Think ahead: Planning your own Tropical Getaway

Your Own Tropical Getaway 

What if you could have your own tropical getaway right outside your door? Designing one isn’t difficult and you could be settled back in your hammock with a Mai Tai sooner than you think.

Privacy Factor

To have a sense of privacy in your own place, in a crowded city or even your own backyard, can be difficult. Well, one way to give your patio, pool, deck or backyard a tropical feel is to add a privacy screen. You can construct it using many different options. You can make it from something as easy as hanging a bamboo blind to pounding into the ground bamboo poles and attaching rush screening. You can also hang lattice work or grow castor beans and have them run up attached strings. Though the options are endless and can fit anyone’s budget, planting a 'living wall' using privacy plants gives your haven a natural look that is impossible to beat.

The Plant Factor

A tropical getaway has to have plants to give it the right feel. The Hardy Banana Plant fits in this category. One unusual fact about this plant is that it can grow in climates which reach -20 degrees. It takes lots of water and fertilizer though, and will top out between 7-12 feet and be four feet wide. The leaves are oblong in shape and grow over 10 feet long. It has pale yellow flowers which turn into ornamental bananas. You can’t eat the bananas but you can use the leaves for cooking. This plant will grow in zones 2-9.

The Cinnamon Fern has widely placed oblong leaves. They are 1 inch wide and can be up to 3 inches long and flow down from the frond. It’s a beautiful shade of light green which turns golden yellow in the fall. It needs acid, deep humus and enriched soil which must be kept moist. When mature, this ferns stands between 15 to 18 inches tall with gracefully cascading fronds of a spread of 3 to 5 feet. The Cinnamon fern has cinnamon brown panicles on top of the tall, pliable stems which complement the tropical feel.

The Ostrich Fern is another delightful fern for a tropical look and feel. At mature height, the Ostrich stands at between 24 to 36 inches high and spreads 18 inches wide. The fronds are feather shaped, graceful and a medium green. They can be planted in either partial or full shade in rich, and in moist woody soil. These are an elegant background fern to give your paradise a lush look. They can be grown in Zone 3-9 in -30 degrees.

If you use containers for additional color and variety, some plants to try are the following: hibiscus, palms, and orchids, bromeliads, weeping bottlebrush, and split leaf philodendron. You can also use calla lilies and elephant leafs for a colorful tropical look.

The Finishing Touches

For the finishing touches, set around some tiki torches, wicker furniture, seashells and even a bubbling fountain. The possibilities are endless and you can be relaxing in your own Tropical Paradise before you know it. And what better way is there to fill some of the dreary winter hours than by spending time planning your own paradise?