevilleas, callsitemon, tea trees could be stunning. Lower plants like grasses along the edge with a water bowl for the birds set amongst them

Hi Roger, With the pleached trees, I think your underplanting amps up the tropical look especially if you go with a magnolia that have the dark green upper leave and the bronze underside. You could just go for banana or palms - personally I think you might be right about the clumping bamboo becoming a bit dense. Regarding your 400mm retaining wall - citrus are shallow rooted and tend to have a root system that goes out to their drip line. Maybe if you put it in a corner you can use the corner to espalier it in conjunction with staking it to get upper stablility but I'm not sure how it'd go with the roots - but give it a go at $30-50 depending upon size it's not an huge amount if it doesn't do well - just dig it up (just watch the thorns) and give it to a friend - check out Daileys for varieties and maybe get in touch and see what they think, they might do them on a dwarf root stock - I've found them to be helpful in the past. i'd be reluctant to underplant any kind of citrus though - as they are shallow feeders.

I don't know how big the existing plants were that have now been cut to ground level, but consider that as the root systems of these trees breaks down, there will be subsidence. This will then affect the paving surrounding your pool. I'm just mentioning this so that you are aware of the possibility in future years - it takes some time for this to happen, depending on the size of the trees and the root system. If they were all palms, then the problem may not be so bad as they have a fibrous root system. But underground can be as big a problem as above ground. If in doubt about what to put in pots, something as simple as a Lomandra grass-like plant would look really good - as long as each pot has the same plant. If you can get Lomandra Nyalla - this is a really good one and hardy.

I have actually imported furniture myself without a freight forwarder/ shipping company a couple of times. it is fiddly but not impossible. I saved heaps if you don't count my time. And it was a bit of an adventure. It did give me an appreciation of the expenses importers have though and these shipping places (myUS etc) have to add their margin of course. so for anyone considering-anything timber has to have pest certification and that has to be within 3 weeks (I think) of arrival. Then the shippers in their wisdom had put the container on a timber pallet for which I didn't have a pest fumigation certificate so I had to pay $33 to have the pallet destroyed. But with a lot of family in rural/farming businesses I don't mind the strict quarantine. We are very lucky with our relatively clean produce. The customs people at the airport are very discouraging and keep telling you to use a freight forwarder etc (my stuff was already at Botany so no way), there were all sorts of odd fees etc (eg AQIS container fee $6), terminal fee. All sorts of things but it was fun and I saved a fortune, even after GST (I had to pay GST on the freight too, I guess as a 'service', which I wasn't expecting). Mind you the dollar was better then. It wouldn't be worth it for just a lamp but for more stuff...... But then if you were bringing in that much stuff maybe you wouldn't need to save the money. they also required that the invoice from the supplier of the furniture clearly showed what currency it was in. This was a hassle as I had just bought retail in the US. What currency do customs think a receipt/invoice from a shop in California shop would be in? But that's where the bureaucracy was frustrating. a final tip, the freight forwarders usually only include delivery to kerbside. They were even very unwilling just to help me get it into the garage (let alone down the steps/indoors) so you may need someone to help you receive the goods at home and get them at least out of the weather.