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Thanks, fawnridge!
That has some pretty good guidelines. I'm just nervous about that initial placement of the trees that he explains because there's no major feature in the yard. I think it'd be easier if I had to design around the walk to the front door, or a water feature (don't want one) or something. I just want a landscaped jungle. Hmmm....

I think if you look at fawnridge's (Ricky) photos on his site you can see a great example of a jungle. Also there is a poster that goes by junglegal I think that has a really great looking jungle yard. I am new here too, so there probably are many more great jungle type gardens that other members can point you too.

Keep in mind the garden type you want, the landscaped jungle, is probably the most difficult to create. Unless you are willing to spend a lot of money, there is no way you will get the look you are after for probably three years or more. With a jungle, the starting point is canopy. In Florida the choices are usually some kind of subtropical or tropical evergreen or palms that make good canopy. If you go with palms, pick ones that don't shed their fronds or have large seeds (ie Coconuts). The worst two choices are Coconut palms and Royals given the massive size and weight of their fronds.

Any chance you can post a pic? I grow or have grown most of what you listed here in St. Pete. Just a few things to consider because they will be work.

avocado - grows large & will be very messy once a year unless you plan to plant a patio variety. Jene's sells them.
banana - they start out innocently but soon form a large and very heavy corm. (I grew 24 varieties & finally removed them except for dwarf and bordelons.
palms - foxtails do well, christmas & coconut may perish or look very bad if we get another bad winter. There are TONS of palm options. Dypsis, neodypsis, coccothrinax, Archontophoenix etc...Take a walk thru Kopsick park near the pier for ideas. I can help you locate most varieties.

non-hedge-like tropical plants
cannas (most get rust in winter, the exception for me is Canna warscewiczii ), gingers (stay away from most alpinias,they'll go dormant and likely not flower here. Costus thrive here. Costus scaber, Costus barbatus are some good ones. Also Hedychiums do well.
heliconia - if you plant pttisporum, they will spread quickly and far. Any type will form a clump and require thinning occasionally. H latispatha Red/Yellow Gyro is tried and true for me.
cardboard palm - don't underestimate how much space they will require within 3 yrs. They get wide and pretty tall.

I just wanted to point out that your choices will still require some effort but it looks like you are off to a good start with your plant list! Good luck & take lots of pics of your progression :)

Did a little searching on this forum and Ricky and junglegal are my inspiration!

I don't think I want to go quite as jungley - but I really like the natural feel to both their gardens. Until we tore everything out, we had those boxwood bushes that were shaped in balls and square hedges - yuck! I have no idea why the previous owners would have tried to turn it into a formal English garden.

I would post a photo except I have no idea how. A bit more research required on that but it seems like everyone uses Photobucket and we use Picasa. There's really nothing to take a photo of anyway except scrubby lawn and big dirt areas where we took out most of the hedges, a really ugly juniper tree thing that's coming out, and some of those Pygmy Date Palms (I think) that I don't like either. The backyard is on hold - we've got to take out a laurel oak and decide on a pool, but that's where we'd probably put the royal palms - along the seawall.

My biggest thing is trying to incorporate edibles into the landscape as much as possible after reading "The Omnivore's Dilemma". That's why I'd like at least one coconut palm (think "Castaway") and some fruit trees. I already have a Winter Mexican Avocado and a Key Lime tree from Jene's, still in pots, already made 2 Key Lime pies!

The neighbor on the skinny side has agreed to "share" the fruit, so we can put the trees right on the property line there. We also already have bananas that we share with them, since they've grown up on both sides of the fence between our side yards. I just like the way bananas look - very tropical looking, and that Siam Ruby is gorgeous, although I believe non-fruit-bearing.

I live in South St Pete right off Boca Ceiga Bay, so we don't take the freezes quite as badly as everyone else in our zone (which is why I can say "10a" when I think I'm supposed to be "9b"), and everything I listed grows in my neighborhood, except I don't see much citrus, avocado, or starfruit. Mostly because everyone is afraid of fruit rats and not very original in their yards. We have one jungle yard on my street and there's a native yard down a ways, but almost everyone here loves their lawns! Most people have just stuck a couple of palms in the middle of their lawns, but too boring for me, and that still requires a lot of mowing!

Here's where I get really wacky - I'm thinking about setting aside the first 12' or so in front of the garage to put in a veggie garden. Then I'd put a small retaining wall in front of it and berm up a few feet, sloping down to the street. And probably put some vines or bushy stuff along the top of the berm to "hide" the veggies and the palms in front and on the side, too. The street runs north-south, so I'm pretty sure that area would still get plenty of sun during the growing season in fall/spring. My DH is totally against this. I think that even a wall or berm, without veggie garden, will give the otherwise flat yard some dimension. Or maybe the jungle look is enough. Just trying to sort through all this....

You will find some great tropical garden photos on www.cordyline.org ,click on 'members gardens'.
Be very careful when planting royal palms - they get huge, when the fronds fall they squash(kill) whatever they land on and the fronds are a pain to dispose of as they are so massive.

I was searching around and found a website with cool ideas for landscaping yards and gardens. Check them out!

Here is a link that might be useful: water gardens and landscaped yards

Hi Lisa,

You're definitely a 10a. You really do need to post some pictures, then Brenda and Ricky will be able to give you excellent advice regarding plant variety and placement....

How's the Jeannie Moragne doing?

Tom