Finally, the cold weather has arrived in northern NSW, and my trees are sporting beautiful colours. Still no frosts here, although an Inverell patient reported their first frost yesterday morning. We usually have frosts here by Anzac Day, so they are very delayed.

Edric there is so much potential in this space. At the moment the different mixture of river pebbles, bricks and pavers is visually breaking up the space. The river pebbles are not trafficable so they are limiting the usable space. I would start by removing pebbles, pavers and bricks. Remove the polycarbonate roof over the pergola. I would build a composite timber deck between the brick walls to maximise the usuable space, with the top of the deck in line with the top of the sill bricks for the sliding door to make transitioning between inside and outside easier. Some products such as ModWood decking are low maintenance, splinter free and are available in a range of colours to complement the brickwork. Once you have decided on the best ModWood colour I would repaint the pergola structure to match the decking. I would soften the look with a over sized pot in each corner growing a deciduous creeper, such as an ornamental grapevine or wisteria over your pergola, and furnish with an outdoor setting and a market umbrella. It will be like adding an outdoor room to your home that is naturally shady in summer, and sunny in winter, and will get a lot more use than it currently gets. http://www.modwood.com.au/decking/

Suggest rather than hanging g plants that you plant climbers eg a grapevine or bougainvillea into a half wine barrel or into other large pots or elsebreak up the concrete around the car port posts so plant a climber. A pandorea would be nice.Re earlier comment : forget nasturtiums unless for pots of annual colour as they are short living annuals only. You need sturdy perennial climbers to grow over and around the car port to soften it. Replace the white balustrade with something modern and place some lArge modern pot plants with large greenery on the balcony also to soften it. I would suggest a warm cream in place of the stark white to blend with the red brick. They greys and charcoals eg monument are verycookie cutter and a current trend that we are all heartily sick of. Using them will date the house very quickly.

"Macyjean where do you recommend the vertical feature go...? Yes trying to make sure trees aren’t too large they cause damage to the property via root system and/or branches or fruit/nectar falling on the roof/gutters/paving." Somewhere on the left, but start with hardscaping, driveway, draw in underground services, think about what sort of footpath you want. I agree that it might be well worthwhile to get a landscaper to draw up a plan. "Thinking bay leaf could be an option...?" I remember going on a garden tour of a property with a park-like garden featuring large trees and the guide pointed out the bay tree and said people don't realise how big those get. There might be dwarf varieties these days though? "With the secret garden if I go teddy bear magnolia how do I layer plants to give varying height and colour while spacing them out for future growth? Is there a rule of thumb with number of levels/layers?" Just my opinion but looking at your photo and for ease of maintenance I think the magnolia with an underplanting of lomandras or something like that would be plenty. I can also picture three layers with flowering shrubs in between but I think they'd need regular pruning to look good. Lomandras don't need much attention, it's recommended to cut them right back every few years to rejuvenate them but it isn't crucial, whereas if you're going for a certain look with shrubs and don't stay on top of the pruning they can look quite scrappy and if you prune too hard they can take a while to recover. "What’s the rule of thumb for spacing of plants?" I think there might be some kind of general rule of thumb based on mature width? But I'd base it on the plants you choose. The label sometimes recommends the spacing, or if not the growers' websites have more information.