Brad's Tropical Paradise

Something that I've noticed about myself, along with most of my fellow men, is that we tend to be idiots, especially concerning the protection of our bodies. In a longish life I've found that women tend to be wise enough to know that they should wear gloves if they're going to be exposing their skin to, for example, plants that might injure them. Most of the men I know, including myself, tend to scoff at this, and just continue to hurt themselves, gouging their hands. Yes, we're men, and if you cut us, do we not bleed? We do. And over the years while I've been lavish about what I do for my garden, and even my dogs, I've been cheap about myself. The gloves that I've used (except for the nice heavy-duty gauntlet gloves) have been flimsy and cheap. Why exactly it never seemed to occur to me to get a decent pair of leather gloves for when I'm out gardening, I really have no idea. But I fixed that yesterday. Never too old to learn! I got a pair of dece...

I love my garden, and I want it to be a part of my life for a very, very long time. And like my home, I've done some things that will allow me to age in place, and be able to keep the garden. A garden isn't something that most people imagine takes much athletic ability, but after my injury many years ago I got a harsh lesson on how difficult it can be to just do basic gardening stuff, like bending, reaching, stretching, and most importantly, not stepping on something that you might damage. In my twenties you cold have planted land mines in the garden and I would have been able to move easily around them, but after I spent a month in a wheelchair in my forties, my point of view changed. That was almost twenty years ago, and the reality of my living much longer than I'd ever imagined is happening. I've done a lot of things to the house to make it safe. I don't have trip hazards (unless you count the wiener dogs, and they've been trained to stay out of my wa...