Brad's Tropical Paradise

Macintosh, the good little wiener dog, sniffs around The Tropical Paradise.

We are used to some warm temperatures here in the Arizona desert, but the past week has been unusually high. Even the low temperatures have been high, which makes it pretty much impossible to enjoy the mornings outdoors. Since I had the Palo Brea tree removed, there is a lot more sunshine in the morning. The olive tree provides shade for only about half of the backyard. I am keeping an eye on the forecast, and hopefully things will start to cool down by mid-September.

I finished up the careful planting of carrot seeds in The Tropical Paradise for this season. The seeds are planted along dug-out lines (called "drills") that fan out from the watering spray head. The spray head really doesn't spray very well on this side on the yard (it's at the end of line), so I am planning on gravity to bring the water to the bottom. The carrots are Ferry-Morse Danvers #126 , which I purchased at Amazon. The carrots will be much bigger than the variety I planted last year, which were only miniatures. That is why I dug out a hole a foot deep and filled it in with sand and potting soil. Of course, the carrots are more than just a vegetable here at The Tropical Paradise. Their ferny leaves create a very nice *tropical* effect ground cover. They just have to start growing! The package says that they germinate in about two weeks so hopefully I will not be looking at bare dirt by the middle of September. The package says, *Ready to harvest in 75 days...

I've often heard people criticize dogs, usually naming a particular breed, as being a problem. Yes, there are differences when training different breeds of dogs, but the biggest difference is the owner. If your dog insists on tearing up your garden, digging holes, barking, or just in general making a mess of things, it's your fault. I hate to say this, but maybe you should not be a dog owner. The first thing you should know is that, yes, dogs can be taught to respect your garden. Even dachshunds, which were bred for digging, can learn. And they can learn to do their business outside, not on the carpet, too. Oh yeah, and they can learn not to be barking all of the time, which can make enjoying your garden difficult, too. All dogs have one thing in common, no matter what the breed. They aim to please. Your dog wants to please you, so make things clear. And keep in mind that dogs don't have the same type of long-term memory that we have. If you want to stop digging, spend ...

I dug down about a foot and removed the native soil by spreading it around the garden. This morning I filled the hole with a bag of sand mixed with Osmocote® and a small bag of Miracle Grow Moisture Control potting soil. Looks like I am going to need some more. I have a bag of seed starter soil standing by, but I need to bring the level up higher before I add that to the very top layer. The carrot seeds will go into the top layer. By the way, if you are wondering how to dig a hole like this in Arizona clay without pickaxes or blasting equipment - try this trick: Dig as much as you comfortably can and then fill the hole with water. When it soaks in, it turns the clay into a goop that you can scoop out. Watch out for your back - it's heavy! I started this hole yesterday, filled it up with water, and finished it this morning.  This is pretty much how I have planted all of my plants. I like to say that my plants aren't really planted in the ground - they are planted in "clay...

Today I started the first step towards preparing the ground for my carrot seeds, plowing. Actually, I am going to dig down a bit more to be sure to give the carrots an easier time growing into the soil. The hard soil in Arizona is only good for native Sonoran plants if you don't prepare it, so I am going to prepare this planting bed. The first step, of course, is to break up the ground. Carrots definitely won't grow into the native clay soil, so it has to be removed. And be sure to choose an area that gets adequate irrigation - the best sign is if you see roots from other plants that are growing in there, such as these roots from the Phoenix roebellini . Go ahead and cut the roots, they will grow back elsewhere. I like to amend the soil with fertilizer and moisture crystals. Or you can also just use Miracle Grow Moisture Control®, which has that stuff already in. Actually, I usually do both. Some sand mixed in with the soil will make it easier for the carrots to grow, too....

I experimented with lettuce last season, and was surprised at how easily it grew. So this year I am approaching it in a more organized way. I had originally planned to wait until I could buy little lettuce seedlings, but I hate to wait, so I planted some seeds yesterday. Lettuce gives a nice "ground cover" look which goes well with my garden. And I can eat it! Last year, I scattered seeds all over the garden to see where they would take, and where the plants would grow. This area of The Tropical Paradise, in an east-facing area, is where they grew best last year. It may be a bit early in the season, but I am hoping that the desert will do what it always does, switch off the hot weather very quickly. And we are about a month or so away from that now. If things work out the way I want them to, the seedlings will start to poke up in a few weeks and start to become "real plants" at about the time the weather begins to cool down. Lettuce is a cool-weather crop, so it s...

Here is one of my favorite views, palms and cycads up-lighted with Malibu lights. Putting in some spotlights and path lights is an inexpensive way to make your tropical paradise look like an exotic resort at night. Since this is in my back yard, I can adjust and modify the lighting as much as I want. I have experimented over the years, and started with a very cheap plastic system but a couple of years ago I upgraded to an all metal system that supports these beautiful 20-watt spotlights. I've added some path lights to fill in certain areas, but the trick is to do as much as possible with spotlights. And yeah, 20 watts isn't much in a lightbulb in your house, but outdoors it is fantastic. I tested the placement and angle of the lighting with a flashlight. You gotta stand back and look at it.

I have a nice Dioon edule, var. edule , that started flushing recently. In fact, it has three separate flushes, which all started at different times and gives a good idea of what the leaves look like as they grow in progression for this cycad. The greener leaves, at left, are the ones that started first. They are finished, and that is what the mature leaves look like. The smaller flush, which is the newest, shows the coppery color of the juvenile leaves. They also have a soft feathery texture. And the largest flush shows the state of the leaves in between. A cycad flush takes just a few weeks to complete and is fun to watch.

For the most part, I am interested in flora, not fauna. But there is wildlife here at The Tropical Paradise. An animal that recently became extinct here is the mosquito (Culicedae).  They survived here as long as there were damp areas to hide. I did not have standing water, so they weren't hatching here, but the adults were hanging out in wet, shady, protected areas. I have since eliminated their habitat. There have always been birds here, too. Unfortunately, the removal of the big overgrown tree, while removing mosquitos entirely, has also reduced the bird population. And the smaller birds, which fed on the mosquitos, seem to be gone, too. I often would see many interesting types of small birds in the yard. It's summertime now so hopefully they will return in the winter during their migration. Of course we have Mockingbirds (Mimus polyglottos ) here in the Sonoran Desert. If you are hearing a bird that is much louder than a bird should be, especially at night, it's ...

Mulch is anything that sits on top of the soil that discourages evaporation. At the very least, you can call the gravel used in desert landscaping mulch. It is better than nothing. But if you really want to help your desert garden, use some real mulch in addition to the gravel. And be generous. If you have a couple of trees on your property, you can afford to be generous, because your mulch is free. Dead leaves from your tree make an excellent mulch. There is no reason to bag them up and put them in a landfill! On my property, I have two olive trees which have supplied my garden with mulch for years. Some of the leaves just fall naturally, and the ones that end up on the sidewalk I scoop up and throw on the garden beds. There are a few trees that you shouldn't do this with, such as salt cedars, and the needles of some coniferous trees, so check first before you start throwing the leaves on your plants. My old stand-up dustpan says "Harry from Hawaii" Out in t...

The biggest mistake gardeners make in their tropical paradise is failing to feed their plants regularly . If you just put your palm tree in the ground and water it, it will starve to death. Yes, you can return it up to year later for a refund if you got it at Home Depot, but wouldn't it be better if it lived? Here is how you do it. Go buy a small bag of dry plant food. If you can find a plant food for palm trees, that would be best, but if not, just buy some. You can get a good-size box of plain plant food at Big Lots for a couple of bucks. The plant food in the picture at left cost me about five dollars at Home Depot today. And here is the most important part - don't put it on a shelf in your garage. Go out to your garden and use it all up. All of it. Toss in on to the soil at the base of your plants. If you have a bit more energy, you can scratch it in, which sometimes I do and sometimes I don't. And the most import part is to water it in thoroughly. Get out there with ...

If you would like to grow tropical plants in the desert, the best thing to have is shade. And the easiest way to get it is to be sure that your garden is on the east side of your house. I purchased this house with a garden in mind, so I made sure the backyard has afternoon shade. So, the best backyard has an eastern exposure. That means that the garden gets morning light and starts to get shade after noon. I have a one-story house, and, as you can see, by 3 pm in the summer, there is excellent shade that extends about eight feet. And because the sun sets between 7 and 8 at this time of year, the house provides 4 to 5 hours of nice shade.  So, the lesson here is to buy a house with the back yard facing east. If you can't do that, the next best thing is to have the back yard facing north. Don't even think about a backyard that faces south or west! It's just too hot here. I am fortunate to have the combination of a backyard that faces east and a tree. That means the "...

Elephant Ears, or Alocasia , add a wonderful tropical feel to the garden. I like planting bulbs and if there is success, great, if not, well, I forget about it. These Alocasia have been in the ground here at The Tropical Paradise for many years now. I planted the bulbs that I originally got from a friend's yard in Los Angeles, all over the place and notice that location is very important to these plants! Alocsias like LOTS of water and dappled sunlight. The area next to the dining room window appears to be perfect for them. They are also growing well underneath the olive tree. Elsewhere, they just burn up. In the photo, you can see them growing along with Canna Tropicanna and Ajuga reptans (Carpet Bugle). It's at the height of the rainy season here in the Phoenix, Arizona area and this is when they are at their best. They do have a tendency to sunburn, so I try to get out there and trim for neatness. Like the cannas, the harder you cut them back, the stronger they grow!...

The way that a Dioon edule grows can sometimes be a little bit strange, as compared to other cycads, like the common sago palm ( Cycas revoluta ).  Dioon  edules  have a tendency to sprout out from the sides. Here is a nice specimen that suffered quite badly after I cut down the tree that had been shading it for the past ten years. It will be OK, but it will take a while for it to get used to things. This plant started sending up a couple of a shoots a few inches away from the main trunk about a week ago. The main trunk is now beginning to flush. It's nice to see, because it coned last year and hasn't produced any new leaves since the year before that. The slightly brownish color of the new leaves is normal for a Dioon edule . Once the leaf has reached its final size, it will turn bluish green and harden off. When you see your cycad begin to flush like this, go ahead and give it plenty of plant food and water. I use ordinary plant food spikes mostly, along with ...