Why I love my garden

[happypalms]

I see now why I love my garden so much just like the test of us all. I see the hidden beauty in photographs I take. It always amazes me. it’s a beautiful gift a garden, one that is treasured. Just look at the gardener behind the garden and you see them in the garden style. 

[Than]

Wow, that's a forest, not a garden. Beautiful

[happypalms]

1 hour ago, Than said:

Wow, that's a forest, not a garden. Beautiful

A living ecosystem! 

[Harry’s Palms]

Nice pics , beautiful garden / jungle. Harry

[Palms1984]

Very healthy, beautiful, and thriving palm garden!  😎

[donpachino1983]

I also to love your garden 

[happypalms]

2 hours ago, Harry’s Palms said:

Nice pics , beautiful garden / jungle. Harry

Thanks Harry that’s just the tip of the iceberg. 
Richard 

[happypalms]

4 minutes ago, donpachino1983 said:

I also to love your garden 

Theres more in there in the understory! 

[JohnAndSancho]

I know I say this every time you post garden pics, but what I love about your garden is everything looks like it belongs there. It doesn't look like some fancy over manicured McMansion where you just farted out money all over the place - I mean, I know you've put tons of time effort and money into it, but it all looks like it belongs there. It looks natural. 

[happypalms]

1 hour ago, JohnAndSancho said:

I know I say this every time you post garden pics, but what I love about your garden is everything looks like it belongs there. It doesn't look like some fancy over manicured McMansion where you just farted out money all over the place - I mean, I know you've put tons of time effort and money into it, but it all looks like it belongs there. It looks natural. 

Yep no silver spoons in our family, but I will say there has been no budget on plants. But as for the landscaping it was done with the rocks on the property, my mate owned a sawmill so the railway sleepers where free and my mate owns an irrigation shop and I work doing irrigation. So all the irrigation was free. Just a lot of work has gone into it and still does. I love the jungle look it was a natural process from age 16 I said I wanted a rainforest garden. Dreams do come true!

[JohnAndSancho]

2 minutes ago, happypalms said:

Yep no silver spoons in our family, but I will say there has been no budget on plants. But as for the landscaping it was done with the rocks on the property, my mate owned a sawmill so the railway sleepers where free and my mate owns an irrigation shop and I work doing irrigation. So all the irrigation was free. Just a lot of work has gone into it and still does. I love the jungle look it was a natural process from age 16 I said I wanted a rainforest garden. Dreams do come true!

I doubt I'm around long enough to see the palms grow into anything major, but bananas and papayas are gonna look really out of place in my yard but I don't care. I want the fast shade. Mine is definitely gonna look like someone just plopped plants in there among the crape myrtles and magnolias and oaks and cedars and magnolias and whatever else is growing out here. I guess if I want to be positive I can pretend it's an oasis in the middle of a forest. 

[happypalms]

3 hours ago, JohnAndSancho said:

I doubt I'm around long enough to see the palms grow into anything major, but bananas and papayas are gonna look really out of place in my yard but I don't care. I want the fast shade. Mine is definitely gonna look like someone just plopped plants in there among the crape myrtles and magnolias and oaks and cedars and magnolias and whatever else is growing out here. I guess if I want to be positive I can pretend it's an oasis in the middle of a forest. 

Banana’s yes but papaya pushing the boundaries on that one. Just plant as much as you can, you will be surprised at what lives and not shocked by what dies. 
I like crape mrtyle trees got a couple in the garden a nice old fashioned tree. 
I will never get to see a lot of my palms flower that’s for sure! 

[JohnAndSancho]

56 minutes ago, happypalms said:

Banana’s yes but papaya pushing the boundaries on that one. Just plant as much as you can, you will be surprised at what lives and not shocked by what dies. 
I like crape mrtyle trees got a couple in the garden a nice old fashioned tree. 
I will never get to see a lot of my palms flower that’s for sure! 

Oh I know the papaya will become compost. I just want them for the super fast shade in summertime and keep dwarf varieties in buckets for fruiting and sell a few. I have a nice warm humid room where I can grow them all winter. But the big ones I know are sacrificial. Keep the sun out of my windows and end up in the compost heap after the first frost, most of the bananas will bounce back in spring and a couple will live in pots forever. I've got my game plan down. I sound like an idiot most of the time, but I kinda know what I'm doing. 

[happypalms]

1 hour ago, JohnAndSancho said:

Oh I know the papaya will become compost. I just want them for the super fast shade in summertime and keep dwarf varieties in buckets for fruiting and sell a few. I have a nice warm humid room where I can grow them all winter. But the big ones I know are sacrificial. Keep the sun out of my windows and end up in the compost heap after the first frost, most of the bananas will bounce back in spring and a couple will live in pots forever. I've got my game plan down. I sound like an idiot most of the time, but I kinda know what I'm doing. 

I like your style sir that’s the spirit, get in there and get them going. Oh and it’s good to be an idiot we all do that I love been an idiot why not have a bit of fun in life! 

[JohnAndSancho]

2 hours ago, happypalms said:

I like your style sir that’s the spirit, get in there and get them going. Oh and it’s good to be an idiot we all do that I love been an idiot why not have a bit of fun in life! 

Exactly. And I never knew that life would bring me to this point, because as the old joke around here goes, paraphrased - "When is the best time to start a garden?" "About 20 years ago." If I were healthier and my situation was different, none of this is crossing my mind. 

[peachy]

My first garden in Qld had size, I had the money for water, hardscaping, plant purchases....everything but the right climate.  The heavy nightly frost in winter, the low humidity in summer and the  fact that a 5 year drought set in not long after I began it all.  I thought I had achieved very little during the 6 years I was there until I found photos taken just after I had moved in.  Even though I am my own worst critic, I had to admit that I had turned the 1.5 hectares around the house from a cattle paddock into a parkland with flowers, shrubs and trees.

My next attempt was on a suburban block, only 600 sq metres but it was slowly planted out and improved. I finally grew trees tall enough  to shade the houses,  had flowering shrub hedges and easy access to sources of rare palms.  Although it fell far below my standards, I was approached a few time to participate in the open garden scheme.  Never accepted the offers however because I had no hardscaping at all ( I was so broke I had to save up to buy one paving brick at a time) and any landscaping was my own feeble handiwork. Still, in hind sight 23 years of hard work really paid off.  My garden was a local landmark (known as 'The Oasis')

Mid 2021 I moved to my current  home, with a tiny front yard and very very small backyard both just mud, a few bindii weeds and a lot of builder's rubble.  It's at the stage where many palms are the same height so it looks cramped and untidy, still no money for hardscaping and since all the specialist palm nurseries vanished,  it difficult to get anything bigger than a tiny seedling to buy.  There are so many palms I would love to have but they are too expensive,  hard to find and usually too slow growing to get the effect I am after in this lifetime.

Richard you have put so much time, energy and money into your place and believe me it shows. It is such a lovely garden now and I sometimes really try not to hate you !

Regardless I shall battle on,  searching for fast growing palms that appeal to my taste and hope I live long enough to see some of my not so fast growers reach a decent size and be able to afford a little flagstone path one day !

Peachy

[PalmBossTampa]

Well i agree with everyone above. I Love to see palm gardens around the world and I appreciate the mental and physical effort required to make it come to life. Well done Sir !

[happypalms]

17 hours ago, peachy said:

My first garden in Qld had size, I had the money for water, hardscaping, plant purchases....everything but the right climate.  The heavy nightly frost in winter, the low humidity in summer and the  fact that a 5 year drought set in not long after I began it all.  I thought I had achieved very little during the 6 years I was there until I found photos taken just after I had moved in.  Even though I am my own worst critic, I had to admit that I had turned the 1.5 hectares around the house from a cattle paddock into a parkland with flowers, shrubs and trees.

My next attempt was on a suburban block, only 600 sq metres but it was slowly planted out and improved. I finally grew trees tall enough  to shade the houses,  had flowering shrub hedges and easy access to sources of rare palms.  Although it fell far below my standards, I was approached a few time to participate in the open garden scheme.  Never accepted the offers however because I had no hardscaping at all ( I was so broke I had to save up to buy one paving brick at a time) and any landscaping was my own feeble handiwork. Still, in hind sight 23 years of hard work really paid off.  My garden was a local landmark (known as 'The Oasis')

Mid 2021 I moved to my current  home, with a tiny front yard and very very small backyard both just mud, a few bindii weeds and a lot of builder's rubble.  It's at the stage where many palms are the same height so it looks cramped and untidy, still no money for hardscaping and since all the specialist palm nurseries vanished,  it difficult to get anything bigger than a tiny seedling to buy.  There are so many palms I would love to have but they are too expensive,  hard to find and usually too slow growing to get the effect I am after in this lifetime.

Richard you have put so much time, energy and money into your place and believe me it shows. It is such a lovely garden now and I sometimes really try not to hate you !

Regardless I shall battle on,  searching for fast growing palms that appeal to my taste and hope I live long enough to see some of my not so fast growers reach a decent size and be able to afford a little flagstone path one day !

Peachy

I know that feeling, you only get so much time given in a lifetime and to see a garden mature over 23 years is a great accomplishment. Then only to sell up and do another garden it takes another 23 years or more. 
So we strive to plant as many plants as possible fast as possible for that lifetime becomes our garden again. 
I wanted to move to far North Queensland where you look at your garden and it grows, but I can’t leave my garden I just love this one so much. 
It became more than a live thing it became a 23 year relationship with my wife that we built y the garden together. Now divorced from the wife, i cannot leave the garden I have it’s more than love I have it’s a piece of your life. 
And thank you as gardener yourself you see and understand what it takes, but if you add just love it becomes your home for life. On another note you do know the world of clumping palms awaits your touch! 
Richard 

[Las Palmas Norte]

@happypalms you have put a lot of what is required to succeed into having a large garden, hard work. The garden is energetic with it's diversity and dimensional height & depth, indicating it's maturity.  Well done.

[happypalms]

18 hours ago, PalmBossTampa said:

Well i agree with everyone above. I Love to see palm gardens around the world and I appreciate the mental and physical effort required to make it come to life. Well done Sir !

Some of the gardens I have seen on palmtalk are an inspiration for me. Absolutely beautiful gardens to be seen all around the world. Theres some good gardeners out there with an eye for detail. 
Full credit to them I love seeing there gardens it’ a sneak peek into there mind! 

[happypalms]

1 hour ago, Las Palmas Norte said:

@happypalms you have put a lot of what is required to succeed into having a large garden, hard work. The garden is energetic with it's diversity and dimensional height & depth, indicating it's maturity.  Well done.

Thank you, I live for my garden and my garden lives for me! 

[Harry’s Palms]

I think the gardens we create , if we are fortunate enough to stay in one place long enough , take on a vibrant extension of our efforts . My first seven years in my other house started my journey . I knew I wasn’t going to be able to stay there because it was on a very busy street . My daughter was very small and I had nightmares worrying about her wandering out into traffic. I kept a lot of stuff in pots between my greenhouse and my lathe house. I moved everything up here 28 years ago and planted with reckless abandon. I made mistakes but when I walk around and look at the overall layout , it ain’t too bad. 
 You have done a great job there , Richard . Your passion shows . You have so much room to continue with enthusiasm , which makes me a bit jealous  , but honestly I wouldn’t trade with anyone . The memories here are priceless. I can certainly live vicariously through your posts though. 
 @peachy You go girl! You have met adversity head on . Just keep planting but take a moment to enjoy what you have done . For a small plot you have created a huge amount of joy . 
 

 

Harry