The garden I started 25 years ago began as a bush block. The first photo is what it looked like before I began to landscape it while I was building my house over a 5 year period. Then I  started collecting plants for my garden during those 5 years at the markets and pretty well any other place that had plants for sale when nurseries where still around before the chain stores killed them and put them out of business.There was no internet around like it is today. Once I moved in I started to plant my garden with the plants I was growing while renting. Then a couple of years of living in my house I discovered an advertisement in the gardening Australia magazine for variegated rhapis Yes when you wrote letters or phoned them up. I purchased some rhapis and built up a friendship with the seller who in turn put me onto rosebud farm in Kuranda near cairns. Then the fun began with purchasing mail order palms from Rich trapnell what a god send he was for exotic plants. And now  some 25 years later you see the garden in the pictures. Now with the internet I mail order my exotics along with importing seeds or sourcing them where ever I can. Through the love of plants and a gardening passion especially palms it all began and has grown to the vision I had in my mind. Always wanting a tropical rainforest palm garden from the age of 17 now iam 55 living that dream. 

Quite the transformation there Richard. I can see the growth rate there is a bit better than here . My wife recently found an old photograph of my side yard right after we bought our house in 1997 . The Queens were small and there was still sod that was planted by the builder. I realized early on that having a lawn and collecting palms on my lot were not going to mix. I ended up hand pulling the sod up and replacing in with black beach pebbles with step stones. We create what dream is in our mind . One of my mentors had 3 acres not far from me and after visiting his mature collection I knew what I wanted . I will be 70 next month and like you , I have my tropical paradise . Yours is very large but you are still young and able to maintain the jungle . You do an amazing job, that’s a lot to deal with. Harry

Looks great, but do you have any overall shots that show large sections?

13 hours ago, Chester B said:

Looks great, but do you have any overall shots that show large sections?

Not sure if it really captures it but the garden is over 2 acres the last pictures are of the house in the middle of the 2 acre garden taken high above in the cherry picker. if you put the pictures together a bit like a jigsaw you can get the scale. It’s literally packed with palms and understory palms and plants. So welcome to the jungle 

20 hours ago, Harry’s Palms said:

Quite the transformation there Richard. I can see the growth rate there is a bit better than here . My wife recently found an old photograph of my side yard right after we bought our house in 1997 . The Queens were small and there was still sod that was planted by the builder. I realized early on that having a lawn and collecting palms on my lot were not going to mix. I ended up hand pulling the sod up and replacing in with black beach pebbles with step stones. We create what dream is in our mind . One of my mentors had 3 acres not far from me and after visiting his mature collection I knew what I wanted . I will be 70 next month and like you , I have my tropical paradise . Yours is very large but you are still young and able to maintain the jungle . You do an amazing job, that’s a lot to deal with. Harry

Thanks Harry you understand what it takes. A dream is all it takes. The good thing about getting older is our palms look better with age. Unfortunately it’s the reverse for us. Iam currently working on trying to double the garden with all the new plants you see me posting plus growing from seed. Iam in for the next 20 years and after that. It is what it is and if they have to they can spread my ashes on couple of my palms. I know how you feel about your paradise from one gardener to another a lot of work goes into. But most importantly it’s love that creates it. The love of life and the joy our gardens bring us. I live for my garden and my garden lives for me.🌱

Richard 

Well said Richard. Harry

Yes, thank you that was exactly what I wanted to see.  I find people get so focused on the individual plants,  where I am more interested in the overall aesthetic.  Looks really good,  it's a proper jungle.

Wow really cool pictures and an amazing garden! I'm with @Chester B on this one. I love the overall garden pictures more than the individual plants themselves because I like seeing how it all comes together.

Really nice garden, good job 👍

On 9/20/2024 at 11:50 PM, Chester B said:

Yes, thank you that was exactly what I wanted to see.  I find people get so focused on the individual plants,  where I am more interested in the overall aesthetic.  Looks really good,  it's a proper jungle.

Thank you it is a jungle. I’m still landscaping and planting always giving the garden a makeover. It’s difficult to capture the full garden on an I phone but I do pretty good I think along with my gardening over the years you learn a lot. And learn something new everyday.

On 9/21/2024 at 4:44 AM, RainforestCafe said:

Wow really cool pictures and an amazing garden! I'm with @Chester B on this one. I love the overall garden pictures more than the individual plants themselves because I like seeing how it all comes together.

Really nice garden, good job 👍

Thank you it’s a passion we can all relate too. I love palms and gardening. I phones are capture a little of the scale but not whole feeling. What you see me posting is all the new plants going into the new garden it never ends.