I'm after a certain look for my garden

Having a narrow in width and long in length garden beds has limited me in designing a garden that will display all the plants I want to add to it. I love a lush green garden especially one that looks tropical. But here lies the problem: even a tree like a wattle tree will take up too much mid ground room leaving less room for me to walk around the front lawn. The lawn has to stay regardless so I have to come up with inventive ways to create the look I want with the plants I have already and will purchase in the future.

This is the kind of look I'm after with my garden, generally.

But with a whole lot of colour at various times of the year as in this image below.

I am after various foliage texture, shape and size, leaf colour variations, and flowers that are not only colourful but unique and spectacular to look at. All the while I am trying to achieve this with mostly Australian native plants.

My recently purchased Cabbage Palms (an Australian Native) and a few native trees will add the texture, fragrance of flowers and a general tropical feel to my garden. However, the trees naturally will grow the wrong shape that I want in my garden so changing the way they grow is my only option.

I'm currently trying to come up with a design to intertwine some of the tree branches once they get older so the trees not only create a canopy of shade but will be difficult to know which plant is which. Planting trees close together might hopefully reduce their ability to grow to their full height. Its a theory I still need to research.