Brad's Tropical Paradise

It's October 21st, and I just received some sunflower seeds from a friend in Pennsylvania. Their season is ending and the season for planting here in Arizona is just beginning, and I'm kinda wondering if the seeds are wondering what's going on? It's spring again already? If you're new to the Phoenix, Arizona area, and are from back east it must seem kinda strange that fall and winter is our flower season, but it is. By springtime it will start to get so hot here that the flowers will die, and of course back east the season is just beginning.  Sunflowers growing in Peoria, Arizona, about a mile from where I live I've seen sunflowers blooming around my neighborhood of Glendale, which is a suburb of Phoenix, in the winter, and although I've never grown them I understand that they're easy to grow. I guess I'll find out - I learn best by doing! The seeds arrived safely, and it's my understanding that they were still connected to the spent flower (I do

I wanted some flowers to plant in some pots on my patio, so I went to a nursery this morning. Well, I guess you'd call it a garden center, and really so do I, and there isn't any difference, except your attitude about the plants. I'll see if I can explain. Now calm down there if you think that I'm gonna be fussy about what you call these places - that doesn't matter to me at all, you can call them "plant stores", and I'll know what you mean. But the plants there are babies, and when you take them home they need tender loving care. If you're holding onto the receipt to return them because you buy them and set them somewhere and neglect them, I'm sorry, but that's cruel. These are tiny living things. At some point their roots will establish in your garden and you can be more casual about caring for them, but at first they need the kind of attention that you would give a baby, or a puppy. If yours is a nurturing nature, caring for plants from

One of the most beautiful parts of an olive tree is the base, and it's also one of the ugliest. When the suckers are trimmed away it reveals a magnificent sculptural quality, and when the suckers are all over the place, it just looks messy, and terrible. I've cared for two olive trees here at the Tropical Paradise for many years now, and have found that using a chisel is best. Yes, an ordinary chisel. If you don't let the suckers get too long, a chisel is all you need. If it's been a while, you'll need to trim the suckers (yes, that's what they're called) back a bit. And then you just sit on the ground and sculpt the beauty back to the base of the tree. Yes, it takes some some time, but it's easy to do, and I find it relaxing, and kinda "zen". I'm not as young as I used to be, and I often find that I'm spending more time sitting and reaching than I had thought, and too much of it can give me some lower back pain, so I try to divide it u

I've always prided myself on hiding the watering system here at The Tropical Paradise. And while I know where they are, they tend to become so invisible that even I accidentally kick them, and when I have workers on my property, it's just unreasonable for me to ask them to watch where they step. So I have a trick - brightly colored cups. This of course is just temporary, so I have a note on my calendar to turn off the water the day before the house painters get here, and to put the cups over the watering heads and the misting heads (there are actually quite a few, I may need to get more cups!). Then I also have on my calendar to turn the water back on. Of course, my regular visitors are told to stay out of the garden (that's what the paths are for!), and I watch them carefully, but the house painters will be out there without me, and they may need to step back, or put down a can of paint, so this just seems only reasonable. I learned this trick from a friend of mine many ye

The sago palm (cycas revoluta) that a good friend of mine sent me nine years ago is doing great, and I thought you might like a follow-up. The photo at the top of this post is from a few minutes ago, and the rest of the pics are from 2014, when my friend sold his house, and very carefully followed my directions so that I could transplant it here. Here's what it looked like when it first arrived here, as per my instructions with all of the leaves cut off, with the roots intact, but no dirt. The first thing that I did was to soak it in plain water overnight. Then I sat down for quite a while and trimmed it all down as much as I could, still soaking. Here it is: The next step was to dig a nice big hole, filled with potting soil - the good kind. I'm a big believer in preparation - you know, "dig a $100 hole for a $50 tree"! This plant didn't cost me any money, but it cost my friend in a huge amount of work, and I did a fair amount of work, too! I'm not really sure

When I bought my house, many years ago, I had two reasons 1) to have a garage for my car and 2) to have a beautiful garden in the backyard. The rest of it, like bedrooms, a kitchen, etc. was just trivia. When I saw this house I knew that it would be perfect - all you could see from the front was a nice big garage door, and the backyard faced east. Over the years I've made so many mistakes in the garden that I wouldn't even try to list them all - this blog post would get waaaay too long, so I'll concentrate on what I did right. And I'll start with the artificial turf. Cost some bucks, but it's the best investment I've ever made, after my dogs. And speaking of which, dogs can "do their duty" on it, it's perforated, so liquids go through it. All I need to do to it is blow the leaves every once in a while. I recommend that you have it professional done, that's what I did. I also learned about miniature plants. I like miniatures (my younger dachshun