Simon explains his talk: 'Our Sheffield garden has evolved over 30 years as has the family. The back garden plot is roughly 40 ft by 200 ft and was a reasonably blank canvas at the start comprising a few flower beds but mostly grass. I had an evolving interest in exotic plants from the outset moving on from many tender and semi-tender largely herbaceous plants like cannas, bananas, gingers which required a lot of work in lifting in the autumn and often performed poorly in cool summers.

We moved onto more hardier exotic shrubs and trees to create a more permanent “tropical” effect. I developed an interest particularly in palms and bamboos and mixed these with some Sheffleras, evergreen magnolias, eucalyptus and tree ferns to eventually create a jungle effect. Not everyone's taste!! The talk illustrates and charts this journey as the family grew up and the garden developed through several phases into the small slice of suburban jungle that it is today.'

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