A green-fingered dad loves relaxing in the incredible back garden “jungle” he’s spent 35 years nurturing.
Dr. Simon Olpin, a consultant clinical biochemist, is from Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, and he loves plants. His back garden—an 8,000-square-foot (743-square-meter) tropical paradise complete with 25-foot (7.6-meter) palm trees—is the perfect place to rejuvenate.
“It’s very nice as we’ve got an area near the house that’s very sunny,” Mr. Olpin said. "We can sit in the sun surrounded by palm trees, bamboo, and some umbrella trees which come from South East Asia.
“It’s a very green backdrop, then further into the garden, it goes into the jungle as it has some more large, tall trees, and a tropical hut. It’s very tropical, it’s certainly not like Sheffield, that’s for sure.
“It’s got a lot of Chinese windmill palm trees and some of them are around 30 feet (9 meters) tall. There’s around 16 of them all around the seated area so it’s a very tropical atmosphere.”
Mr. Olpin has been passionate about nature since he was a boy, but, due to his fear of flying, he has never been able to travel the world and see any jungles. So, the dad-of-three has brought the jungle to his suburban garden in Sheffield after planting his first tree from a “small pot” back in 1987.
And since then, it’s grown to have more than 100 species of plants, including the palm trees that tower over the sprawling garden.
Mr. Olpin moved to the house from Cambridge in 1987 and described the garden as a “blank canvas” that required a lot of “trial and error.” But the keen gardener said he couldn’t put a number on the hours or money he had spent perfecting his project over the last three decades.
“I have to keep everything trimmed and cut back because I get so much growth because the soil is so rich,” Mr. Olpin said. “There’s a lot of birds that nest in the bamboo and in the palm trees.
“There’s also frogs and toads in the garden because there’s ponds around the area. It’s quite good for wildlife because it’s good for vegetation.
“I’ve chopped down a few trees over the years but I’ve just left them to rot so that gives places for animals to live. I’m basically maintaining a natural ecosystem to keep things fertile and to keep things growing.”
Mr. Olpin’s three children—Holly, 31, Lily, 29, and Jay, 24—grew up believing tigers roamed their garden and that fairies left them letters penned on tree paper.
But the dad of three’s favorite part of the garden is the section that makes you feel like you “could be in the middle of the jungle.”
“I think my favorite area is the bit which is surrounded by palm trees, which is where we’ve got the seating area,” he said. "I like the very top of the garden which has got three very tall Eucalyptus trees, big bamboos, a couple of really big tree ferns—and it’s got a thatched hut.
“It’s quite shaded so it looks like you could be in the middle of the jungle.”
Mr. Olpin has a deathly fear of flying; he has only ever been on a plane once, which he said was “once too many.”
This has stopped him from being able to visit even one of the many jungles all around the world.
“I’ve never been to any of these tropical jungles, but I’ve been to the Eden Project in Cornwall, and I’ve been to a lot of gardens in Cornwall,” he said. "They’ve inspired me really as they grow a lot of the plants I probably grow.
“But surprisingly, it was always thought that you had to live in Cornwall to grow these sort of plans but you can grow a lot of them over here.
“I would love to go to South East Asia and go to Borneo, Sumatra, and Malaysia but that won’t happen I’m afraid. I’ve been to Spain on the train and there was some really nice gardens down in southern Spain.”
