Building a tropical garden in Essex

Here is the garden before it was cleared.




As you can see it was a real state, over 9 tones of soil and rubbish was removed.

 

Here is the garden after it was cleared.















This is the hot tub area.




This is the "top terrace". There are really nice views over the Thames Estuary from up here. At the far end there is going to be a Tiki bar. This is where the summer-house used to be. The entire area is being repaved and a raised bed is being built on the right all the way along.

 

Here are the latest construction photos. The builders started a couple of days ago and they have made a lot of progress.
They have got about four weeks still to go though.

This is the top terrace and you can now see where the new wall is going for the raised flower bed.






As you can see a lot of dirt has already been excavated.











More pictures to follow.

 

Welcome to the forum. What part of South Essex are you in then? I might only be down the road from you.....

 

Respect for taking that on!!

It does look dry, but I wonder if that is because the soil was compacted and rain water ran off rather than got absorbed? Rather than get caught out, you may want to consider building drainage into the walls as they are built. Just a thought.

What sort of plants do you have in mind?

 

gentlemen all - I've edited your images to a standard 500x400pixels so they are more easily viewed.
We would be most grateful if you would resize your images in accordance with the GC requirements in future

 

Ok thanks for doing that, I will remember to do that in the future.

 

The beds themselves never seem to get that wet or muddy, the big slope does. Most of the walls already have some drain holes, but the builder is going to add some more for the new ones.

 

I am from Leigh-on-Sea, how about you?

 

No I haven't, I would go and have a look but mine has already been ordered. Thanks for the comment though

 

I'll second a visit to Will Giles garden. Its on a slope (not as steep as yours though!), and has both Tropical and Arid plants. The best town garden, especially Exotic Influence, that I have visited. I think only open weekends.

In that area there is also East Ruston Old Vicarage. That's huge (30 acres), but has both Exotic and Arid gardens (and many others). They open open afternoons, on certain days of the week; make sure you arrive spot-on opening time, otherwise you'll never get round it all by the time they close!

There are two exotic nurseries in the area - Urban Jungle and Amulree. They are both open mornings, so feasible to go plant buying, and garden visiting, on the same day All four are within about 30 minutes drive of each other, although personally I think if you visit Will Giles garden you will leave yourself short to also squeeze East Ruston into the same day. They aren't that far from you, for a day trip.

 

Not too far away then. I'm in Stanford Le Hope. Leigh On Sea is a lovely place.

 

WOW, a garden to die for.
So much character.
So many options.
Cant wait to see updates.........
Could be a good time to power wash the bricks, they will come up great.
Good luck.