How to create a tropical style garden

Kayla Gulec Kayla Gulec
JPA Leblon, Landscape Paisagismo Landscape Paisagismo Tropical style garden
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Tropical gardens have a history of being romantic and exotic venues. They delight the senses and captivate the mind. If you’ve ever been to Southeast Asia, the Caribbean, Central America, or the Pacific Island, you know exactly how beautiful tropical gardens look, how tranquil they feel, and how fantastic they smell. Luckily for you, there's a way to achieve a similar atmosphere where you can enjoy the charm and peacefulness of these gardens, and here at homify, we can tell you just how to do that.

Adding a tropical style garden to your home will provide endless enjoyment to you and add value to your property. So why wouldn’t you want to incorporate this lovely characteristic to your home?

Here are just a few tips and tricks to help you create the perfect tropical style garden in your back yard.

First, Find Out The Local Climate

Many hot climates, even dry and parched climates, can grow tropical vegetation, but you need to choose the right type of plant for your climate. Generally speaking, tropical vegetation is partial to a consistently hot and humid climate throughout the year. You can still grow tropicals in any warm climate, but a less than ideal environment will result in slower growing vegetation, and thus produce smaller plants with fewer flowers. 

Normally, tough tropical plants thrive on full sun exposure, while delicate tropical plants such as ferns and orchids prefer filtered light, but can be more fussy about ambient temperature.

If this seems too unrealistic for your region, don't lose hope! Some tropical plants can also live in places with mild frosts. If you live in a climate with severe frosts or long winters and short summers, then we recommend growing your tropical garden indoors.

What Soil Do You Have?

Tropical gardens can either look magnificent or unkempt, and a large part of that is due to the soil used to grow the plants, so the soil is a prime starting point to ensure your garden will thrive. Tropical plants love good, rich soil that drains water easily. Most tropical plants don't like to have their feet wet, so to speak, meaning they don't enjoy when their roots are soaking in water for long periods of time. This also leads to the growing of mold and fungus at the roots, which can harm the plant.

Some species like mulch-like soil, such as Orchids and Bromeliads, but most will thrive in any free draining soil, ideally with a bit of organic matter. Apply a nitrogen rich organic based fertilizer and then mulch heavily and water well for optimal plant growth and health. We recommend applying fresh mulch each year to keep plants growing strong.

Find Out What Plants Grow In Your Region

Finding out which plants naturally grow in your region can be very helpful when planning your tropical garden. If you live in an area that is home to Hibiscus, Indian Pink, Iris, or Bee Balm, then you know you have the optimal climate for creating a tropical garden. These plants enjoy full sun (but also a bit of shade from time to time) and moist, well-drained soil. If you see wild Anemone, Lady's Slipper Orchids, Carolina Lupin, then you also have great conditions for a tropical garden. These plants love shade to part sun and well-drained soil.

On the other hand, if you have a lot of Foxglove, Hollyhock, or Lavender in your area, it means you live in a colder climate, and it might be best to create your tropical style garden indoors or in a greenhouse. You can incorporate a vast array of different plant pots to give your indoor garden that tropical paradise feel.

Plan The Layout

Planning the layout of your garden will take some time. Preferably, you should reflect on your intentions. Is the garden simply for aesthetic enjoyment? Or are you looking to create this garden as a space for relaxation? Or maybe for your children to play in? Any of these reasons require careful thought.

A nice grassy area is common in tropical gardens and is perfect for each intention listed above, and creating a small stream or pond would be the perfect addition to create an aesthetically pleasing and relaxing environment. What else is more tranquil than listening to the sound of trickling water while enjoying the lush greenery of your new garden? You also want to make sure that your garden isn't too overrun with plant life. You want to be able to move around freely.

For more garden layout inspiration, check out Lush Garden Design professionals.

Do Your Plants Require Shade?

If you live in a hot, dry climate, ensure there is some established shade cover for any vegetation that may require shade. One way to achieve a beautifully shaded garden without adding unnecessary umbrellas or walls is to plant drought-proof trees such as Jacaranda, Carob, or Desert Palms. But do choose wisely, as some of the plants most tolerant of your conditions tend to be invasive species that could hinder and perhaps even wipe out the other tropical plants in your garden. 

If you'd rather avoid that risk altogether, though, then by all means, strategically place umbrellas, walls, or even canopies in your garden. 

Install Hedges

Tropical plants can be easily wind damaged. If you live in a particularly windy climate, installing hedges will help to reduce the impact of strong winds and keep your tropical garden thriving, while simultaneously adding extra greenery and beauty to your layout. It's still very important to ensure there is some air movement, as plants need air movement to grow. You could also use living screens such as Bamboo, Lillipilli, hedging bougainvillea or Hibiscus. These all help reduce possible wind damage and will add to the aesthetics of the garden. 

But whatever you do decide to do, ensure that you establish this wind protection before you plant your tropical vegetation. If you don't have the proper protection installed first, you risk losing your plants to the elements before you even have a chance to enjoy them.

Add Asian Inspired Ornaments Or Statues

Just like with any redecoration project, adding accessories will really bring it all together. Consider investing in brightly coloured banners and flags, or sculptures. Buddha statues or Polynesian, Balinese or other Asian inspired ornaments will bring your tropical garden to life. For outdoor gardens, statues made from durable rock are ideal, but you can also buy fibreglass statues for a low cost, lightweight, and easy to install ornament. 

If you have a lot of large rocks in your yard, you can clean them, lightly coat them with glue, and then cover them with red or brown coloured sand. This will provide your garden with excellent contrast and will make use of those big, but unattractive boulders you've been wanting to do something about. When the glue dries, your rocks will give your garden an authentic tropical feel. 

Candles, lanterns and torches are also good to add character and that jungle feel.

Educate Yourself On Maintenance

Now that you've created the perfect tropical style garden, you need to educate yourself on the maintenance of the flora you've chosen. Although we can't get into the specifics of each plant you could buy, we do have some general maintenance advice for you. 

Regular maintenance includes ensuring mulch levels are kept up and refortified, as well as removing old palm fronds and flower heads. The occasional pruning is also necessary to make sure you get new growth. You should also keep garden border clean, so you don't have weeds coming in and taking over what you've worked so hard to achieve. 

Pruning tropical should not be done before or during winter, as this may prove counter-productive and deadly for the vegetation. Pruning is best done when there will be a long period of warm weather so that the plants have time to grow back. Lastly, any moss you find on pathways should be cleaned off fairly consistently, as it can be slippery and unattractive.

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