Anyone else with tropical backyards

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Reef monkey
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Anyone else with tropical backyards

#1 Post by Reef monkey »

Looking at Peter (ConchRepublic's) great pics of his awesome backyard in the Ultimate Magnum Fan thread, so nice and tropical even though he's living in NY, got me thinking about how many of us might have tropically landscaped backyards, inspired at least in part by our love of Magnum and its Hawaiian backdrop, including the lush Robin's Nest estate. I thought I would share some quick shots of my backyard, sorry about the poor quality, but hope they give an idea of what it is like:

Image
by3 by mmyers1976

Image
by2 by mmyers1976

Image
by1 by mmyers1976

I should probably repost better pics in the summer time when the plumeria (flowers used in Hawaii to make leis) is in bloom.

Tropical plants in the ground:
Banana
Red banana
Philodendron
Ginger
Hibiscus
Canna lily
Taro

Tropical plants in pots
Orange tree
Lime tree
Areca palm
Pygmy date palm
Neanthabella palm

Pond
Water lily
Umbrella plant
Fish/other (all wildcaught in Houston area):
Mosquitofish
Golden topminnows
Sailfin mollies
Dollar sunfish
Crayfish
Grass shrimp

Anyone else have tropical backyards they care to share?
Last edited by Reef monkey on Tue Jun 11, 2013 7:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Braddah Kimo
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#2 Post by Braddah Kimo »

I....may have what is called a tropical back yard. Front yard too.

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Danno
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#3 Post by Danno »

Nice garden, Reef monkey. It looks quite Australian to me- tropical plants are popular here as you'd imagine. Our house doesn't have exactly a tropical garden though.

Houston looks closer to the tropics than Sydney. Does it get humid in summer?

Ha-ha, very funny Kimo. :wink:
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Styles Bitchley
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#4 Post by Styles Bitchley »

I don't have anything myself, but erock308 posted several shots of his very impressive backyard tiki bar a few years ago: http://magnum-mania.com/Forum/viewtopic ... sc&start=0
"How fiendishly deceptive of you Magnum. I could have sworn I was hearing the emasculation of a large rodent."

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#5 Post by Reef monkey »

Braddah Kimo wrote:I....may have what is called a tropical back yard. Front yard too.
:lol:

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Reef monkey
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#6 Post by Reef monkey »

Danno wrote:Nice garden, Reef monkey. It looks quite Australian to me- tropical plants are popular here as you'd imagine. Our house doesn't have exactly a tropical garden though.

Houston looks closer to the tropics than Sydney. Does it get humid in summer?
Ooooooooh yeah. Houston's average relative humidity in the summer months (June-August here in the northern hemisphere) is is the low 90s in the morning and in the low to mid 60s in the afternoon. We are also 50 miles from the coast so we get a lot of rain, which in the summer is often brief afternoon showers. It'll be sunny, then all the sudden dark clouds will pass over us and we'll get dowsed for 10-30 minutes, and then they pass over and its sunny again. And even more humid.

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Reef monkey
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#7 Post by Reef monkey »

Styles Bitchley wrote:I don't have anything myself, but erock308 posted several shots of his very impressive backyard tiki bar a few years ago: http://magnum-mania.com/Forum/viewtopic ... sc&start=0
Nice yard, I really like his pond, and how he used plants that have a sort of tropical look but still work in his climate. And I LOVE the tiki bar. It give me ideas...I built this playhouse for my daughter two years ago, and now she's 6, so I guess I still have some time before she outgrows it and I can co-opt it, but maybe I can convince her to alternate some of her tea parties with mai tai parties. If only it was closer to the pond and all that lush foliage...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/23274210@N ... hotostream

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Pahonu
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#8 Post by Pahonu »

My wife is the gardener, but we don't have a yard. All our plants are potted on our two balconies. Some of them are quite tropical, like a banana palm, bougainvillea, and a few others. We live on a marina so I'm not complaining. We have a nice view, but it is more Mediterranean than tropical, I think. Here's a link to some views of our place.

http://marinapacificahoa.com/photoalbum ... ocation!_1

I do have a wet bar with a Flamingo Lounge poster and decorations that look very South Beach Florida in style. I'll try to figure out how to post pictures of it.

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#9 Post by Reef monkey »

Pahonu wrote:My wife is the gardener, but we don't have a yard. All our plants are potted on our two balconies. Some of them are quite tropical, like a banana palm, bougainvillea, and a few others. We live on a marina so I'm not complaining. We have a nice view, but it is more Mediterranean than tropical, I think. Here's a link to some views of our place.

http://marinapacificahoa.com/photoalbum ... ocation!_1

I do have a wet bar with a Flamingo Lounge poster and decorations that look very South Beach Florida in style. I'll try to figure out how to post pictures of it.
That sounds nice. I used to do a lot of sailing, and want to get into it again, so I can definitely appreciate living at a marina. I love south beach too. My mom is a Miami native, was orange bowl queen in 66, and my parents met at the university of Miami. Spent a lot of time at my grandparents house in coral gables, even went to South beach for my honeymoon, so you could say the tropical lifestyle is in my blood.

What I do for posting pics is I opened a Flickr account and post then there and then c and p the link in my messages, because I never figured out how to do pics in the forum system.

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#10 Post by Braddah Kimo »

Cool tropical bars there...

One thing
Get rid of the bar rules signage. That is probably the most haole thing ever. Very un island style.

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Styles Bitchley
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#11 Post by Styles Bitchley »

Reef monkey wrote:I built this playhouse for my daughter two years ago, and now she's 6, so I guess I still have some time before she outgrows it and I can co-opt it, but maybe I can convince her to alternate some of her tea parties with mai tai parties. If only it was closer to the pond and all that lush foliage...

Image
It's got a lot of potential Reef monkey!
"How fiendishly deceptive of you Magnum. I could have sworn I was hearing the emasculation of a large rodent."

- J.Q.H.

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Pahonu
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#12 Post by Pahonu »

Reef monkey wrote:
Pahonu wrote:My wife is the gardener, but we don't have a yard. All our plants are potted on our two balconies. Some of them are quite tropical, like a banana palm, bougainvillea, and a few others. We live on a marina so I'm not complaining. We have a nice view, but it is more Mediterranean than tropical, I think. Here's a link to some views of our place.

http://marinapacificahoa.com/photoalbum ... ocation!_1

I do have a wet bar with a Flamingo Lounge poster and decorations that look very South Beach Florida in style. I'll try to figure out how to post pictures of it.
That sounds nice. I used to do a lot of sailing, and want to get into it again, so I can definitely appreciate living at a marina. I love south beach too. My mom is a Miami native, was orange bowl queen in 66, and my parents met at the university of Miami. Spent a lot of time at my grandparents house in coral gables, even went to South beach for my honeymoon, so you could say the tropical lifestyle is in my blood.

What I do for posting pics is I opened a Flickr account and post then there and then c and p the link in my messages, because I never figured out how to do pics in the forum system.
Thanks. I'll have to open an account and give it a try. I'll post some pictures of my sailboat too. It's a 1968 Columbia 28 sloop called Irish Mist . I've slooowly been working on her for the last several years. I sail quite a bit with family and friends. My family and I also spends alot of time on her just sitting in the cockpit enjoying the water with some food and drink. What and where did you used to sail?

That is quite a connection to Miami. I've only been once and had a great time. It seems Long Beach looks more tropical than I thought, because CSI Miami films all over the place here. I've even seen our place in an episode, and I don't really watch the show regularly.

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#13 Post by Reef monkey »

Pahonu wrote:What and where did you used to sail?

That is quite a connection to Miami. I've only been once and had a great time. It seems Long Beach looks more tropical than I thought, because CSI Miami films all over the place here. I've even seen our place in an episode, and I don't really watch the show regularly.
Wow, I had no idea they didn't film in Miami. I never really watched the show. Not much of a TV watcher - television peaked in the 80s.

I sailed a 14' Catalina Capri all around West Galveston Bay as a kid, and then was a sea scout in high school we had a 14' catamaran and a 26' ranger we sailed in Clear Lake, Galveston Bay, and out into the Gulf on occasion. In 1994, those of us who were seniors sailed it down the ICW to South Padre after graduation - that was a fun trip.

I skippered 420s on my college team after that, all around Texas/Oklahoma/Arkansas/Louisiana, and one nasty Thanksgiving weekend at the Timme Angsten up in Chicago.

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#14 Post by Reef monkey »

Styles Bitchley wrote:
Reef monkey wrote:I built this playhouse for my daughter two years ago, and now she's 6, so I guess I still have some time before she outgrows it and I can co-opt it, but maybe I can convince her to alternate some of her tea parties with mai tai parties. If only it was closer to the pond and all that lush foliage...

Image
It's got a lot of potential Reef monkey!
thanks, it was fun to build and my daughter and her little friends love playing in it and using it as a clubhouse.

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Pahonu
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#15 Post by Pahonu »

Reef monkey wrote:
Pahonu wrote:What and where did you used to sail?

That is quite a connection to Miami. I've only been once and had a great time. It seems Long Beach looks more tropical than I thought, because CSI Miami films all over the place here. I've even seen our place in an episode, and I don't really watch the show regularly.
Wow, I had no idea they didn't film in Miami. I never really watched the show. Not much of a TV watcher - television peaked in the 80s.

I sailed a 14' Catalina Capri all around West Galveston Bay as a kid, and then was a sea scout in high school we had a 14' catamaran and a 26' ranger we sailed in Clear Lake, Galveston Bay, and out into the Gulf on occasion. In 1994, those of us who were seniors sailed it down the ICW to South Padre after graduation - that was a fun trip.

I skippered 420s on my college team after that, all around Texas/Oklahoma/Arkansas/Louisiana, and one nasty Thanksgiving weekend at the Timme Angsten up in Chicago.
You started earlier than I did. I learned to sail early in college with a friend on his father's Hobie Cat 16. I still sail quite a bit on a friends Formosa 41 ketch. We've been to several of the Channel Islands, and to Avalon on Catalina Island many, many times on his boat and mine. We did the Newport-Ensenada race about seven or eight years ago, and competed in the Cal 20 nationals, bronze class, three years ago right here in Long Beach.

He's a real blue-water sailor. He's done the Transpac, Baha Ha Ha, a bare-boat charter in BVI, and transited the canal on a six-month trip down the Pacific coast of Mexico and into the Carribean. I've never sailed in the Atlantic. It's on my bucket list. Hope you get back into it soon. You know what they say: The worst day on the water is better than the best day at work!

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