Brad's Tropical Paradise

A plant that grows well in the Phoenix area, and which is very common, is the oleander. It's also among the top seven deadliest plants in the world, according to the Encyclopedia Brittanica. And it is! The plant is extremely poisonous, and if you or your dog or cat chew on it, it can be fatal. Fortunately, it tastes awful (I've never tasted it, but apparently it is). I know about this because every once in a while someone will point out to me that my favorite plant, the cycad, is very poisonous. And it is! If your dog chews on a cycad, or an oleander, you may lose your best friend. I taught my dog not to chew on plants. As someone who loves gardens, plants and trees, I know the drawbacks. If you've ever accidentally gotten some of the sap of an agave on your skin, you know it burns like crazy. And if you've ever backed into it (I have!) you know that it's deadly sharp. The list goes on and on. Even rose bushes can leave you bleeding if you don't have heav...

In a longish life, something that I encounter in just about everything is the tendency of people to go to extremes. It doesn't matter what, they go to extremes with exercise, either trying to run a marathon or sitting on the couch, they go to extremes with technology, either trying to own every gadget in the world or not even touching anything like that. And in gardening, I find that the extremes are either: hugely wasteful gardens or vicious-looking plants and weeds. It just makes we want to twang a sad guitar, so I write here in this blog. If you're tempted to go to an extreme, I think I can help. Because your neighbors will hate you if you just put stuff in your yard that makes it look like an abandoned lot, or if everything there is so deadly that it's dangerous for children to walk past it. Start by thinking about why you are planting anything in your front yard. Speaking for myself, I do it for the same reason that I've always washed my cars - it's not ...

If you live in Phoenix, or Los Angeles, or anywhere that water is a precious resource, you may be pondering the wisdom of having a garden, in spite the beauty it brings to life. And I understand. It's wise to be a careful steward of the planet, and there are a lot of arguments in favor of not having a garden. And I know a lot of people who proudly point to a dry dusty area, with a stray weed or some vicious-looking plants and consider it the only way to go. I disagree. In a long life, I've noticed that many people can only think in extremes. In exercise, they only think of running a marathon or being a couch potato, in cooking they only think that they have to be a gourmet chef or be someone who can't even boil water. The list of extremes goes on and on. And I disagree with that way of thinking. When I lived in California, I always got a kick out of the bumper stickers that said, "Save the World, Kill Yourself". And that's an extreme! But I'm here t...