Tropical backyard view

I've lived in Arizona and in California for most of my life and I have always wondered why people treat their backyards as dumps. I can hardly remember ever seeing a backyard view that wasn't just a collection of forgotten junk and piles of dirt and weeds. That is, if I could see the backyard at all, as most places I visited had heavy curtains or blinds closed, or else the windows were so dirty that you really couldn't see out of them if you wanted to. But every once in a while I would see what could be done with some care, some planning, and some beautiful California or Arizona weather.

My backyard is my favorite view. Now that the weather is getting too hot to sit outside much, it's important to me to keep an eye on things through the windows. If you would like to do this, here is what I recommend:

• Have your backyard on the east side of your house. That way, you can keep the blinds closed to keep out direct sunlight in the early morning, and in late morning and afternoon, you can open them up. Of course, if your backyard is in the west or the south, you can't do that.

• Clean your windows. Inside and out. I went to Home Depot and got one of those squeegee/cleaner combination things, learned out to use it, and I go out a few times a year to clean the outside of my windows and sliding glass door. No, you can't keep outside windows spotless, but you can keep them from becoming practically opaque from dirt and dust. All you need to clean them with is water with a little bit of ammonia added. Clean, squeegee, and wipe with a dishtowel. Takes just a few minutes. On the inside I use Windex and a paper towel.

• Take a photo every once in a while. This is a good trick to help you see stuff that you normally miss. I take photos all the time for this blog and I always say, *dang, I didn't see that!*

If you are fortunate enough to live somewhere that can provide a view like this, I recommend that you do it. If you are storing a bunch of junk in your backyard, well, that's what the trash is for.

Trimming a palm tree

It's the first week of June and now is a very good time to trim your palm trees. Their flowering is finished and you can go ahead and trim all of that mess away. What I do is to trim back very hard, leaving only a few leaves. Believe me, they will grow back! Take a look at the spear leaf in the middle. If it's thick and growing strong, your tree is doing great. If there's a white powdery residue, that is also a sign of robust health.

I only have miniatures palms here at The Tropical Paradise. The ones in the picture, dwarf date palms (Phoenix roebellini) have been here for over fifteen years. I crouched down to take the photo so you could see the leaves against the sky, but the trunks are only about six feet tall. If I had planted full-sized palm trees here when I bought this house, all I would would be seeing would be telephone poles. In another fifteen years, these dwarf date palms could get as tall as twelve feet, but never the 80 to 100 feet of full-sized palms. If you suspect that you have full-sized palm trees growing in your backyard, dig them up now and get rid of them while you still can. And then go get yourself some miniatures.

Anyway, cutting back a palm tree very dramatically is called *candlesticking* - and for aesthetic purposes, many trimmers refuse to do it. But it does no harm to the tree itself. In fact, cutting it back to a *candlestick*, and especially trimming all the flowers off, gives the tree a nice break from the heavy burden it has been carrying. And it will come back strong and beautiful.

Now get out there and trim!

How far back to trim your palm tree or sago palm

Even though they aren't technically related, palm trees and sago palms grow the same way, from the middle. So, if you are wondering how far back you can trim these plants, rest assured that you can trim them back very hard. With a palm tree you can literally leave only one leaf growing (usually called the *spear leaf*). Palm tree trimmers call this *candle-sticking*, and it looks kind'a sad, but does no harm to the tree. In fact, if you're paying someone to trim, tell them to go ahead and take all of the leaves off that you want to (as long as they leave one or two in the middle). It will look sad for a while, but it will grow back even stronger.

For sago palms, you can go even further and cut all of the leaves off if you want to. As long as the plant isn't cut completely flat (like with a chain saw) across the top, new leaves will reappear in the spring. You would want to do this if all of the existing leaves were damaged from frost or something else. It will look like a fire-plug for a season, but it will recover.

My sago palm, shown here, took a devastating hit when lost the shade of the tree that had been its companion for a decade. I cut off all of the leaves, and it looked like a short fire-plug for a while, and then they all grew back, as you can see.