What to do with our 'shady corner'

Can we make better use of the back corner of the garden, between the shed and the rear gate?

More storage or work space? More native plants? A fruit forest in pots? A vertical garden? A nursery? Which plants would work best?

We’d love your input.

CHARACTERISTICS

Area: Approximately 3m x 2m, with a drain in the corner.
Google Earth view: 33 52 24 S 151 13 35 E 

Current usage: The original idea was for a semi-tropical ‘fruit forest’ – canopy + understorey – and the area currently has several bananas in large pots, as well as a couple of dragonfruit in smaller pots. Two ‘gedye’ compost bins are used by the kitchen garden team. Wooden benches carry a large trough pot (recently housing a sweet potato plant), along with miscellaneous smaller pots and grow-bags (seating isn’t feasible as it attracts nightime revelry).

Constraints: Space, sunlight and positioning of the drain need to be taken into account. It’s also a bit of a ‘rat run’ from the park bed along the fence and behind the shed to our garden beds.

Opportunities: The steel fence and sail support structure could be used for climbing plants.
The corner location and shelter provided by the sail and shed could be conducive to development of a microclimate.

OPTIONS FOR DEVELOPMENT

• Storage and/or working areas: Consider better organisation of storage under potting bench, currently holding pots of various sizes and shapes, wire mesh pieces and rolls, shade cloth and tarps. An additional lockable cupboard was suggested but we have determined this is best placed in the potager garden (the potager team is exploring this).

• Plantings: Could involve new raised beds or most likely, additional large pots. Download an extract from a spreadsheet of plant options.

RESOURCES:

Sun tracking: Suncalc

Sun/shade by season

Summer - late morning, early afternoon

Autumn - morning

Autumn - afternoon

Winter - midday & afternoon

WHAT NEXT?

A working group was formed earlier this year convened by committee member Jo Packer. Short-listed ideas will be explored in more detail by the group, with the aim of developing recommendations by our November 2025 AGM, including what would involved in implementing each idea, and roughly how much it would cost. We’d love to you to be involved – especially if you have experience in garden design or growing things in pots (especially native plants or fruit trees). Just fill out the form below and we’ll be in touch.