Submitted by: Ross Lee

Category: Small garden

I started my gardening journey back in winter 2017. I knew I wanted a nice garden with lots of flowers and a tropical vibe. I had little to no knowledge about gardening but found a passion for it, by picking out plants in garden centres and online. Every plant I chose for the garden, I researched, checked the information on the RHS website and watched videos on YouTube about how to care for them.

I’ve always loved design, so playing around with plants and grouping different colours and textures together was the fun part for me. I planted a 99p box rose first and that grew to about 12 foot and I counted 200 blooms on it over summer. It was amazing. Once I started to buy plants for the garden, I couldn’t stop. It was very addictive.

I had completed the main structure of my garden and added all the plants by summer 2018. The garden took around 10 months to create, but I’ll never be finished. I have lots of statues for additional interest, a hammock, bamboo railings and a bamboo pergola. My favourite plant is Dickinsonia Antarctica (tree fern) because it looks otherworldly when the fronds emerge!

Since creating my tropical garden, my life has changed for the better. I have won an award, open for the National open garden scheme, have been on BBC news, in East Anglian daily times newspaper and on BBC Radio 4 gardeners question time and BBC Radio Suffolk 3 times. It’s been such good fun! The gardening community is so friendly and I finally feel like it fit in somewhere. I now want to share my garden with people who are suffering with illness to get away from their troubles that they might be facing. I hope to get the opportunity to create a garden at Chelsea one day!

I have a YouTube channel with a small following and love presenting and giving other gardeners tips. Gardens really can heal your mind. It worked for me, I’m a much calmer person now and I want others to experience that. My garden can takes me to another destination. With the huge palm leaves, the scent of salvia hot lips in the air and my water fountains trickling away, I feel at peace.