Wow! That's awesome! You did a great job. You know, you really want to show people pics like this and ask, "now why the heck would you want to have just a plain grass area there?" It's not like plants are horrendously expensive. You obviously put in alot of work. But folks can make changes in their "landscape", or lack of, that don't cause them to be out working all the time. And what a glorious difference it is to have growing things around!
Nice job.
dell

WOW! A great combo of textures to achieve a lush tropical look.

Add my WOW to the chorus. Great job! Thanks for sharing the pics with us.

Wow, if I had some more sunny spots, i would love to try some of those plants.
I see a lot of trees behind--do they have southern or western exposure to the sun?

ala8south, terremadre, catbird, & tedevore Thanks so much for your kind comments.

tedevore, the planting bed has a southern exposure but still only gets about 6 or 7 hours of direct sun in the summer because of several large trees in neighbor's yards to the east & west.

WOW! You should be proud of what you were able to accomplish in one year! It looks so lush and tropical!

Fantastic tropical plantings. Very well executed. I wish I had an area by my pool that I could do that but alas no lawn space. I do have a walled garden though which allows me to get away with some things that wouldn't otherwise survive.

What kind of palm and banana do you have that survives the freezes? Thanks for showing such great landscape ideas. Caroline

haley45: Thanks for your kind words.

trailrunner: Caroline, yes obviously I go for the tropical look. If a plant doesn't have that exotic, tropical look about it, I usually don't buy it. I'm sure those who like a more structured, well designed landscape think mine looks like an overgrown, out of control mess, but I love the dense, jungle-like appearance. Always room to squeeze in one nore plant..LOL.

The green bananas are Musa 'basjoo' & the one with the reddish tint in the 4th & 5th pic is Ensete 'maurelii'. The basjoos are heavily mulched & left in the ground. The Ensete is cut back, dug & stored bare root in my garage.

The palms are windmill (Trachycarpus fortunei), sabal minor, sabal palmetto, sabal birmingham, needle (Rhapidophyllum hystrix), and pindo (butia capitata), all very hardy here when established.

I like the dense, jungle-like appearance too, John - well done! Grass is an ugly ground cover - your garden is WAY more interesting. That's one very inviting poolside!

can we get some more close up pictures? I really like what you have done with it.

drippy & shadowpaige; Appreciate your nice comments. I'm kinda surprised there are so many other backyard jungle aficionados around here.

shadowpaige there are a few more pics in my post on the Hardy Palm board. Click the link below. If you have any specific questions about any of the plants, feel free to ask.

Here is a link that might be useful: More pics on the Hardy Palm board

Thank you John for the info...I will look into what I have room for in my garden. c

John, unfortunately the Hardy Palm board link above results in 404 error.

love the yard,

Yes, unfortunately there are only two pages on the Hardy Palm Board & every post eventually gets pushed off.

I'll try to add a few more pics here soon.