The Couple Who Haven’t Gone Abroad for 22 Years - Because They Built a £20,000 Oasis In Their Back Garden

IMAGINE if going on holiday to a tropical paradise was as easy as stepping out of your back door – no planning, no packing, no planes.

Well for one British couple such a dream is an everyday reality after spending more than £20,000 growing a garden so exotic that it even has its own desert feature.

The acre of land has been filled with palm trees, cacti, statues and a swimming pond, as well as several dining areas.

So tranquil is their back garden of Eden that Melissa and Keith Scott claim they’ve had no need to go abroad for 22 years.

The couple, from Norwich, last went on holiday to Spain in the early 1990s, but say they no longer feel the need to escape abroad.

Despite two round-the-world trips together in the past, since moving to the property in 1993, the pair haven’t left the country.

But when one can enjoy an outdoor sitting room, complete with bamboo and banana plants, then it is no wonder they don’t feel the need to get away.

Mrs Scott, 60, said: ‘It all started with one palm tree which we put in the front garden because we thought it looked a bit different. From then on it all went downhill! We just liked finding unusual plants, it was never our intention to make it so tropical.

'Our last holiday was more than 20 years ago. Nowadays I tend to think, why bother with all the stress of luggage and airports? We don’t need to go anywhere else when we’ve got all of this outside our own back doors. Having said that, we don’t marvel at how exotic everything is, as it’s just become the norm for us, it’s just our garden.’

Mrs Scott and her husband, 66, moved to their home, Crete Lodge, from a house with a much smaller garden where they grew all their own fruit and vegetables.

But the renovation of their new home was quickly abandoned so the couple could focus on the garden, an ongoing project which still isn’t finished, 22 years later.

Mrs Scott, who is now semi-retired but teaches line dancing part-time, said: 'We just love being outside so we are out in the garden for seven or eight hours a day. I’m the gardener and Keith’s the builder. We used to spend time sunbathing but I get bored of that now so I just spend all day pottering about and tending to the plants.

'We’ve got five or six different seating areas to eat at, positioned in various places to get the sunlight at different times of the day. The arid desert area of the garden was something which just sort of happened by itself.

‘There was a lot of sand and shingle on the ground anyway, but I particularly love cacti and succulents so that area has become one of my favourites.

'We also built the swimming pond quite early on, although I’ll only swim if it’s very hot. We can’t swim in there this year as we’ve got crested newts so we’re afraid to turn the pond filters on until they’ve gone.

'We’ve got an outdoor living room with seating and a big fireplace, plus a side garden full of jungle stuff. There are banana and bamboo plants and you really have to fight your way through it, that’s how it’s designed.

'It’d be very hard to say how much the garden has cost, but it’s thousands upon thousands. We’re both as bad as each other for ordering new plants. Thankfully there’s a plant nursery just down the road, but we’ve had to use trailers, trolleys and scaffolding boards to get them in place.

'Some of our palms are ten foot tall and weigh nearly a ton. It took four hours recently just to get one palm upright so we could plant it.

'Though the garden might look a bit like the Greek island Crete, the house being named “Crete Lodge” is a bizarre coincidence. The previous owner ran a concrete firm so Crete actually comes from concrete.’

Because of England’s less than tropical climate, Mr Scott – who was formerly a shift manager with a chemical company – has to build small greenhouses to protect certain plants in the winter.

It’s hard to determine the garden’s exact size because it’s on several levels, but a Google map search suggests it’s around an acre, meaning the couple’s work is never done.

Mrs Scott said: “I don’t think the garden will ever be finished, but we don’t mind that. We put in some basic plants early on just to fill gaps, but don’t like them any more, so we revisit some areas and plant new things.

'In 2010 we had a very cold winter and lost so many of our plants, it was heartbreaking. After that we lost our mojo for a year or so, but now we love the garden again and we’ve got it back to full health.

'Our friends love coming over and enjoying the garden with us. They think it’s so impressive but to us it’s completely normal, as we see it every day. We forget everyone’s garden isn’t like this! People ask if they can move in to the summer house at the bottom of the garden. We have lovely barbeques when the weather’s nice and we eat outside most days, as long as it’s dry. We can’t do much about bad weather, though.

'Our last foreign holiday was so long ago, but to be honest we can’t be bothered with the hassle of it now, not when we’ve got the garden to enjoy at home. We travelled around the world together twice in the past, for five weeks at a time. We’ve seen Singapore, New Zealand, been on safari in Africa, but we just don’t feel the need to do that anymore.”