We very much live an indoor-outdoor lifestyle and it has been a dream of ours to create an outdoor space that is seamless in design, practical for our family, comfortable to entertain and gather with friends, and a place to escape, relax and reset.

We knew an outdoor seating area was going to help us achieve that.

Every time I talk about growing bananas I think it is BANANAS!! From someone who grew up in a cold climate, bananas were imported in. Now here we are growing bananas in our garden! Talk about tropical living.

I often get asked about “how do you do it??” So I thought I’d put a blog post together for you all.

As a family that lives by the beach, we love being outdoors! It’s one of the reasons we had this vision of creating a backyard oasis that was a luscious, tropical retreat for us to enjoy and our kiddies to grow up in.

Having grown up in the English countryside watching my mother nurture and grow vegetables in the garden, fruit in the green house and apples in the orchard, I always knew I wanted to be able to do the same when we bought our first home and grew a little family.

I love plants! Indoor plants, outdoor plants, foliage, you name it! Houseplants in particular are a fave of mine to breathe life into a home along with purifying the air! Plants can absorb toxins through their leaves and serve as a natural way to filter the air in your home, cleaner air inside the home is a healthier home I say. We don’t burn candles, use air fresheners, aerosols or have anything labeled with the word fragrance in our home. We only use plant- derived cleaning products and essential oils, which we use to feed our plants too!

There is something so rewarding and relaxing about tending to a garden, watching food grow from seeds, and seeing plants thrive over time. Ben is unbelievably passionate about plants, landscaping and designing, so he has been such a driving force for the regeneration and development of our garden.