Brad's Tropical Paradise

Before I had artificial turf put in my backyard, I had no furniture out there. Furniture on top of grass kills it, and you have to move the furniture out of the way to mow, and water. So I had no furniture for years and years. I had a chair up on the patio, but that's about it. After the artificial turf was in place (yes, I had it installed by professionals, and that's why it looks so great, even after ten years), I found myself leaving my chair on it. It took me a while for my little brain to figure out that furniture wouldn't "kill" the artificial turf. Then not long after that I got a table, and some chairs. And the finishing touch was an umbrella. Last year I invested in a way cool "tiki" umbrella. Before that I've had less expensive types, but even the simplest umbrella will make your backyard looks like a luxury resort. It's an amazing effect. So if you're thinking of creating the effect of a luxury resort, get some lawn furnit...

I've always enjoyed being in a garden. I feel better around growing things, and I've liked to "putter around" since I started in my early twenties, when I was going to ASU, and was living in a cheap converted garage that was surrounded by dirt, weeds, and dead plants. I started planting cactuses, and my neighbor showed me how to grow "chinaberry" trees from seeds. Pretty soon I had the property looking good, after learning how to do the irrigation. I even invested in a lawnmower, and I found all of this to be beneficial for me, both physically and mentally. Unlike most of the people I knew in school, I never did drugs, but I learned the basics of how to grow plants from a copy of "High Times" that I had found. Photosynthesis is photosynthesis. I had no interest in smoking plants, I just wanted to live with them. After my accident, in my mid-forties (please don't ask), I used my garden as physical therapy. I had to learn how to walk again, ...

As much as I love living in Phoenix, I would never deny that the summers are awful. The heat is intense, like "fry an egg on the sidewalk" hot. So getting your garden through the summer months, which in Phoenix starts in April and ends in September, can be a challenge. And it's so much of a challenge that you will very often see gardens with only rocks, or cactus. And that's a shame, because you can do so much more. You just have to get through the summer. The most important thing that you can provide is shade. Yes, there are plants that do fine out in the baking sun of Phoenix, but not many. My property has a few areas that get southern and western sun, which I call "the fires of hell", and in those places I can only plant very tough plants that can stand it. Elsewhere I have two types of shade: from my trees, and from my house. The "prime real estate" for my garden. Morning sun with some shade from the tree. By afternoon the house will s...

I've had spotlights here for a long time, which were 20 watt halogens. And just recently I started replacing them with LED equivalents, and the effect is amazing. The LEDs are exactly the same brightness, and don't dim over distance like the halogens did. Also, the halogens were dangerously hot, and the LEDs don't put out any heat at all. They're sold as "equivalent" because people like me know how to choose based on wattage, so they're as bright as 20 watt halogens, but they only use 4.5 watts, which is amazing. What that means is that I can add more spotlights along the same line, which is what I've been doing. And I've even put in a few 50 watt equivalents in the Outback, which has never looked so good. So, if you've been pondering LEDs, I say go for it. The fixtures cost about the same as the old ones (which I needed to replace, anyway), and there's no bulbs to burn out or replace. By the way, if you're new to using spotl...

Here in the Phoenix, Arizona area, daffodils do great. I've planted plenty of bulb plants here at the Tropical Paradise, but there's nothing better than daffodils. It's March 15th and my King Alfred variety is starting to bloom. I have about twenty around the garden, and this one (above) is the first one to bloom. The rest will bloom over the next few days, and March will be daffodil month here! I've tried lots of different varieties, but I prefer King Alfreds. They're BIG! The foliage is slightly bluish, and it doesn't fall all over itself like some varieties of daffodil. That's important to me because while the blooms are fine, what I see mostly is the foliage. And, sad to say, some daffodil foliage just looks kinda weedy. I did plant these a little bit late in the season, which wasn't good. I really hadn't planned on planting daffodils, but I was at Home Depot last December, and a package of bulbs caught my eye, and I noticed that in my zon...

It's the second week of March, and the daffodils have been looking ready to open for a few days now. This is the time when it's like waiting for water to boil, you can't resist looking constantly, although you know that you shouldn't because it just makes it seem to take that much longer. The first step was planting the bulbs, which I did in December. They started sprouting about a month later, and that's when I started step two, which where I am still am - and that's watering every day, with a little bit of Miracle-Gro and some Super Thrive. Here in the desert you really can't overwater daffodils - the air is dry and even though it's only March, the air temperatures are getting close to 90. And many of my daffodils are planted with not only a southern exposure, but with reflected heat from a block wall behind them, so I worry about them. But they'll be fine. This year I planted a really big variety, called King Alfred, which I haven't had...

I've only recently discovered LED lighting, and it's great. And I'm now in the process of replacing my low voltage halogen lights with LED (Light Emitting Diode) lights. And yes, it's true - they're awesome. They're sold as "equivalent", so you don't have to do any figuring out (I like that!) to replace what you have. My old halogens are 20W so I just looked for 20W equivalent. I'm no good at math, but they're as bright as 20 Watt bulbs, and use just a fraction of the electricity. The problem that I've always had here with the old halogen spotlights is that they got dimmer as they got further out in the yard. I'm also no expert on electricity, but I think it's called "resistance" - the more fixtures I added, the dimmer they got, especially in the Outback. So the areas that needed the light most were the worst. I bought a 20W equivalent last week just to see if I liked it (and I do!), so I went back and bough...