We began work on the garden as soon as we moved in about 2 years ago. It's our first garden & we were gagging! So what we had to go on was a lawn with 2 small borders & a path to the garage, all in all about 55 feet at its longest by about 22 feet wide. Having both travelled in the tropics & always loving the lush tropical look we knew this was what we wanted to acheive. However, our other aim was to grow our own veg too! So what we're aiming for at present is a 'tropical potager'!

I suppose you could say another big influence is T.V.Gardening especially some of Uncle Geoff's ideas on 'ornamental kitchen gardening' & of course the now infamous 'deck' (though we've been wanting one for at least 6 years - honest!).

We soon dug up the entire lawn, moved the path (several times!) & got started on the veg. The following Spring (2000) we dug a pond (with liner). The garden is south facing & we soon found that the patio near the house was too hot to sit on during the summer months. Having found a lovely shaded spot in a corner near the pond we then made a round deck & 'bridge'. We've gone for the natural look here & the pond & planting settled in suprisingly quickly.

This year things are coming on a treat. We managed to over-winter Cannas & Lillium Regale in the soil, to our suprise. We are also growing another good crop of potatoes & salads & we are letting pumpkins trail around as they have the right 'feel'. We also think runner beans look the part too. We 'inherited' a lovely wisteria & a clematis montana which cover the fences & we also grow several varieties of ipomoea (Morning Glory) from seed to twine over everything.

Our soil is mostly clay (terrible in places), neutral to slightlly acid which makes bog gardening easy! However it's suprising how it can vary over such a small plot as the top of the garden is fairly well drained.