Brad's Tropical Paradise

Whether you have potted plants, or your plants are planted in the ground, I highly recommend a good quality potting soil, the kind that has fertilizer and moisture crystals already mixed in. Over the years I've used a lot of it. No, I'm not selling anything here, nor is a company giving me a kickback, I just hate seeing your plants die. And since I started many years ago using cheap potting soil, I've learned over the years to get the good stuff. Or to get it for your birthday (hint-hint)! Yes, you can make this stuff yourself, by buying cheap potting soil and then adding dry fertilizer and moisture crystals yourself. I've done that. But nowadays I just spring the extra bucks and get it all mixed together for me. I have no idea if the cost is more, or less (I guess it depends on the value of my time, and if I got a good price on the moisture crystals and dry fertilizer). There really is no miracle to get plants to grow. Even if you've done everything right...

Some plants, like euphorbia, do great in the Phoenix, Arizona area. Like planting a cactus, you don't need to do anything other than stick them in the ground, and stand back. Once they establish roots, they flourish. Actually, they tend to get out of hand, they grow so fast. And that makes them a great candidate to be trained into a miniature tree. It does take some artistry, and effort, because a plant like this wants to grow into a bushy shape, and the first thing you have to create is the trunk. Of course the plant has to be big enough, and thick enough at the base in order for you to create a miniature tree trunk. This euphorbia has been in the ground for a couple of years now, and this morning I went out and cut away all of the lower branches, and am beginning to shape the trunk. As you can see, I cut off a large branch that was growing sideways, and kept just the one trunk, which is about six inches to where it branches. My wiener dogs will be able to stroll under ...

I just love my artificial turf - best investment I ever made, and it still looks great almost fifteen years later. And yes, I have dogs. And I know what you're wondering, how is it with dogs? It's great. First of all, it's not carpet, it has little holes in it to allow rainwater, and your dog's pee, to drain through it. Please excuse me if I use rather blunt terms here, but I know what you're thinking - how is it with their poop? It's fine, in fact it's much better than regular grass because you can see it, and there's never any danger of running over it with the lawn mower. I just got a new pooper scooper (no, I'm not selling anything here), and if you have artificial turf I recommend that you get one that's similar. Look at the scooping part - it has a flat blade, as opposed to a rake, and I find that it does a better job. I keep a squirt bottle of odor eliminator handy to spray the areas regularly, and I also gently spray the artific...

I love living in Glendale, which is a suburb of Phoenix, but ya gotta admit that it gets hot. Real hot, unbelievably hot, brutally hot. So everything that I can do to not only cool off, but give a cooling feeling to the garden I do, and one of my favorite things is a plant called a cycad. If you've never heard of cycads, that's not surprising. They look kind of like a tiny palm tree, and kind of like a fern, but they're neither palm trees or ferns. And that's good news in your garden, because palm trees tend to grow into gigantic telephone poles, and ferns just won't live in the Phoenix area (no, it doesn't matter how much you water them, or anything - I've tried). So the best compromise I've found is using cycads for that tropical effect. Cycads aren't as tough as a cactus, but they're considerably tougher than any fern. With a little care, and a little shade, they thrive. I have many types here, and they've been here for many years....