It may look more like the Amazon rainforest than a back yard in Scotland.
But this tropical oasis in Edinburgh has been named garden of the year by BBC Gardeners’ World magazine.
Green-fingered Clive Johnson-Cooper created the lush space on the site of a crumbling extension at the back of his home in Circus Lane in Stockbridge.
After briefly considering replacing it with a new extension, the 53-year-old instead decided to spend £8,000 tearing it down and planting a garden.
He said: ‘It was a bit of a surprise for me, to be honest, because there are over 1,000 gardens in the competition.
An urban jungle garden, nestled in the heart of Edinburgh, has been named the Judges’ Choice winner in BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine’s annual Gardens of the Year Awards 2023.
With an array of carefully curated plant species and a thoughtfully designed layout, Clive Johnson-Cooper’s garden was the chosen winner from almost 1,000 entries by expert judges
Clive Johnson-Cooper’s efforts won first place from Gardeners’ World magazine
Best reader gardens inside the latest edition of BBC Gardener’s World
‘There are some very large gardens with a lot of landscaping where it is very easy to add a lot of features.
If you have a small garden you have to make a lot of impact in the space.’ Mr Johnson-Cooper made use of subtropical jungle-inspired leafy plants, instead of planting more commonly used flowers.
The celebrity judges, including TV presenter Alan Titchmarsh and garden designer Arit Anderson, unanimously agreed it was the best.
Mr Johnson-Cooper, who started gardening with his grandfather as a child, said: ‘I realised I had to be bold with the planting. Small plants seemed to emphasise it was a small place.
‘When you are sitting there you can’t see the walls which makes you think it is a lot bigger than it is.’