‘Tropical paradise’ a tribute to the Caribbean in Naples Park – Naples Daily News

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Diane Palmer has spent 25 years fine tuning her outdoor escape into a Caribbean paradise at her Naples Park home Tuesday, May 23, 2017 in Naples. (Photo: Luke Franke/Naples Daily News)Buy Photo

Step into Diane Palmer's Naples Park backyard and you're transported to the Caribbean.

The bougainvillea and the yellowmandevilla blooms have taken over the fence line. She likes it to look wild, like it does on the islands.

"It's not manicured," she said. "I like that. It looks like a bouquet."

Coconut and areka palms shoot up to the sky, and a towering mango tree has started to sproutits sweet fruit. Metal stars and spheres hang from the branches.

"It's our tropical paradise," said Palmer, a former Head Start teacher enjoying her firstyear of retirement from Vineyards Elementary School in North Naples.

Palmer and her husband, Alan, have lived in the little yellow house with the white picketed porchfor 25 years.In Naples Park, where the property lots are a just small postage stamp, the Palmers have carved out a backyard escape dedicated to the Caribbean.

"People say Naples Park is such a small lot, you don't have much ground," she said. "But if you're out there working in the garden, it's big enough, you don't need any more. You do it yourself."

And so that's what the Palmers did.

Diane Palmer has spent 25 years fine tuning her outdoor escape into a Caribbean paradise at her Naples Park home Tuesday, May 23, 2017 in Naples. (Photo: Luke Franke/Naples Daily News)

After living in Haiti for 18years, they found a location in Naples where they could sell Haitian artwork wholesale right out of their home. Inside, they painted the walls pink Diane Palmer's favorite color and removed the screens enclosing the front and back porches.

"We felt very enclosed," she said. "In Haiti we were used to the breezes and everything being very open."

The mango tree was one-third of the size it is now, and they put up fences to add a little privacy. The Haitian influences are around every corner.

There's something about the people that arefrom warm climates...When you go to the islands they have a great outlook on life.

In Haiti, nothing goes to waste, Palmer said, so the coconuts that have fallen to the ground now serve as boundaries among the garden patches, like around the sections of kangaroo fern, theleaves spotted with spores.

Haitian artwork and sculptures scatter the patio. A babbling Buddha water fountain is surrounded by Palmer's "orchid row."Nearby, a medinilla magnifica rests in a pot, with its droopy flamingo pink blossoms one of Palmer's most exotic plants.

Even the pink paint on the walls of the patio, a sort of dusty fuschia color, is titled "Calypso ruffle." Palmer liked that name.

"We really like to travel to warm places," she said. "There's something about the people that arefrom warm climates...When you go to the islands they have a great outlook on life."

She also pays tribute to her New York roots with a section of flowers from the northeast geraniums and a hydrangea Palmer hopesto nurse back to health.

She hopes to add more to her backyard, like a small pool that's part below ground, part above ground, and a wooden pathway.

Despitea small backyard space, Palmer saidgardeners shouldn't feel limited by the size of what they plant.

"Make it your retreat," she said."When you get home, it should feel like you're somewhere else."

Diane Palmer has spent 25 years fine tuning her outdoor escape into a Caribbean paradise at her Naples Park home Tuesday, May 23, 2017 in Naples. (Photo: Luke Franke/Naples Daily News)

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'Tropical paradise' a tribute to the Caribbean in Naples Park - Naples Daily News