Brad's Tropical Paradise

It doesn't rain much in the Phoenix, Arizona area, but when it does, it's as regular as clockwork. Here in the Sonoran Desert, we get thunderstorms in the summer, and what I call "Christmas Rains" in late December. The Christmas rains are wonderful. They're soft and gentle and last for a long time, unlike the violent "Flash Flood" thunderstorms of summer. They're great for the garden. It's been raining pretty steadily since late morning, and it's starting to form "Hall Lake" there where the gutter drains the water away from the house. Even though it rains very little overall when it rains here, I want to be sure that the drainage is correct, and that the water flows away from the house, and into the garden. The artificial turf, by the way, is perforated, so the water goes through through it, and percolates down into the ground, giving some nice deep watering to my trees. If this were all hardscape, that wouldn't happ...

If you live in Phoenix, Arizona, or anywhere that gets hot in the summer, and cooler in the winter, from Las Vegas to Los Angeles, the best flowering plant is the Cape Honeysuckle. Not only do they bloom beautifully all winter, they're fine in the heat of the summer, and have lush, tropical leaves. And hummingbirds love them, too! I just can't say enough about this plant. They're cheap, readily available at Home Depot, grow strongly, and be kept at a reasonable size (I keep mine about three feet tall). They require very little water, and well, did I mention how great they are? The only drawback would be if you were a compulsively neat gardener, who insisted that all of their plants be constantly trimmed back into "pom-poms". That's because if you trim your Cape Honeysuckle like that, it will never, ever bloom. I've seen Cape Honeysuckle trimmed up into shapes from a Dr. Seuss book, and it's just sad. Let them grow, let them bloom! No, you do...

One of the coolest effects that you can create in your garden of tropical plants is uplighting. It's really quite amazing, and it's easy to do. You will need to invest in a low-voltage outdoor lighting system. I got mine at Home Depot, and I got the most basic one I could. I got plain black metal lights because I don't want any attention to go to the fixtures, I want the attention on the plants. The fixtures still show, of course, but I try to hide them a bit behind the rocks. Because it isn't about the fixtures, it's about the light. Get spotlights, and get bright ones. The idea is to light the plants from the bottom with the light pointing up, so be careful here - don't allow the light to shine into a window, especially your neighbor's window! Point them at the plants! The light will give a wonderful effect to the plant, and the rest of the light will splash on the wall, and kick back a little bit. Palm trees, cycads, and agaves look especially gr...

It's December, and I'm planting petunias. Yes, you plant petunias in November and December in the Phoenix, Arizona area. I've lived here for over twenty years, but I grew up in Minnesota, and it still feels kinda weird. I've tried to plant annuals here as early as September, or October, but found that it was still too hot, and they mostly all died. So if it's not actually cold enough outside to wear a shirt, wait a bit. Yesterday in a moment of enthusiasm I bought two kinda sad-looking petunia plants at a nursery in downtown Phoenix. In a perfect world, I wouldn't have bought petunias that were quite so elderly, but it's what I have today, and I'm planting them. The first thing to do (especially with annuals that have gotten all straggly) is to give them a haircut. I cut this one back severely, and am hoping that it still has some life left in it. Petunias are strong growers, and with the right care, I think it will. The salesman at the nursery to...

If you have a successful garden in the Phoenix, Arizona area, you have an automatic watering system. Phoenix gets brutally hot in the summer (which is most of the year!) and has very low humidity, so plants need regular water. Not a lot of water, but regular. I use a system that delivers water very precisely to the plants, and nowhere else (like running down the street or all over sidewalks!) and I also have a misting system, which aids with increasing the humidity, just a bit. It's December 11th, and I've turned off the water in the backyard, which is on the east side of my house. I'll leave the water off all through January, and will turn it on again in late January or early February, starting weekly, for fifteen minutes. As the weather gets warmer I will increase the frequency, until it's coming on every day for fifteen minutes (when it's over 100 degrees) and then back down. I've been doing this for almost twenty years now, and it works fine. My water b...

Winter in Phoenix is glorious. Even though I've lived there for decades, every winter astonishes me. The sun is warm, the air is cool. It would be great weather for golf, if I did that anymore. And it's great weather for plants, if you know what to get. When I started designing my garden, over twenty years ago, I wanted it to look great for my winter visitors, as well as looking great during the summer (which in Phoenix seems to be most of the year!). I'm proud of living in Arizona, and a lot of my winter visitors are from California, and I certainly don't want them to see a bunch of dead stuff, and cactus, and rocks. I realize that having a backyard full of dead stuff, cactus, and rocks is very popular in Phoenix, but it's such a shame - there's so much that grows, and looks great! The most important thing to know about winter in Phoenix is that it's annual flower time. That is, the flowers that you would normally plant in April in Minneapolis, you...

Today I wandered into Home Depot to buy a lightbulb or something, and of course I went through the plant area. It's December 6th, and I had imagined that there would be nothing in the gardening area but Christmas trees, and holiday decorations, so I was pleased to see that they still had a lot of stuff. I couldn't resist looking around. So I bought a big bag of 25 daffodil bulbs (half price!) and four six-packs of annuals. And I will plant them in clusters in the same holes. There are two reasons for this: 1) the annuals will give me something to look at while I wait for the bulbs to start growing, and blooming (it will take several weeks for there to have much foliage, and they won't bloom until February) and 2) the annuals should be large enough by March, when the daffodil leaves start to fade, to do a neat trick I learned a long time ago. You're supposed to leave the daffodil leaves on until they've all turned brown, but they look awful, so you fold them tog...

If you live in the Phoenix, Arizona area, like I do, you know how hot it gets in the summer, and how important it is to have an automatic watering system. Mine is a simple one, which uses timers that run on batteries. And there are only two things that my timers do: frequency and duration. Frequency means how often the water comes on, like every day, or every hours. Duration is for how long it stays on each time, like for 10 minutes, or 30 minutes. I generally leave the duration the same at 15 minutes, and in the heat of the summer, the water comes on every day, and then as the weather gets a little cooler, I switch it to 48 hours, then 72, hours, the once a week. It's been crazy hot this year in Phoenix, so I've left the frequency on at 48 hours. And then suddenly, wham, it's winter cold, and I've switched it to once a week. Right around Christmas I turn the water off completely, and don't turn it on again until February, or late January. Phoenix tends to ge...