I would spend the money I you aren't good at planning a garden, it would be worth every cent you spend because in Tassie this will be a long time process good luck

Oklouise ""bulbs in the meadow" should be a part of the overall plan as they will keep on giving in your climate

Oklouise it sounds like a wonderful thoughtfully planned space, a slice of heaven, just gorgeous.

Thank you for your comments and oklouise your 10 acres sounds and looks gorgeous. I will be breaking down your feedback and adding all your suggestions in to my grand plan! I have asked Santa for all the plants I need - I have been a good girl after all LOL

We have a one third of an acre in Canberra on a steep slope. It was terraced in 1970s so we started with that as well as removing noxious and dying plants. We created garden rooms each with a theme to cover all of our desires _ roses, magnolias, edible fruit trees, natives, food forest, orchard, lawn of native grasses, citrus orchard, berry walk,. We saved plants where we could & transplanted them to where we wanted them. There is a great book called Habitat by A B Bishop that I love plus Diggers Foundation is an ethical, amazing resource for seeds & plants. We continue to be surprised by our success in creating an amazing garden... It is always a work in progress...

I only have 2.5 acres but have drawn an entire garden plan using the basic paint program on your pc. Start by drawing all the boundaries to scale then add the house and any existing trees or structures driveways etc. Then add a perimeter garden all around the fence lines if that is what you wish. These do not have to follow a straight line but can curve in and out to accommodate larger trees. For the rest of the space I drew a combination of large circles and amoeba like shapes. These represent the lawn areas. Connect all these lawn areas together with pathways at leas 2 metres wide. All the odd shapes left in between the lawn areas then become the gardens. Using the paint program you can then fill up these spaces with a variety of different diameter circles to represent the final size shrubs trees and perennials that you will grow. You now have a complete plan to follow when you begin planting. When you buy a plant, look at its size and height and see where it would fit on your plan taking into consideration whether is will get sun or shade where you position it. This method makes for easy mowing as all your grass areas follow easy curves. It also gives you a garden with many garden 'rooms'. You can adopt different themes for each room eg a white garden, a cottage garden, a tropical look garden etc. Also it is some thing that you can develop over time and easily keep track of on your pc. It also helps to keep a spreadsheet of all your plant purchases that shows their height, width, sun requirement bloom time etc. If this sounds like a lot of work then maybe it is not for you but I love planning my garden this way.

Thank you so much purplekristi and annie4883 for your suggestions. I have already removed the weeds and done the terracing but from the feedback, there is still lots more preparation to do. I can use the paint program and that sounds like the way to go. Like any big job, preparation is the key :-) Looking forward to some downtime after Christmas to get going.

Don't forget to include plants that attract beneficial insects, insect hotels, and lots of flowers for bees. We also put everything edible plus shredded paper into compost...I found Compots from Qld are fantastic as you can put the food right into the ground where it is used directly by worms. From a degraded block with no usable soil, we now eat lots of produce...cherries, apricots, goji & jostaberries, lots of citrus ate keeping me busy right now...with figs ripening. We even grow the 'ungrowable' for Canberra ...... Kaffir lime, cumquats, caper berry, .... No success with avocado yet but will try again once our wind/frost breaks are higher & more dense. Have you thought of a stream/riverbed/pond that could act as a swale and bring water to the design?

When we re-vegged/planned and planted our bare 5 acres, (on a slop) we divided it up into a manageable long term plan and in sections - round the house softness, then nearby orchard and veg patch/ tunnel, then further away re-veg local native shrubs and treed areas, (always waiting for rain). Finally we again waited for some rain and had a couple of acres ripped in swales and then planted the wood lot. When I was part of a bushfire garden recovery project after some big fires in our area, we’d take plants to people who’d lost their gardens and suggested they give themselves a patch of garden near the house they could see from their windows. It tended to take the eyes away from burned out paddocks or distant hills and softened the outlook (as well as the heart!). I kinda think we all need to do a similar thing with new places - give ourselves something to encourage us to go further as time and budget allows.

Oops, slope not slop!

If you are after a "random garden", then it should be just that - random. You will not need any plans drawn up. Instead, use the money to buy plants. Put in native plants wherever possible. Native plants come in all sizes from ground covers, low shrubs, tall shrubs and trees. Study all information on the plant tag, which normally indicates the best location to plant, height and width of the plant when fully grown and how much sunlight and water is required. Buy plants as you can afford it rather than purchasing in bulk and plant at your leisure. Give tall trees plenty of room to grow to full height. Do not plant any tall trees close to the house as they can create a fire hazard and roots can lift concrete.

Hi, personally I would think about everything I want in the garden, ponds, water features, fruit trees, vegetable gardens,bird attracting trees and shrubs, seating areas, and then I would employ a landscape designer to plan it for you. Would be money well spent for a garden that delivered everything You had envisaged.