Getting started on a Tropical Paradise

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If you live in the southwest, whether Arizona, Texas, or New Mexico, and unless you are up in the mountains, you can have a tropical paradise. The most important thing that you need is a lack of freezing temperatures. It really can't get too hot. Believe me, I'm in the Phoenix, Arizona area and it's nearly 120 F out there right now.

It can, however, get too sunny. Many of the plants that I have here don't mind the heat, but too much direct sunlight will kill them. So, if you are just starting out, you need to think of shade.

If you haven't bought your house yet, you need to look for one with a backyard that faces the rising sun. Since the hottest part of the day is in the afternoon, your house itself will provide good shade at that time. No, you don't want a north-facing backyard, or an south-facing backyard, or a west-facing backyard. You want an east-facing backyard. If you're not good with directions, go look at the house. If the backyard is shaded in the afternoon, that's the one you want.

If you already have a house, and hopefully the backyard faces east, you want to add even more shade. No, I don't mean shade cloths or overhangs, I mean trees. And if you have a pool, chances are you won't be happy with any type of tree, because they all have leaves. And whether your tree is deciduous or evergreen, it will drop leaves. Sure, resorts have trees, but they also have a full-time staff to clean up all of the time.

The best tree that I can recommend for the southwest is the Mesquite tree. If I could travel back in time twenty years, I would have planted one. After that, well, any desert tree will be fine. I have olive trees, and in spite of their bad reputation for allergies (which isn't true), they create wonderful shade and have a beautiful form. They are slow growers and will probably be here long after I am gone. They are the trees that Jesus prayed under in the Garden of Gethsemane, and in a small space like a suburban backyard, they have a wonderfully sculptural form for the trunk.

Your next task is to get the watering system in. I did mine little by little, but if I could, I would have done it all at once. A simple, inexpensive low-pressure watering system is what you want.

Now go to your local Home Depot and get some palm trees. But whatever you do, don't buy full-sized palm trees. They will become telephone poles in your yard in a few seasons. Go get some miniatures, such as dwarf date palms (Phoenix roebellini) and sago palms (cycas revoluta). Also, don't plant in the ground. Dig a hole, get rid of the native soil (spread it around), refill the hole with a lot of potting soil, and plant. There must be a ton of potting soil in my garden. I like to say that my garden isn't really planted in Arizona, Arizona is just the pot.

By the way, I also recommend artificial turf and a wiener dog, if possible.

Let me know how it goes!

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