Open garden: Bominda, Queensland

This 2.4ha tropical garden near Brisbane provides its owners with fruit, vegetables, flowers and joy. See it this weekend.

On one side is a tropical paradise; on the other, a colourful garden with breathtaking mountain views.

Open garden: Bominda, 17 Schimke Road, Rosevale, Queensland.

Owners: Min and Steven Taylor.

Open: This weekend, 10am-4pm, entry $10, under-18s free.

Describe the garden: It’s a large and ambitious garden of 2.4ha in a hidden valley, one hour southwest of Brisbane in the Scenic Rim. It’s farming country and we bought 140ha in 2006 after falling in love with the area, trading the plains of Goondiwindi for these magnificent views of the Great Dividing Range. After building our house on a hill, we started the garden in 2008, planting an avenue of tipuanas leading up to the house that makes a spectacular entrance. The front garden is mostly lawns and poinciana trees to preserve the wonderful views, with a cottage garden for colour.

Behind the house is a tropical paradise with tree canopies above and heliconias, gingers, hibiscus, salvias and begonias below. We became interested in fruit trees and planted more than 30 varieties from all over the world. It’s such a pleasure to have food straight off the tree. There’s also a big vegie patch and chickens in our Little Red Hen House. The garden is busy and productive, which suits our personalities. We’ve added our own and others’ artistic creations to the garden — sculptures, bronzes, pottery and works from things we collect.

What makes it special? This garden gives us all we need — fruit, vegetables, eggs, flowers, beauty, tranquillity and joy. And it gives us a bit of hard work to keep us out of trouble. We love the birds, including magnificent eagles that catch the thermals. We’ve both become serious birdwatchers, identifying the many new bird species that have moved into the garden.

Biggest challenges: Droughts. Otherwise it’s a benign climate, as we get no frosts being on the side of the hill. The soil is beautiful and we make hay so there’s always plenty of mulch. Steve brings up tractor buckets of manure from our cattle, and there’s a chook shed not far up the road that supplies our farmed paddocks and the garden.

Greatest pleasure: I just love where we are — the views, the ranges, the wonderful subtropical climate, fertile soils, sweet spring water and nothing to stop the garden expanding. When I started I didn’t know this was going to become a passion and an obsession. It has been a great adventure and the best is still ahead of us.

Favourite plants: Trees include the unusual silk floss and kapok trees, plus bauhinias, cassias, crepe myrtles and palms. We love our mangoes, bananas, avocados, persimmons, ice-cream beans, rollinia, panama berries and other fruits.

Extras: Nurseries selling fruit trees and old-fashioned plants, an irrigation specialist, pottery from the local club, mobile coffee wagon, lunches and teas from a local chef.