Grow your own art gallery Create a lush, show-stopping landscape – minus the massive water bills

YOU CAN GO LUSH IN YOUR GARDEN WITHOUT HAVING TO ADD WATER!

Lush foliage, soft textures, every luxurious shade of green with dustings of silver and gold – with careful arrangements and collections of plants, you can create a garden for a dry climate that is not just full of harsh-looking and prickly plants. This garden at Hambleton Hill in NSW’S Hunter Valley illustrates how you can use succulents, cacti and other dry garden plants to create a gallery of living sculptures, one where you can appreciate and indulge in the unique shapes and survival schemes of our most unusual plants!

1 guardian angels Pu ing succulents and cacti under shade helps them preserve water. This collection enjoys the benefits of the magnificently tall Queensland kauri (Agathis robusta) and the spreading kaffir plum (Harpephyllum caffrum) – heads up, you’ll need room for these two!

2 get in a flap, jack Add a classical touch with an urn filled with kalanchoe (K. luciae), also known as the flapjack or paddle plant. 3 bolts from the blue Spread distinctly blue plants through the green foliage with prickly pears (Opuntia ficus-indica ‘Burbank’), a karoo cycad (Encephalartos lehmannii) and agaves (A. havardiana) to lighten up the arrangement. 4 mood shifter You’ll never get tired of the changing colours of the naked lady bush (Euphorbia tirucalli), a standout limey green in summer, then turning an intense coral pink in autumn and winter. 5 eye of the beholder You may consider the apple cactus (Cereus peruvianus ‘Monstrose’) pre„y or ugly, but it’s certainly eye-catching. It blooms in summer with the flowers opening at night. The ‘apples’ it bears taste like dragonfruit. 6 home among the cacti The grand Georgian mansion si„ing in the midst of the dry garden was initially surrounded in 1824 by Moreton Bay figs, hoop pines, Australian brown pines and kaffir plum trees. Many are still there, and have grown immense during the past 200 years. 7 it’s smokin’ Shaped like a giant cigar, this is called a Madagascar palm (Pachypodium lamerei) but it’s actually a succulent and is more closely related to cacti. Treat it gently, however, as it has large, sharp spines running up its trunk.

8 orderly assembly Plant giants as a backdrop, such as towering agaves (Furcraea macdougalii) and a mature grass tree (Xanthorrhoea glauca), then add rows of silver torches (Cleistocactus strausii), a gathering of prey lile lemon balls (Notocactus leninghausii) and, finally, clumps of aloe (A. ‘Blue Glow’).

9 bottles and barrels You get a broad church with barrel cactus (Echinocactus grusonii) and bole trees (Brachychiton rupestris).