The cane furniture will really look nice in your verandah. As for plants, jump online and browse for some hardy plants on the Aussie websites. They are a wealth of information and if you do have a large planter box or pot make sure you put it on wheels. That way you can take your plants in and out of the house. Also put a base under the pot/planter so it catches the water and does not ruin your nice floor. You can pick these from a garden store in your area. Good luck! :) btw hope you don't mind me your spelling error "taught" should be "taut", I really hope folks correct my spelling too! cheers.

Thank you for these colours Lesley! I MUST put a verandah though - the front garden is heavenly - 9 metres to the front with roses and fruit trees (though it looks rough here) and is high up opposite a park for a view. I plan to play guitar here of an evening and add more white, blue & purple flowers to the middle and a pergola with climbing roses for a Moon Garden.

By the way, first and foremost, you have a positively beautiful home!! The point of the pilar is support, due to the very large open plan you have and the roof needed this support to make the building safe. Our daughter has a steel pole in the middle of her home like this for the same reason and as suggested by a few other people, she plastered it and it is painted the same colour as the walls and I don't think it is really noticed much at all. I think it has been suggested that you could build a book case etc.. but then you would lose the ability to watch tv for example when eating your meals, if that's what you already do. I see you have allot of exposed brick work too, well that's my pet hate like you hate the pole and I would have to dispose of this look entirely and plaster it if I lived there BUT It looks good in your style of home and I think you simply need to focus on everything else in this gorgeous home and simply try to embrace the pole if that's possible however, if you really can't do that, then please make sure you get a good interior designer to give you the best possilbe outcome if you eventually redesign the area, as the pole can NEVER come down but in the interim, I agree to perhaps paint it like the third photo supplied by 2 Find and Design, as it has the cathedral ceiling like yours, so I would imagine you could relate to how it could look, even though I suspect the pole is probably a beautiful type of timber and to me does already look quite nice just as it is. Good luck with whatever you do. Cheers, Barbara

It's always tough trying to find a hedge that will grow in sun and shade, especially when you want a uniform look. Having said that, it isn't uncommon for designers to use a couple of different species - for example one species to boundary fences with another to the front fence. I'd consider lifting the canopy of the existing trees to let light in for more even growth across the hedge, however I'd still expect it to be a bit uneven due to the varying conditions throughout the garden. Viburnum tinus is a good pick for both a sunny position and a shady position, it will eventually get to 2m height and can be kept as low as 1m. If this isn't large enough, you could also try Portuguese laurel, (Prunus lusitanica) which will get to 4m easily enough. Both of these aren't particularly fast growing, but with adequate water and food they should be good for your situation. Murraya is another one that will tolerate sun and shade, though not frost. You won't get as many flowers in shady positions, and it may look a bit straggly. Your local nursery may be able to advise on what is readily available. When you plant, preparation and ongoing care is going to be important as it look as though you have a few plants that the hedge will have to compete with as it establishes (your neighbours conifers and your pears). Digging a good wide planting hole, plenty of organic matter mixed with the back-fill, as well as regular watering and feeding until the plants get established. Much as the Flower Carpet Roses are tough (especially the original pink), I wouldn't recommend planting roses in anything less than 4 hours of direct sun a day. You'll end up having issues with blackspot and mildew, and they're not going to give you the neat box look that you want. Flower Carpet Roses (Tesselaar Roses) are a good tough rose, however some colours (cultivars) are tougher than others. Pink is one of the best performing varieties, and as suggested, reaches a bit more than the height on the label. That may not be true of all the different colours though. Be careful propagating any of the flower carpet roses, only ever for yourself as they are rigourously protected either with trademark names and/or Plant Breeders Rights, making it illegal to sell the propagated material under the flower carpet name, or at all (in the case of PBR). Good luck!