Whatever you do never plant a gum! They have no place in suburban areas! The sooner the council realises that these trees kill people the better! We have had two gum trees fall on the back of our house now, one in 2012 and one in 2014. We are so lucky that myself, my husband, three children, three dogs, five Guinea pigs, two parrots and one bearded dragon were not injured. It's just a miracle not once but twice! I still don't know how we escaped unharmed. The gums do not have a stable root system and they grow very shallow, they get to the point where they just fall over. And the scary thing is they fall silently. They are not called 'Widow Makers' in the bush for no reason. I like the Tuckeroo tree, not sure of scientific name. They grow with a straight trunk and keep their foliage in a straight and symmetrical line along the bottom and grow hiding their branches. Essentially they look like a large mushroom. They are green all year too. I think they get to about 6 metre or ten if they have to reach for the sun.

Timber all the way!!! The look and feel of real timber under your feet cannot be matched. Depending on the size of the deck, paying a professional every few years to refinish the deck is not that costly and worth it in my opinion. I recently had to refinish a hardwood deck for a client and it was a huge area. It only cost $1200 for labour and materials and took only one day to do. the benefit of timber is that if you like the idea of changing the colour at some point, you can! This is not possible with composites. Just make sure you do your research as to the best type of timber for your needs.

Hi Love the setting! From what you are describing, it sounds like you have a ventilation issue. A deck lower than 400mm off the ground needs to have ventilation just like the house. This typically means the sides are open (doesn't happen) and the spacing is around 5-6mm between boards. If you don't have this, the water that gets in cannot evaporate and will keep the ground and the underside of the deck moist, even with your drainage as it can pool in sections. This in turn means your deck is always wet. Once that happens, it is only a matter of time before fungus growth/soft rot etc occurs. We always excavate a low to the ground deck to ensure we have 400mm of clearance to the underside of the bearers. Another way is to ensure there is a moisture impermeable membrane across the ground (plastic) covered with gravel and graded down with vents placed all around. Cheers

A very interesting brief indeed! The back of your house has quite a symmetrical look to it, so I think formal lines and symmetry would definitely work in the garden as an extension. I'm thinking rows of Citrus trees and even some Olives to create a Mediterranean theme. This will also tie in to having raised planters. Using recylced apple crates for the vegetable planters is a great idea and they can sit easily within a crushed granite. A focal urn can sit directly opposite the decking area and you could incorporate an area of large format square pavers around it. These can be either laid together as a pavement or be separate steppers with the crushed granite between them. Here's an example of steppers in crushed gravel with some feature urns. Other good plants to consider are: Lavender, Rosemary, Box hedge, Portuguese Laurel and Echiums. Here are a couple of examples (from google): It sounds like a great project. Best of luck!