A whole new project to sink your teeth in to. Best of luck in your new home

A new garden means new opportunities. I've often wished I could start all over again. Now you have lots more experience to base your new purchases on.

Adam, I hope your move is a smooth one! Thank you for planting a paradise and making the world a better place. The new owners are indeed blessed with a precious gift! Once you settle in with your pot pets, I hope you can take deep breath and dive into your new horticultural canvas with fresh energy. As others have noted, each consecutive garden is built on knowledge acquired through past experiences. I foresee greater fun, greater beauty and a garden full of old rose and native plant preservation in your future! Carol

Thank you all for your messages.

We will be moving to the north-western suburbs, which will mean space and water will be at a premium. I am planning a very different style of garden, more formal, tropical and water-wise.

You're absolutely right comtesse, water will be a limiting factor. Not to mention the soil is literally just weathered beach sand.

I'm actually thinking of a dry-tropics Mauritian-come-Carribean resort garden (yes, we want a pool), with an emphasis on succulents tropical plants like frangipani, euphorbia, strelitzias, crinum, xeric palms like the triangle palm and cycads, not to mention my prized Madagascar palms.

The hotel we stayed at last November had a lovely garden of frangipani, hibiscus, bougainvillea and Dianellas (an Aussie native) on very sandy soil. So I'm hoping to recreate something similar. We also saw lots of china roses dotted about the local gardens. That's where Archiduc Charles, Perle d'Or and Sophie's Perpetual come in.