How, and why to create a miniature tropical paradise in your backyard

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 dachshund there is only about eight pounds, and she's full grown), and my goal was to create a "jewel-like" effect, with minimal effort. Yes, there's a drip watering system back there, which keeps the plants happy and healthy without my needing to go out there with a hose, or a watering can.

I wanted a tropical paradise effect, but the yard is way too small for regular palm trees (all you would see would be telephone poles), so I learned about miniatures, like that med palm that you see there on the far left. I also have palm-like plants called cycads. The most common one is called a sago palm, but mostly I have dioons. Here, I'll show you a close-up of the one back there.

Dioon edule cycad

This is a dioon edule cycad. It's a miniature plant, and this one is getting pretty big - kinda like a "jumbo shrimp". It will never outgrow the space, even if I stay here another thirty years (which is the plan!).

This is a backyard that's meant to be looked at, maybe having a gin-and-tonic in the evening, or a cup of coffee in the morning. This is my own little tropical paradise in Glendale, a suburb of Phoenix, Arizona. I like it here.

Thank you for the encouragement! If you want to see daily pics of my adventures on my recumbent trike in suburban Phoenix (just for fun, of course!) you can follow me on buymeacoffee.com/bradhall, and you can buy me a coffee if you'd like to!