kyte wrote:

Trish.. Newcastle? does the gingko do okay here? I am looking for
something like that too, but I am out at Maryland at the far end, with
no protection from the westerlies (in fact no protection from anything
much in the way of wind, at all... Can you recommend any other shade
trees for this area, gtiven the harsh conditions (soil is pretty crap,
too, clay and lots of it)

cheers
sue

G'day Sue!

I'm not far from you - at the Wallsend end of Minmi Road! My Ginkgo is potted
until I figure out where I'm going to be living For Good (it was a gift, see...)
Anyway, it does just fine, even in the hottest of hot summers! It helps, of
course, to keep the water up to it!

I've noticed the Silky Oaks are all doing really well this year (see the ones in
St Pat's Church yard). What about one of those? I know they can grow Really Big,
but they make a great shade tree, the flowers are gorgeous and they're a bird
magnet as well. Also the New Zealand Christmas Trees are a picture as well.
Another pretty one that seems to do OK in harsher conditions is the pretty
Robinia - see the ones in the Shortland Electricity park on N'cle Road! So long
as you dig over your soil well and use lots of organic matter in planting and
later mulching (to give it a good start), you ought to be able to get success
with any of these.

One other thought: some of the native shrubs make decent windbreaks and are
pretty to boot. They belong in our crappy soil and so you could do worse than a
pretty Grevilliea (hookeriana is my favourite) or Banksia (ericifolia does well
around here). Let us know what you decide, eh?

Oh! Light bulb moment! Have you visited the Native Plant Nursery out on Lake
Road??? They're surprisingly good and have a great variety of advanced trees and
decent shrubs that will all grow well locally! Well worth a visit, I reckon!
They're a bit past the traffic lights on the uphill stretch of Lake Road (ie. on
the left as you're coming back from Glendale).

HTH, ;-D
--
Trish {|:-}
Newcastle, NSW, Australia