Brad's Tropical Paradise

For those of you who missed the first week of my raising triops, don't despair (we all have busy lives), I'll recap quickly. There was a small packet of sand and teeny-tiny eggs, which I dumped in a small tank filled with distilled water, several hatched, but in a day or so there was only one, and here he is, about an inch long in a week. It's Sunday morning. Triop at the beginning of week two When I first got the eggs, I really had no concern for the size of the tank, and now I'm kinda glad that this one ate everyone else, because they grow fast! He (or she) is fine today, and according to the instructions that came with the kit, they're full-grown after seven days, but I'm inclined to think that Scorpius is still growing. Yes, I named the triop Scorpius. Don't you name your pets? I still have plenty of adult triop food, and they also absolutely love pieces of carrot, but I'm already thinking that maybe I should make a trip to Walmart and get some more

Although triops aren't plants of course, they're animals, caring for them is very similar to planting seeds and nurturing seedlings. The instruction manual that came with my latest packet of triops eggs called it having a "blue thumb" (you know, like having a green thumb means that you're good with plants). This is my second attempt, and the first attempt was actually pretty sad. But it's just like gardening, when the next season arrives, you want to try again. You know, learning from mistakes - if you're a gardener you get it, if not you're probably thinking that the triops police should be putting out a wanted poster for me. Come to think of it, there are a LOT of different plants that would be using the same wanted poster. Of course, my mistakes were just that, mistakes, I didn't intentionally shorten the life of these wonderful living things. As a gardener, I'm a big believer in preparation. You know the old saying "Dig a hundred dolla

I really had never planned to put a flagstone path to the back area of the garden, but it just seemed to make sense. I had the extra flagstone lying around from a previous job, and this year I decided to see if I could really clean up this area, including putting flagstones around the base of the tree, where the root sticks out. And I approached this construction job very differently than if I were doing it in an afternoon, for someone else. I'm doing it like a gardener, and it's a labor of love that's taking, like most of what I do in the garden, just about forever. I would like to have it finished before the weather turns really hot, but if I don't, there's always next season. This kind of attitude really appeals to me. I do my best, but when things don't turn out the way they should in a season, you just fall back, regroup, and give it another shot next year. But this isn't the same as always saying "later", which means that you'll never do

There are several ways to light a garden at night, and what you choose will depend on how you use the space. My garden is meant to be looked at, not much more. I have spotlights all around the garden that highlight the plants and bounce back some soft light - a little more than shows in the photo, but just barely enough to walk safely around. At night this garden isn't a strolling garden, it's a "sitting looking at it" garden, and I think it's beautiful. However, if you need the space to work better for walking around, you'd be wise to light it differently, mostly with path lights. You can add a spotlight or two for drama, but the light would need to be down at the ground, so people can watch their step. You could also do "stadium lighting", which is lighting from above, and that's the best if you plan on having a bunch of people standing around. That way they can see where they're walking, and will be able to see if there are enough olives i