Creating access to trim your tropical plants

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Although people use the term *jungle* in a positive way when you have a lot of tropical plants, having your garden turn into a jungle, with no access for trimming, and letting everything get overgrown, is not a good thing.

The trick to it is to create access without making places look like a path. It's quite a challenge!

As you can see in this photo, I have some small *stepping stones* behind the cycads and miniature palm trees. They are not meant to look like paths, in fact, visitors should not really pay any attention to them. They're just places where I can safely put my feet when I need to get back there and trim the plants.

The rocks back there also perform another function, they cover the *spaghetti tubing* that comes from the main water line and goes over to the plants. I don't want to accidentally kick that tubing, or really to disturb it at all.

Last season I made the mistake of planting some small elephant ear plants that very quickly got big, and were difficult to get access to. So I got rid of them, and gave them to a friend a few days ago. Now my goal is keep this access clear so that when the cycads really get growing, I can get back there and trim as needed.

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