This was a complete rear garden makeover from a tired garden that was beyond a few new plants to rejuvenate it. The clients wanted a place they could spend a lot of time in, just the two of them but also with friends and family. They also wanted 2 sitting areas, a raised bed vegetable and fruit growing area. They also needed a new fence to one side.

The great news for me was that they were happy to have any colours, they weren’t afraid of bright, bold colours like red, orange, yellow and purple as well as more muted colours, music to my ears. Because the garden is sheltered and has sun most of the day I suggested something a bit different and left field. A Tropical style planting plan so plants like Banana, Cana, Ginger and Tree Ferns along with plants that would work well with them like Dahlias, Lavender, Red Hot Pokers, Gaura, Rudbeckia, Alstroemeria and Salvias as well as Ferns, Hostas, Japanese Grasses in the shady areas.

The patio was laid with porcelain tiles and raised sleeper beds and the vegetable and fruit area had sleeper raised beds too with a gravel and Porcelain tile floor. The central round patio was laid with a sandstone paving and beds cut around it as well as 2 pathways across a newly laid lawn from the main patio.

At the far right hand corner of the garden we planted with 3 large Dicksonian Tree Ferns that just loved it in the dappled shade alone with underplanting of Banana, Hostas, Ferns and the beautiful Hakonchola (Japanese Grass,

We also installed a drip hose irrigation system to the raised beds and the new beds we had creates with a specially designed watering system for the Tree Ferns so they were sprayed with water on their trunks, which is where the roots are.

We also built a 3 bay compost area in the far left corner out of sleepers.

The plants just loved the new compost in the beds, a mix of 2 parts organic compost and 1 part mushroom compost and the garden was completed in May 2023 and the pictures below show how well the plants grew in just that first summer. We went back in the autumn and helped lift the canes and dahlias and we had 3 times as many Cana and Dahlia tubers than we started with. The garden has continued to thrive and produce masses of Cana and Ginger tubers which they have given away to friends and neighbours.