Brad's Tropical Paradise

Yes, you can grow cannas in the Phoenix, Arizona area. I see them all of the time, and they usually look awful. There are a lot of tricks to having them look great, and here are a few thoughts: • Plant them in shade. The best place that I've found for my cannas is next to the east-facing wall of my house. They get morning sun, but then the house shades them all afternoon. If you plant them out in full sun, they may live, but they will look ratty. • Trim them back hard. You want new growth for those beautiful leaves. Cannas grow very fast, so you have to keep trimming them back. I trim the stalks to the ground just about all of the time. This is especially true for stalks that have flowered. The flowers only last for a couple of days and then look ratty. Cut the stalk to the ground! • Water a lot. Cannas are practically water plants. I planted them in an area that always got kind'a boggy when I had grass, and they love it there. You really can't overwater cannas. I ...

One of the things I really like here at the Tropical Paradise is the artificial turf. Yes, it looks as great in real life as it does in the photos that I post here. I've had it for about eight years, and it cost me a little over two thousand dollars. If you're pondering artificial turf, I think I can help. You have to ask yourself what's important to you. Personally, I love the look of grass, but I never really liked the hassle. Mowing, edging, watering, etc. And in a small space like mine it was really annoying. I suppose if I had a gigantic yard, and a riding mower it would be different. But my yard is small and I use it everyday. But I've listened to people ask about it, and I have a few thoughts of why you may not want to get artificial turf. Don't get artificial turf if: • You plan on doing it yourself. My artificial turf is a beautiful illusion, and the installation was absolutely perfect. There are no corners that don't fit quite right, there...

For over twenty years here at the Tropical Paradise, I've been getting free mulch. It falls from the sky. Well, from my olive trees. A couple of times a week I blow the leaves up into the garden with a small cordless blower. I've seen people very carefully sweep up stuff like this, put it in bags, put it in their trash, and then go buy mulch. But if you're doing that, you're wasting a free precious resource, and wasting your money. If you live in the Phoenix area, there are a lot of choices of trees that drop leaves all of the time. These are what is known as non-deciduous trees. I have two olive trees, but there are a lot of choices out there, including Mesquite. And yes, they drop leaves all of the time, all year 'round. They clog filters on pools, they get all over patios, and they produce wonderful mulch. I've designed my garden so that I can blow the much up into it. Of course, it's organic, so it rots down and has to be renewed. Luckily, I hav...

OK, I'll admit it, I'm a tree-hugger. I especially like tropical plants, like palm trees. And one of the biggest, best, and oldest, arboretums in Arizona is the campus of ASU - Arizona State University. And if you're wondering where the arboretum is - it's the campus. Yes, the campus itself. Starting in 1885, there are have been many interesting and exotic trees planted there. In fact, many of the trees along Palm Lane, which is where the bridge over University is, are actually dying of old age, being over 100 years old. Yes, they've been there so long that they're ending their normal lifespan. Palm Lane in the 1930s, Tempe, Arizona Finding gardens in the Phoenix area that have been continuously taken care of for over 100 years isn't easy. But viewing the arboretum at ASU is as easy as finding a visitor's parking spot (OK, maybe that's not so easy) and just wandering around the campus. Many of the more unusual specimens have little signs ...

It's mid-April and the petunias are at their best right now. And if you want to grow them in the Phoenix, Arizona area, this is how: 1) plant them and 2) stand back. Yes, petunias do great here. And the only trick to them is that you don't plant them in the spring, you plant them in the winter. That's because the summer heat kills them. So, if you're thinking of planting petunias right now, in April, you really should wait until next season. I started planting petunias a little too early last season, when the weather was still too hot, and I lost a lot of them. So next season I will wait until November. Yes, planting flowers in November or December does sound kind'a crazy, especially if you're from Minnesota, like I am, but this is the desert - it gets hot. Not just a little hot, but crazy hot. So, enjoy the petunias through April. By May they will be fading away and by June they will be completely gone. I like to go out in the morning and deadhead the ...

Yes, you can grow Elephant Ears in Phoenix, Arizona. I'm in Glendale, a suburb of Phoenix, and they're been growing here for over ten years. There are a few tricks that you need to do, though, and here they are, in no particular order: • Plant them in shade. I planted them all over the place when I first got the bulbs, and the ones out in full sun that dried out died right away. Here they like the eastern exposure, next to my house, and under a tree. Shade! • Rich soil. My Elephant Ears are planted in a combination of potting soil and coffee grounds. The potting soil is the good stuff, and everything else I could find, from anywhere that sells potting soil, and the coffee grounds came from Starbucks (where I got bags of it for free). • Fertilizer. I push in the ordinary plant food spikes, you know the kind you can get for 99 cents at the Dollar Store! Come to think of it, I need some more! I pour Miracle-Gro into the "crotch" of the plant, but not on the leav...

Three weeks ago my friend Kevin, the Kentia Palm Man , delivered four beautiful Kentia palms here. They were all in one pot, and needed to transplanted, which I did under his supervision. Actually, it was kind of fun - I used my phone and sent photos and text messages as I did it. It's great to have experts! I followed his instructions very carefully. And the most important one had to do with not overwatering, which is soooooo tempting! If you want to do everything you can to help your Kentia palms live through the transplant, here are some things I've learned; • Water thoroughly on the day of the transplant, then stop. These plants are now entering their second week after the transplant and the moisture meter still says that the soil is wet. Yes, you need to get a moisture meter - you can get them at places like Home Depot, or Target. Stick them into the soil to where the rootball is, and read the meter. For the first few days the meter jumped waaaayyyy over to very w...

As someone who has spent a LOT of time recovering from some illness, or injury, I like working in the garden when I'm not feeling well. Somehow it appeals to me more than rearranging my stamp collection (no, I don't have a stamp collection) or doing all of those things that people recommend when you're not quite sick, or injured, enough to be in bed, but not quite well, either. And I suppose it has to do with how much effect can be obtained in the garden with such little effort. I like planting things. I like preparing a tiny part of planet earth, planting something, and watching it grow. Mine is a garden of puttering, or "futzing". I'm experimenting mostly, and most of my experiments have failed. But I just plant something else, and hope for the best. The effect over twenty years has been pleasing. My memory for my failures is poor, and I focus on what's in front of me, or what I have planned. My garden is good medicine for me.

I learned the most important lesson about using a moisture meter yesterday - they aren't very useful if you just leave it in the cupboard under the sink. I used a moisture meter for the first time several years ago when I did some house-sitting for a friend who has a lot of rare plants in his house. It was actually kind of fun - you just stuck the prongs into the soil and looked at the readout. If it was in the green area, you didn't add water, if it was in the red area, you did. The plants never got to the blue area, which means that there is the soil is waaaaayyyyy too wet, unless you have plants that like to live in marshy soil (and most plants don't). After the hours of labor repotting my Kentia palms on Wednesday, I feel the need to look after them carefully, and possibly make the most common mistake that people make - overwatering. So I found the moisture meter, which I haven't used for years, and stuck it into the soil. Wow! The needle nearly went off of t...