Springy’s (Steve) Windswept exotic/tropical garden in Abingdon on Thames, UK. 

Thank you so much Christine. It doesn’t look so pristine all of the time but I do try and make it look at its best when I do a video.😎

What are you talking...?? I appreciate you..

Eu não te conheço mais amo você

Thank you for your kind words 🙏 Every bit of bare soil is an opportunity to put in a plant! 🤗

Yes, I'd also like to know how you cope with low temperatures!

And I would also like to know how all these tropical plants survive the harsh winters in UK.

CancunTransfers.com You are very welcome and thank you for your lovely comments! It’s been a very rewarding project to turn the garden into what it is today.

Thank you Pushpa for your kind words!

Thank you for watching it and taking the time to comment Diana.

Seems pretty small but well filled, 100 perhaps?

Thank you Steve! Yes a lot of the flowers are various Dahlias. These have been planted in the garden for 10 years as they were used to fill the garden easily and cheaply. Visitors to the garden love them so I keep them in. I love them too of course as they show where the garden originally started.

Springyfeller That’s great, even better when things develop organically like that.

leigh sutcliffe Thank you Leigh!🙏

La France I’ll look into that. Thank you for the recommendation!👍

Dil Reyes, thank you for your kind words! I can certainly lose myself for hours in the garden, especially when I’m getting it ready for an open day.

Suzanne Fronzaglio Thank you for your kind words! No speakers but we did have a grass hopper chirping in the garden the other evening that sounded very exotic!

Thanks eddy, it’s no problem. The first looks like Mahonia ‘Soft caress’ and the second one is the Voodoo lily Sauromatum venosum. 👍

Thank you🙏 I was a beginner once you know 😁 Just don’t put yourself under any pressure, let your ideas and the garden evolve. I have killed many plants by making mistakes and I have changed parts of the garden as I get new ideas. You are just seeing my successes. I keep quiet about my failures 🤫

Thank you Ana Angel.

R19P82 Thank you so much for your comments!🙏

Thank you so much Sarah!

Thank you Chino B. The garden always looks the best I can get it at that time of year because I get it ready for my open day. The garden is approximately 78ft long by 24ft wide if I remember correctly.😊

Springyfeller Thank you for your reply, your garden is a good size. Keep up the good work and keep posting your videos. Maybe one day I will show you my garden as I started ok in 2009 and then bought to many plants,trees and shrubs as I was addicted to gardening and then I ran out of space and sadly lost a few plants,trees and shrubs. Sad to see any greenery die and with that shock I lost track completely. I think I need to restart move the existing plants and trees that are still small enough to move to a different locations and definitely plan it properly with pen and paper this time . Any way enough said about me in the meantime I will enjoy watching yours. Happy gardening wish you all the best . 👍⭐️😎

Kev, UK. Thanks Kev. Yes sourcing tropical looking plants that are hardier in our climate plus a few growing techniques are the key to success (plus a lot of failures of course!) The plant you refer to is actually Farfugium japonicum 'Aureomaculatum' . Spotty dotties are Podophyllum.

jackshakamoosac Thank you for your comments Jack👍 The hardest plants to overwinter are the ones I dig up, the REALLY tender ones. All the rest are a lot hardier than people would realise with no/minimal protection needed in most winters. I get what you are saying about the lawn but I do have my reasons for keeping it. Lawn is better for the wildlife that visits (especially the hedgehogs), I call it an exotic garden as it’s a garden with exotic plants rather than a jungle garden that would have a different feel and theme to it (bark/stone paths etc), if I took the lawn up I’d be tempted to start planting into that area so the garden would become a jungle garden and lastly there is nothing better than coming home from work on a hot day and laying on the cool lawn in the shade.😎 I bet you wished you hadn’t mentioned it now😆😂

@@SpringyfellerOk I can see you've got your reason's, can't argue with that. Thanks for the reply 😊👍 Garden looks amazing anyway 👌

Guadalupe Chavez Thank you for your lovely comments!🙏

Thank you so much Kittah's

Carol Smith Thank you Carol! I think the palm you are referring to is Chamaerops humilis cerifera. www.hardy-palms.co.uk/product/chamaerops-humilis-cerifera/

Oh, thank you so much. I'll try to find it in the US. Loved them in your garden. I also have a tropical garden living in the southern US. Caladiums are everywhere.

BBQNBLUES Thank you! I did have a cutting of Plumeria that my parents brought back from Madeira but unfortunately I overwatered it whilst it was rooting and it rotted!😆

Wow , I never tire of looking at this garden, I love it, so many different areas that catch the eyes, I wonder if your a Landscape gardener. 🤔

Yamyamers Thank you! That may be a good idea for a future video! I’d like to try and do one at night too!👍

S 1107 Thank you for your comment! I will certainly try and continue to improve things year by year. Lots of new plants to add to the garden this year!🤗

Thank you for your kind words! It certainly is a labour of love but I would not be without it now. I sometimes walk around it in disbelief of how it’s turned out. You can have a rough idea at the beginning but ‘Mother nature’ can sometimes scupper your plans! Here’s a link to how the garden started, 9 or so years ago! www.hardytropicals.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=135&t=15027&sid=5964eea6ea57c37aac4c70f3225af3ca

@@Springyfeller nice. Will check that out. I'm on hardy tropicals Facebook page. Slowly but surely getting there with my garden. Will take a few years to look nice a lush but have all I need. Some still in pots etc.

does say in the title of the video

Gareth Taylor Thank you so much for your comments! The garden is 78ft x 24ft and has taken almost 10 years to create. See how it all started here: www.hardytropicals.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=135&t=15027

Heyssel K. Thank you for your comments! I watch the weather carefully during winter and protect plants as necessary, using mulch, fleece and blankets. It’s quite surprising just how many plants I grow are really hardy. I’ve not experienced a really bad winter since the garden has become established so I don’t know what would happen in a severe winter as some plants are too large to cover up!

No problem eddy! I don’t need to write a book because the late Will Giles has done that already with his encyclopaedia. I think that book is still very up to date, especially for people starting their journey into exotics.👍🌴🌴

Thank you Virginia! 🙏

In my county always filled with snake and worms if I make garden like this

Thank you Roman for your kind comments! Yes it is Manihot grahamii. I kept it in a pot in our heated outhouse for its first winter. Last winter I left it planted in the garden. The temperature went down to -7c on a couple of nights. On these nights I covered it with a blanket. The stems died back by about a half but have now grown back even taller! See here: twitter.com/springy_steve/status/1155194527327694856?s=21

@@Springyfeller Thank you! Good news. I have just ordered it and going to try in my exotic garden with my special insulation technology. My garden is very young, and it is quite difficult to make such gardening in zone 4, but I am trying... Grettings from Moscow:)) P.S. My garden in September 2018 ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Ie2Wy5_y7zg.html

Thank you so much for your kind words Ciaran. I’m totally amazed by yours and everyone’s comments on here. I can tend to see the garden through different eyes to everyone else. Whilst getting it ready for the open day each year I tend to ‘sweat the small stuff’ and see, what I perceive to be, the negative bits of the garden. I guess that this is why the garden looks the way it does, I’m my own worse critic, the things that I worry about, people don’t even notice! It’s a shame that the Hardytropicalsuk website is ‘down’ again as it shows the pond being constructed in my ‘blog’ I made it with a pond liner and underlay. It is approximately 10ft long and 6ft wide. The top of the liner was put in at the original garden level. I then put large rocks on the liner around the edge of the dug hole. The liner was then pulled up behind the rocks and soil then pushed up to it to hold it in place. This means that the rocks always sit in the water so if the water level drops a few inches then the liner doesn’t show. It also gives a sunken look! Hope this helps.

The amazement should come as no surprise as your garden ought to amaze anybody with an ounce of interest in gardening! This garden would only exist at the hands of a creator who is in a position of constant dissatisfaction, and an unwillingness to compromise over an inch of space. How many people start off with the same idea but along the way settle after a good Summers work at it. I did follow your blog and many others on HTUK and its a shame that the forum seems to be down again even from what was left of it. I would be lying if I said I remember the pond section of your blog, I mainly remember the comparison pics taken from the upstairs window of the gardens yearly growth. Again its a shame your blog and everybody else's was lost, its a great loss to those of us who have a passion for this aspect of gardening, I found myself regularly combing through the archives of blogs and topics. There are not many garden examples like yours to borrow from within the UK so losing that information is a blow. The design of the pond is an achievement in itself, it really is the icing on the cake in your garden! I have been searching for a looong time for the exact same stream/pond combo that you have which also could house a few koi. Do you have any fear of the roots of the palms damaging or interfering with the liner on down the line? You have done a remarkable job of hiding the pump/filter and plumbing also. Thanks again for your reply Steve!

Thank you Ciaran. I let my partner read your comment and she said that you have pretty well summed me up! 😁 I do worry over the smallest details that no one will ever notice. One year I was really not happy with the state of the lawn so much so that I was going to re turf it a month before my open day. I didn’t do it in the end and on the day lots of people asked me how I got my lawn to look so good!😄 My original plan was to have a pond that cut right across the garden but due to cost at the time I didn’t do it. The stream is a compromise on that idea. There is no filter on the pond, just 2 pumps. They are situated under the waterfalls so that the water disturbance masks the pump piping and pump. The fact that the surrounding rocks are actually sat in the water may have the same filtering effect similar to ‘live rock’ in a marine fish tank, plus algae and mosses grow on the rocks possibly taking up nutrients from the water. The palm roots do enter the water under the rocks sometimes but have done no damage so far. There is a good layer or two of pond underlay plus I also cut down some ‘bulk bags’ from a builders merchant as these tend to have tough woven plastic that would stop a lot of stones and roots puncturing the liner. It was a cheap liner, 25 year guarantee and about £50 including underlay!

Ciaran Mcgeown HTUK Website is back up again at the moment. Here is the pond link on the blog!👍 www.hardytropicals.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=15027&start=45