In today’s video it’s time to look at my garden design and plans for our brand new blank canvas garden space! This 2026 (and beyond!) garden project starts here and I discuss my garden design process – from practical considerations like the sun and soil through to what I want from the space, sources of garden inspiration through to sketching some plans and producing a 2D garden design. From being a wildlife garden haven through to a family space, area for planting trees, grasses, perennials and more plus a pond and stream project there’ll be a lot of exciting work ahead! Please let me know what you think of my garden design plans – I’d love your input and suggestions before it’s time to get on with digging and planting! Check out the videos below for exciting garden ideas and inspiration:
A summer tour of the amazing walled garden at Pan Global Plants with Nick Macer: https://youtu.be/NrPo6Cdedqg
Gardens Illustrated Tour of Dan Pearson’s Hillside: https://youtu.be/TsSdEJyail4
Shane Bilson’s Rare Plant Paradise – UK Jungle Garden Transformation Tour: https://youtu.be/ueDonRyeJJw
Navenby New Build Jungle – Garden Transformation Secrets & Bold Plant Ideas: https://youtu.be/td6pdoBWf4Y
A year of UK exotic gardening tours at The Secret Garden of Louth: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkhAyisNnkdUKXwCr22X01N0e2tyaV0Q4&si=7KXNZDX0jq2yjfs-
Mark’s Crazy Tiki Garden Summer Tour 2024 – A UK Bali Jungle!
Fifty Shades of Green – Urban Forest Garden Midsummer Tour: https://youtu.be/WctsQMlYQR4
Sun Seeker App (Google) or just search for Sun Seeker Sunlight Tracker on Apple: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ajnaware.sunseeker&hl=en_GB&pli=1
0:00 Intro
1:35 Practicalities – Assessing the soil, space and sun using Sun Seeker app
8:58 10 Things I want from the new garden
23:27 Inspiration – Dan Pearson, Piet Oudolf, Pan Global Plants, Chatsworth and Mark’s balls…
30:38 Early garden design sketches – planning out rough ideas and shapes
34:52 My Garden Design Plans – going through my new garden plans made using Smartdraw
If you enjoy my videos and would like to help support my video and garden projects then it would be amazing if you could to my Ko-fi page here, any amount is appreciated: https://ko-fi.com/georgesjunglegarden
Thanks so much,
George
23 Comments
Exciting times George! I bet you’re like a kid in a sweetshop! The plan looks good to me and I agree with Brendan on the position of the building when you do it – within the woodland at the back would work well. You’ll almost certainly find that you won’t execute it exactly as per the plan when you break out the shovel anyway. You’ll also get a better sense as you start planting and you’ll be able to make tweaks as viewing in perspective at ground level is very different to plan view. I did wonder if you may go a bit more Nick Macer with the space and I think that’s a great shout. Looking forward to the journey as ever
And….a little forest area at the bottom where you can have a secret garden for the children and space them right so you can string a hammock up x
Love your vision George! I would say, as I had the same space as yours, no access to water, adding as many water sources as possible will be a god send for future proofing. I got lots of galvanised troughs free on Facebook marketplace which I connected to downpipes from sheds and greenhouses. Without these I wouldn’t be able to water my crops and plants throughout summer. If I had the budget I would have dug out a water source. Hope that helps! ❤
Brilliant, what a fantastic project. How about the path that links circle one to circle two, being curved, like the one leading to circle one. This should hide the extended view until you reach the second circle. Just a thought. Happy New Year to you and your Family.
So excited for this George
Looks good 👍 can't wait for the planting to begin. I think the connecting pathways could be angled rather than parallel with the hedgerow and the next one being the opposite way to create a bit more intrigue to 'whats around the next corner'.
I stopped watching the earlier video when you didn't get the mortgage, just went back and watched them fully! 😂
Great ideas! Although i would make the entrance where your current garden stops. Another idea i would implement with that huge space is to include a bamboo forrest consisting of huge Phyllostachys (8/10cm wide and 8m high variety) you can easily look in between to keep the space big, but also enjoy a lush forest. Would be nice to place a tiki hut in there!
What an opportunity – you must be thrilled to have such a blank canvass and with such lovely borrowed views. 2 thoughts: you could make the bridge over the ponds arched to give a greater sense of departure and arrival;
You could add an island to the pond to really make the fauna / nesting birds feel safe. Clearly depends on the size of the larger pond but if it’s big enough for a small island then that’s what I’d do.
Good luck. I look forward to seeing how it evolves.
Looks great George, particularly the circular lawns. I would definately extend your path through the back of the existing garden and remove the fence. That way it will feel like one large garden rather than a bolt on. The 2 path idea to create a circular flow is something I've done with mine and the kids / dog love bombing round it!
Love it George ! I have recently brought a house in kirmington with a very similar size garden so will be using your videos for ideas ! What you need though is some atlas stones dotted about 😂 merge your old passion into your new one! Also have you ever been to Jim’s yards out past caistor he has some great stuff for gardens giants anchors and stones ect
Hello George. We watched your new film yesterday with gardening friends….Bet it feels good now you've finally got your plans down on paper!! I guess you've still got lots buzzing around inside your head though….we all have on your behalf!!😂 We think your back fence needs to go and incorporate your existing arid area to the other side too. It would be raised to the same height, which would give you the free drainage you are after. Also that long enveloping journey that you already love about your garden could carry on with a second path around it. The other thing that struck us is more seating opportunities for your future development. Your garden room is a lovely touch. Personally it would look better nestled angled in the edge of the woodland with the rear facing the fence which would in turn hide the potting area. Great idea for the composting….Of course trees and lots of them. There are some that would suit your garden well….Acer griseum…all year round interest…..Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna) Paul's Scarlet is an amazing deep reddish flower. Amazing for wildlife….I know we're preaching to the converted 😂🌲🌳🌴 That part of the garden we're really looking forward to. To go with your circle design you talked about an arch??? Had you thought about a moongate? For the future… Anyway those are our musings…. We watch with baited breath…. You have a very busy few years ahead… Enjoy and one bit at a time….good for the mind and the budget! 🌿😂
I'd love it if you planted a Wollemi pine. That would be a truly exotic tree that you could watch grow into something really different looking over years/decades.
Really pleased for you George and I’m so excited to see how the garden develops over time. ❤
Looks great. Could you have a path that follows the right hand side (sunny side) of the first lawn and then the left side (shadier side) of the second lawn. To encourage you the meander and also switch from light to shade as you travel through. Viewing each section of the garden from a different angle?
Great video on one of my favourite topics, designing a garden. It's a rare opportunity to have practically a blank canvas and let your imagination run wild. I've read through a lot of the other comments here and can see a lot of people have said to continue the garden up through past the fire pit. I think objectively that would be the most logical route and probably the most natural route through the garden. Obviously for you, as the gardener who's worked so hard and developed the garden so far it's not an option you want to consider. After all you've watched that part of the garden develop, you've built the fire pit area. To make the garden flow through the back of the arid area would realistically mean removing the fire pit and a lot of the planting at the end.
If you were to have just moved and the garden was as it is now would you still take the path past the poly tunnel or would you change the end of the arid area?
I generally avoid saying "you should do this or that" as i feel it's up to the individual to choose what's best for them and I'm really looking forward to seeing how you progress the new garden area. Extremely excited for you and your family.
One thing that might be worth considering at this juncture is starting a new youtube channel to share the progress of this new garden. One where not having the jungle theme in the title would not hold you back and where you can attract even more gardening viewers who may not necessarily click on a jungle garden page, but would enjoy your content from a design, nature and general gardening perspective. Just a thought.
(To clarify I mean having 2 channels)
Wishing you all the best for 2026 and your gardening adventures.
Hi George, I know this might not be your thing but with the 2 young children (for future…) I would provide a space where the kids could grow their own vegetables, a place they could call “their own”. There is nothing better to watch them eat the vegetables they grew themselves. With such a great new addition of this massive sunlit new spot, surely you could carve that out for them😊. If not, will still be following your exciting new phase!! Happy New Year!!!
This is a fantastic opportunity. My first three considerations would be climate change, biodiversity and food security. I’d like to see a variation on a food forest.
Very exciting – what about the circles starting small and getting larger? This could create the feeling of having reached the main part of the garden, but then get the surprise of there being more and more to come. Just a thought…
What a fantastic opportunity George, you lucky thing!! Have you considered maybe interlocking the 2 circles closest to the house (where one circle actually cuts into another, each circle with its own stone sett border)? One of the circles could be a little smaller and offset to one side creating additional interest with the smaller circle giving you additional planting space on the sunnier side of the garden, through which you could have a path. Have you thought about a Tiki Hut as a place to sit on the area behind the pond with maybe gravel around it rather than grass, again maybe offset to one side, the opposite side to the smaller lawn? If it was off-set to one side, it would give you a view through to the woodland at the end of the garden. It would save you having to drag a lawnmower over the bridge, give a contrasting texture to the garden which I always think is nice to do (plus is low maintenance) and zig-zagging from side to side with the smaller circular lawn one side and the hut the other side behind the pond might make the garden appear wider. You could also consider putting an island bed in one of the lawns (in the middle, or off-set to one side to maximise the lawn), that way you wouldn't see all the garden straightaway and you could put a wow, focal tree or plant in it, with planting all around it, giving the dogs and family a mystery tour/journey to the end of the garden and it's something for the dogs and children to run around (our dog loves zooming around circular beds!!). One other suggestion I hope you don't mind me making is to start the entrance to the new garden, wherever that entrance might be, with a T-Rex, they really are a wow factor when large and I think it might be nice to have something large and wow as you enter into that area. I got this idea from Springyfeller on You Tube, his tropical-style garden has always been my main source of inspiration and I'm hoping Tiki Tropicals (or indeed your good self!!) does a tour of his garden this year for You Tube (keeping my fingers crossed). Good luck with the new project whatever you decide to do, I'm sure it will look totally amazing and all the best to your lovely family (and the dogs!!).
Try some exotic broad-leafed evergreens to provide shelter for more tender plants. I’d suggest trying some New Zealand natives (amongst others). Some are hardy enough for your location I believe, and they evolved from plant families whose origins are tropical so they suit a more tropical style of garden (e.g. schefflera digiata, Pseudopanax laetus, Cordyline indivisa, Dracophyllum traversii, Olearia lyallii, Metrosideros umbellata, Griselinia littoralis)
You could have another small bridge over the first two circles that meet and have a dry river bed feature with peebles and grasses
Great video, looking forward to your journey, and I'll be taking notes! Good luck!