Bali in your backyard: create a tropical paradise to bring vacations home

Sunset, June, 2004 by Sharon Cohoon

Why wait until you can squeeze a vacation into your schedule to escape to Kauai or Bali? If you can just walk outdoors and dive into your lagoon-style pool or climb into a hammock and fall asleep listening to the rustle of palm fronds, you're there. Mentally, anyway.

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It's not that hard to surround yourself with a garden that feels like your favorite tropical island. Luxuriant foliage is usually a major component in an exotic garden--even cold-climate gardeners can substitute hardy look-alikes for subtropicals to get the effect. Architecture and furnishings also convey the mood. Not quite ready to transport your entire backyard to Bali? Test-drive the idea first: Check out our small do-it-yourself Balinese meditation platform (page 156).

To find inspiration for your own backyard escape, journey to the personal paradises on the following pages.

Fantasy Island in Los Angeles

Before he ever set foot on an island, California native Greg Asbagh was smitten with the tropical landscaping of the movies. "Blue Hawaii was my favorite Elvis movie for the scenery alone," he says. A Caribbean honeymoon and other trips to the tropics set the hook deeper.

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So it was inevitable that when Greg and wife Maria moved to coastal Southern California--where the climate is mild enough for kentia palms and plumerias--he seized the opportunity to create his own backyard resort.

A large pool with several waterfalls and a swim-through grotto went in first (page 148). The pool's bottom has a mixture of aqua and black pebbles, which disguise its shallow depth. The sides are shaped with black artificial rock that simulates lava; black Buckingham slate around it looks like a natural continuation of the pool's basin.

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The tropical greenery that Greg planted around the pool, though, is what makes it feel so authentic. First, he put in a canopy of palms and flowering trees; then an understory of ferns, philodendrons, and ti plants; and finally a floor of bromeliads, New Guinea impatiens, and the traditional Hawaiian groundcover Moses-in-the-boat. "It's a true tropical garden," Greg says with a smile. "Not an inch of bare earth showing."

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EXPERT ADVICE

Grow the tropics

When Andy Zuckowich lived in Hawaii, he began collecting gingers, heliconias, and plumerias. Later, in California, his passion for tropicals grew into a business. Today Aloha Tropicals sells a variety of fragrant and fruiting trees, shrubs, and vines. "A surprising number of orders come from people who plant gardens to bring back memories," Zuckowich says. He offers the following advice.

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* Choose hardy plants. Some of the toughest are stepladder ginger (Costus barbatus), flowering banana (Musa ornata), and Heliconia latispatha 'Orange Gyro'.

* Move plants seasonally. In cold climates, grow tropicals in pots outdoors in summer; sink them into the ground and conceal the rims. In winter, move them to a sunroom.

* Care for rhizomes. If you grow tropicals that have rhizomes, such as cannas and ginger, in an area that gets frost, cut back foliage in fall, then blanket the soil with mulch. Where the ground freezes, dig out the rhizomes in fall to store for winter.

--DEBRA LEE BALDWIN

INFO: Aloha Tropicals, Vista, CA (www.alohatropicals.com or 760/631-2880)

Indonesia and beyond in San Jose

Bob and Linda Shelby's backyard doesn't evoke one particular place so much as it does a celebration of adventure. It boldly combines elements such as Roman columns, Indonesian furniture, Asian lanterns, and a fire bowl from the Philippines. The plants are an eclectic mix too: Italian cypress, kangaroo paws from Australia, timber bamboo from Asia, tropical bananas, and angel's trumpet (Brugmansia) mingle with existing English walnut trees. "It's an exuberant clash of cultures," Bob says. "Noisy but wonderful."

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Though the Shelbys enjoy the garden's theatrical quality, they also admire its practicality. Cast-concrete columns throughout, for instance, aren't just for show. Short ones provide seating. Medium-size ones are the right height for setting down cocktail glasses or hors d'oeuvres, and tall columns are strong enough to support the heavy arbor.

The garden is ideal for entertaining. After dark, it's even more magical. The heavily shellacked paper lanterns add a pretty amber glow, and strands of white Christmas lights stuffed into Chinese baskets add sparkle.

"It's hard to remember you're in San Jose in this garden," says Bob. "You could be anywhere. Being in the garden feels like a journey."

DESIGN: Cevan Forristt, Cevan Forristt Landscape Design, San Jose (408/297-8538)

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EXPERT ADVICE

Island accents

For owner Irwin "Windy" Overbach, Island View Nursery in Carpinteria, California, "is like my own little vacation spot." It sells large houseplants and furnishings from Bali, Thailand, India, and China; customers often drop by just to soak up the ambience. He shares some of his favorite techniques.