Jungle & Tropical-Style Planting in South East London
Big leaves, bold shapes and lush green that make a small London garden feel like somewhere else entirely. Our jungle pack uses hardy exotics that look tropical but come through a typical South East London winter, layered from tall palms down to ferns at ground level for that dense, hidden-away feel.
Buy it as a planting pack, let us plant it for you, or have us design and build the whole garden around it.
Gallery photos show examples of the style for inspiration.
Key Plants
Chusan palm (Trachycarpus fortunei), the hardiest fan palm. Tree fern (Dicksonia antarctica) for a prehistoric canopy. Fatsia japonica with huge glossy leaves for shade. Banana (Musa basjoo) for summer drama, wrapped in winter. Bamboo, ferns and cordyline to fill in.
Design Ideas
Layer it: palms and tree ferns at the back, big-leaved shrubs in the middle, ferns and grasses at the front. Plant densely so no soil shows. Use it to hide fences and screen out neighbours, or turn a dark side return into a green corridor. Uplight the palms for evenings.
Hard Landscaping Features
A raised hardwood or composite deck tucked among the planting. A timber boardwalk or stepping-stone path through the jungle. Slatted timber or bamboo screening to hide fences. Black slate or bark mulch, Corten or black planters, and low-voltage lighting under the leaves.
We design and build all of this ourselves: see our landscaping and garden design services.
Setting It Up for Success
Jungle plants are hungry, so we enrich the soil with a rich soil improver or well-rotted manure and add mycorrhizal root grow at planting. Palms and bananas get a stake and tie, a thick bark mulch keeps roots moist, and a high-nitrogen feed through summer gives the biggest, lushest leaves. Fleece and crown protection get the tender ones through hard frosts.
Add a success kit to any pack: we'll bring the right compost, root grow, stakes, mulch and feed, matched to your soil.
Where does it work best?
Sheltered gardens out of strong, cold wind. Many jungle plants are happy in part-shade, so walled back gardens, courtyards and side returns in the London suburbs are ideal.
How much looking after does it need?
Water tree fern trunks in dry weather, fleece the crowns of tree ferns and bananas in hard frosts, and tidy dead fronds and leaves in spring. A summer feed gives the lushest growth.
How do I order a pack?
WhatsApp a few photos of the space, rough measurements and your postcode to 07490 103088. We'll size the pack to your garden and come back the same day with a price for the plants on their own, plants plus planting, or a full design and build.
"Matthew has done an outstanding job transforming our overgrown and messy borders into tidy, easy to maintain, pretty borders. His workmanship and work ethic cannot be faulted."
Helen G.
"Matt did an amazing job transforming our garden. It had become quite overgrown, with lots of trees and plants all tangled together, but he carefully worked through everything and refreshed the lawn so the whole space feels renewed."
Laura W.
"Matt and Lenny came over to strip out our overgrown and difficult to maintain garden. They removed and trimmed all the unsightly weeds while keeping the flowers, and Matt gave us really helpful maintenance advice."
Aaron L.
