Brad's Tropical Paradise

It's been a week since the triops eggs hatched, and yesterday I started thinning out the community, which was actually mostly clam shrimp, which are interesting, but not the reason that I started this project. And this is where raising triops from eggs is so similar to growing plants from seed, or seedlings. You have to make some tough decisions, because their life is in your hands. In gardening, it's called thinning, and I started doing it with the triops community for the same reason. You have to choose what will grow, and won't won't, because there's always limited space. Since there's only one triop in the tank, she is easily recognizable, and I've named her Scorpius. No, I don't name my plants, but I always name my pets. Update: Scorpius is a fairy shrimp. At first I was kind of disappointed by my mistake, but now I'm beginning to really enjoy her beauty, and elegance. The name really fits! I pondered buying a larger tank, but it really won...

When you go to any garden center, or nursery, the plants are always labeled with both the common name and the Latin name. And if you have something very precise in mind, you're gonna need to know a little bit of Latin. Now calm down there, I'm not saying that you have to recite Latin, or even pronounce it a certain way (no one really knows what Latin sounded like, anyway). And if you're worried that you can't do it, you could probably say "Tyrannosaurus Rex" when you were a little kid. If it matters, you'll do it. Of course, if it doesn't matter you can simply look at a plant, buy it, and put it in the ground. All of the palm trees, for example, at a garden center look the same in tiny pots, and you would probably just grab the cheapest one, wondering why anyone would pay more? I mean, who in their right mind would pay fifty, or even seventy-five cents in 1905 for a palm tree? My best guess is that you could buy palm trees for a nickel, or even less. B...

Petunias do great in the Phoenix, Arizona area. I like them because in addition to their blooms, their foliage has a nice tropical feel to it. Getting them started can be a challenge early, but it can be done, with some ingenuity. By all means buy 'em small. Once they start to grow they'll spread like wildfire so there's no reason to get large plants. Get a six-pack. But you'll need to baby them along. I have a nice area that gets some good winter sun, but in October it can still be kinda hot for these little babies. Just drenching them in water isn't enough, they will need some protection. So today after I planted them I scrounged around to create some temporary shade. The weather is cooling off, but I see the forecast has another day in the 90s, and they wouldn't survive that under direct sun. I sat outside and watched the shadows move, and create some shade. Of course it's not perfect, but it helps a lot. And it's the low afternoon sun that's stil...

Tuesday, October 12th, 2021. I've always had a fascination for trilobites, so when a friend of mine tagged me on Facebook about a living animal called a triop, I was fascinated. No, they're not trilobites, not even related, but they are an ancient type of animal, going back 300 million years, long before the dinosaurs. They look kind of like a horseshoe crab, and they're actually a kind of shrimp. I got the kit delivered yesterday, and started reading the instructions right away. It's for ages seven and up, so I immediately turned into an impatient kid. But I've been a grownup for quite a while now, so I took a deep breath, and started reading the little booklet that came with it, and found out that a couple of other things were needed for this all to work properly, that is, distilled water, and a mild heat source. The distilled water I picked up this morning at the grocery store this morning, and I found a clamp-on light fixture in my garage which I haven't use...

If you've ever wondered why women tend to be excellent gardeners, I can easily explain it to you, they understand that these are babies, and need special care when they're young. But don't get me wrong, being nurturing isn't something that's exclusive to women, men can do it too, and I'm one of those men. Although I've never done it for a human baby, I've raised puppies, and LOTS of plants. And babies need special care. Just throwing them out into the yard and hoping for the best is not the way to go. Once they're established you can leave them alone mostly (and you should), but as babies you need to give them special care. It's October 4th, and I planted some alyssum this past weekend. The weather is cooling off here in the Phoenix, Arizona, area, but it's still getting hot in the afternoons, and tiny plants from a six pack can be in danger until they've established some nice roots in the soil, and the weather cools down a bit more. Alth...

There are two systems here in the Tropical Paradise that bring water to my plants, the main line, and the misting line. The main line runs behind the garden, and the misting line runs through it, right where you're looking. So, as you might have guessed, it makes me nervous when I start to dig for a new plant, like I just did a few minutes ago, while planting some annuals. Since I use rocks to mark where the line is, I assumed that it went straight up after going past the lights (where the river rocks are), but to my surprise it travels to the right, where I almost accidentally dug into it. Luckily I missed, but just barely. I opened up the area, filled it with a lot of potting soil, planted the annuals on each side of the line and marked it with some jagged rocks. The river rocks will go away after I get some more potting soil, and I'll plant more of the alyssum there. There are also daffodils down there, and hopefully they will re-bloom this year, so I don't want to accid...

If you're in the Phoenix, Arizona area, like I am, or anywhere that people flock to in the winter to get away from the snow and cold, October is the season to prepare for planting annual flowers.  And like everything else you do in the garden, preparation makes all the difference. Annuals grow well here, and will be beautiful all winter and into early spring, but you can't just dig a hole in the desert, plunk them down, and hope for the best. Well, you can, but all you'll get for your trouble is dead plants. So calm down a bit before you go to the garden center, and do some preparation work first. I prepped this area yesterday and it's ready for planting. I trimmed away where the leaves of the palm tree were covering it up, to reveal the space, sprinkled some mulch (which I get for free, as it falls from my trees), and added a sprinkling of coffee grounds (which I save every morning when I make coffee). I watered it well, with Miracle Gro, and the plan is to get the pla...