Brad's Tropical Paradise

One of the best plants for your desert landscape is an agave, and it can also be one of the worst. They're great because they use very little water, and personally I find them beautiful. I really don't like planting a bunch of cactus in my garden, so agaves are kind of a compromise. Unfortunately, it's easy to make mistakes. The worst mistake you can make is to plant something without having any idea of its mature size. Some agaves get HUGE. The one in the pic up there is a medium size one that I got as pup from a neighbor. I've seen the ones over on his property, and they aren't HUGE. It's not a tiny plant, but it's not HUGE. And since all agaves  are pretty much the same size at the garden center, it's good to find out in advance how big it will get. Did I mention that some get HUGE? The main reason that you want to know how big it will get is that you will have to give it room. Those ends are needle-sharp, and if they grow anywhere that peopl...

When I first started my garden, over twenty years ago, I made a visit to the fanciest resort in town, just to see how they did their lighting in the garden. And that's when I discovered the beauty of uplighting. And it really is an art form. Done correctly, it's wonderful, done wrong it's awful. The lights I have are LED floodlights, 20 watt equivalent (205 lumens). They're on a low-voltage line that runs all of the way around the garden. They're pointed at the plants, and a fair amount of light "bounces back" which helps to give a gentle illumination to the yard. There's no need for direct lighting. In the photo at the top of this post, it looks as if you couldn't see your feet, but in reality, you can easily. I guess the photo just added a lot of contrast! Twenty watts (205 lumens) is very bright, so you want to be careful where you aim these lights. I have a nice six-foot high block wall around my garden, so the light stops there, and bou...