The Tropical Garden Then and Now

When we moved in to our current house the backyard was basically a blank slate except for some trees, a pool and a lot of grass.  Before we had even closed on the house the Plant Geek had started designing a garden around the pool.  At our old house we had what we called a shade tropical garden (a tropical look in the shade of our oak trees).  It is very sunny around the pool, so this gave us a new opportunity to create a new garden with a tropical feel.

We moved into our house in May and then it rained...and rained, and rained, and rained. No gardening was getting done, and we didn't even really have a garden, so we collected plants instead and eventually started creating beds.  We also didn't have a greenhouse right away and it took a lot longer to build it than we thought.  We stored a lot of plants in the garage for the first few months of our first winter.  We would take them all out on nice days and put them back in when it got cold.  I will never forget moving plants in the cold rain 6-7 month pregnant.  I was thankful when the greenhouse was finished.

For whatever reason I never took pictures after we finished planting the garden in the Spring of  2016, but the majority of our plants came in gallon or smaller plants.  A few of the bananas, palms, and elephant ears, can in larger pots, but truthfully everything started off small.  I don't even have many photos of the first summer it was installed.  Honestly this is because it wasn't very spectacular that first year, we planted it later than we wanted and it was just getting established.

This is the third summer we have had this garden in the ground and it has really filled in (probably an understatement) and changes pretty radically each year.  Some plants have died and not returned and other have been removed for a variety reasons.  For example, the Castor Beans that seemed so cool that first year, well they make LOTS of seeds and their seeds are NOT cool.  I'm still pulling out castor bean volunteers 20+ at a time.

At first we had a lot of things that needed to come into the greenhouse for the winter.  While everything fit, we didn't and we had no room to start any seeds or take any cuttings.  The desire for more open space in the greenhouse has also led to some plants getting cut.

By the end of the summer it's basically a crazy jungle of plants and weeds and looks pretty fabulous.  After the first freeze, it looks pretty terrible.  We leave a lot of the plant material where it is for a couple of reasons.  The first is because by November/December when we have that killing freeze we are tired and need a break from gardening.  The second is that it helps protect some of the plants.  We don't cut things back until we are sure they have died back to the ground.  The third is it makes a great place for lizards and snakes to spend the winter.  In the spring you should see the critters we find when we finally get around to cleaning up.

Last year we did a little expansion on the garden.  Originally we left a strip of grass between the garden and the fence.  We didn't like having it there, so we tilled it and created a little pathway with a small bed up along the fence.  Here's a picture of it from last summer.  We over planted it a bit and we're still working on fixing that situation this year.

A few things have stayed constant.  The blue pots at the end of the pool get rearranged a bit from year to year, but all stay down here. We've added a collection of succulents displayed on large spools.

I really enjoy this garden overall and I can't wait to see how it evolves over time.  There are a few places that we really need to look at with a critical eye for next year.

Here is a picture of the seldom photographed back side of the garden last summer, looking pretty great.  This year it looks really different in a bad way.  We removed the turk's cap because it was taking over and the bananas didn't come back this year the same way.  Now it's much shorter and thinner and really needs something.  The current thought is to plant a banana or two and maybe some burgmansia.  That should add back a little of what's missing this year.

The other area is this corner.  It's another area that needs a little beefing up on either side of the Nandinas. 

It extends from the bench all the way to the Hardy Tapioca.  It gets a little less water due to the way the sprinkler heads are positioned, and it shows.  The plants here never seem to get as big and lush as their friends at the other end of the garden.  Exluding the tall banans that seem to thrive on this corner.  Besides adding supplemental water, I'm not sure what to do here, but we'll come up with something (or the plants will).

 I hope you enjoyed seeing how this garden has progressed over time.  It will always be a work in progress and a place where we can try new plants.