I know I have been very slack with this, but I have also been busy as these pictures will show.  My goal was to create a garden that I could grow losts of different plants in, but that would be kind on my weak lower back.  Combine a back that gives me all of a few minutes bent over before locking up, and knees that I cannot kneel on, and gardening at ground level is a nightmare.  So a complete new garden was planned.  Then I did my shoulder in which meant I was basically one armed (and left arm at that) for four months, and things got more complicated.  Anyway, the garden is now at the planting stage, so here are some images.

Firstly the 'Before' photos.....

Front Garden.  Lawn??  Hate the stuff.  A waste of space where you could be growing interesting plants!

Side garden, more of the same.  Note the bed of plants along the wall.  Heliconias.

From the front.  Pretty non-descript, and a copy of all the other houses in the area.

That horrible entrance room. An eyesore and completely useless space.

All those Helicoias came out and were replanted along the front fence.  This was to create a hedge for both appearance and privacy. The huge mature tree in the front has already been chopped ready for the crane that would come in to remove it.

Nobody would be suprised to know that the first things in were the orchid houses.

Before anything else could happen the pool had to go in.  All the heavy machinery came through the front garden.

A small pool is still a big hole.

After a bit of Phuket rain, the heavy machinery no longer made it through the front garden.  After a while the trucks only got as far as the gate before sinking in the mud.

But the Thai are used to doing things manually.  The concrete got transferred a bucket at a time by a line of men and women.

It only took a week from the first load of dirt to having a working pool.

The eyesore entrance hall is now a link between the garden and the house.  It has a clear roof over half of it.  A wall of bromeliads, two fish bowls and a lot of pots.

Including a couple of Tacca plants, commonly called Bat Flowers.

The area around the pool was paved, and the surrounds planted.

Two big new sliding doors have been punched through the walls and now you can walk straight out into the pool from the two most commonly used bedrooms.

From the front the Heliconia "Hedge" is now starting to grow strongly and will soon be a full screen from the street.  The Electric gate also adds to the privacy and is a lot more convenient to use when you are coming and going.

The Heliconia is not just there for its screening function.  The flowers are pretty spectacular as well.  This is commonly used as a florist flower around the world.

After all the lawns and a few truckloads of trees were removed.  The new gardens started going in.  A series of walls were built to lift the garden beds up to a height where I could work in them without bending, then the paths in between done with white pebbles.  It took about ten truckloads of soil to fill the beds!  The house was all painted.  Every house in the area was originally the same two tone beige colour.  This one is now sort of yellow/cream.

Then a series of "arches" were put in.  They match the orchid houses, divide up the space, add some cooler shaded areas and, of course, more hanging space for the orchids!

Then the real planting could start.  Another ten truckloads of plants and a good year or two of growth is now needed!

On the left here is Grammatophyllum speciosum.  The worlds largest orchid species.

 

  

Three Bismarck palms through the centre make up the skeleton of the garden.  

  

This fern was originally growing in the big mature tree in the front.  It took a bit of a battering being sawed out of there, but is starting to recover now. 

Still a lot of planting and other work to be done.  The old IT saying applies........  90% of the project is done, only 90% to go.