Tour of A Tropical Concept Nursery

Hummingbird feeding on nectar of banana blossoms.

Wow!  Look at all of those
bananas!

In September I went on an awesome tour of A Tropical Concept Nursery in Phoenix.  What a place!  It is a unique combination nursery/jungle/bird rescue/animal rescue and all around fun place to hang out and talk tropical plant care, bird care, and even pot belly pig care.  There I found the biggest and healthiest banana trees and plumeria I have ever seen in Arizona.  The owners, Kim and Danny Vallen, and their employees, were so friendly, helpful and knowledgeable about tropicals. You can tell this is not just their day job, it is their passion!

Kim gave a very informative demo on planting a Mango tree.  She used a 50/50 mix of native soil, and organic mulch. Then she watered well, added vitamin B1 to prevent transplant shock, and then added a thick mulch layer of just straw.  Kim advised against using wood chips as mulch because they heat up as they break down.  She also advised to pick flowers and fruit from young trees to give the plant a chance to focus on developing roots.  Makes sense!

Owner, Kim Vallen, giving a demonstration on how to plant a Mango Tree.

Largest and healthiest Plumeria I have ever seen in Arizona!

The resident rescued pot bellied pig and her piglets!

A Tropical Concept friendly employee (the handsome bearded human, not the Macaw)
helping out a customer at the tour in September.

The exotic birds that will be visiting during this Saturday's tour!

A Tropical Concept is giving another tour this Saturday, and raffling off 2 Starfruit plants!

A Tropical Concept Tour/Demo/Raffle/Birds - Saturday, October 28 at 11 AM - 1 PM - tour at 11:00am. Since winter is coming, we are going to demonstrate a couple of ways to protect your trees from the winter cold. Then a 7gal starfruit and 3g starfruit  will be raffled off.  So come and mingle and talk birds/plants, and have some cold beverages. Feel free to bring the family, your kids will love it.  Feel free to bring your parrots or birds to the event and show them off. Randal Allyn from Az Exotic Bird Rescue will be bringing some of their birds they have, its going to be great!  A Tropical Concept Plant Nursery, 4302 S Central Ave, Phoenix, Arizona 85040

Passion Fruit flowers!  Big and beautiful :-)

Happy geese and ducks at home in their pond.

For a couple of years now I've been working up the courage to try to grow tropicals.  I slowly built up my wish list after seeing what Jay Barringer grows in his food forest, and watching his videos.  Kim's no-nonsense approach to planting and caring for tropicals has encouraged me to take the plunge!  When I called A Tropical Concept with my wish-list I figured they would have maybe 2 or 3 out of the 4 plants on my list, since I was looking for very specific types of mango.  They had ALL of them!

My recent purchases from A Tropical Concept - 1 Miracle Mango, 1 Pineapple Pleasure Mango, 1 Pineapple Guava, and 1 Black Sapote!

My hard-working brother Patrick planting our new Miracle Mango
in our north facing atrium, surrounded by star jasmine and
arabian jasmine.

The Pineapple Pleasure Mango went into a pre-dug hole in
an area that gets morning sun and is protected from wind.

The Black Sapote will be planted under filtered light, surrounded by
other trees to protect it from afternoon sun.

My new Pineapple Guava will go into a pot for now,
until I figure out where it wants to live in my
increasingly crowded backyard jungle ;-)

I bought these 3 weeks ago and they are all doing very well!  Thank you Kim and Danny for all of your help!!!

October Harvest

Today's harvest, clockwise from top - Swiss Chard, Moringa drumsticks, Purple Hyacinth Beans, Wolfberries, Anaheim Peppers, tiny but mighty Chiltepen Peppers, and Malabar Spinach!

Purple Hyacinth Bean Vine - pick pods when they are small,
full grown pods are toxic!

Dragonfly in the garden, bug hunting!

Egyptian Spinach going to seed.  Pick pods when they are small
and easily bendable, otherwise they are woody. Cook in vegetable
broth, or cook as you would okra, or steam.

Queen Butterfly on Milkweed

To be harvested later - Luffa Gourds!

Luffa gourds!

Luffa flowers :)

Sweet Potatoes!

The Bee Oasis - Permaculture in Action!

The Bee Oasis garden in transition from summer to a fall garden,
along with a solar oven in foreground!

A few weeks ago I was fortunate to attend one of The Bee Oasis workshops, led by permaculture guru of the east valley - Don Titmus.  His home is a great example of living a sustainable lifestyle, which we can and should all learn from.  Don is a master at sharing his practical knowledge and explaining the principles of permaculture.

Overturned metal mesh waste baskets from the dollar store serve as cloches
to protect young plant starts.  What a great idea!

Don has 40 years of experience in horticulture and has lived in Arizona since 1981.  With 14 years of experience in Permaculture (teaching, design, consults and implementations) he is your man if you need a consult on how to set up or improve your garden, lay out a home fruit orchard, or to implement rainwater harvesting features.  As Don puts it - he's out to help heal the Earth one home-site at a time!! I can hardly think of a more noble pursuit.

A sturdy set of hand made tools at
the ready to prepare the fall garden beds.

Don demonstrated his method of prepping fall garden beds, using a "low-till" instead of "no-till" method.  He loosened up just the first six inches or so of the soil before adding amendments, allowing nutrients to get down into the soil without disturbing the beneficial micro-organisms living happily in their own levels within the soil.  I like this concept and am giving it a try in my fall garden beds. 

Hanging herb drying rack with velcro closure, lets air in and keeps
bugs and birds out.

 The fall garden prep demo was followed with a great presentation indoors on the principles of Permaculture.  I love networking with other organic gardeners and got to chatting with two from Aravaipa Canyon - home of the infamous 100-plus years old Aravaipa Avocado tree.  Interestingly, they had also tried to grow one of the off-springs of this tree, and failed.  

Other interesting tidbits of information I picked up were that -

Arbico Organics sells worm castings by the truckload!

Maricopa County Cooperative Extension offers free soil and water testing!

Using black strap molasses in your compost speeds up the composting process!

Rainwater harvesting tank at the Bee Oasis collects water from the
home's metal roof for use in the garden, with overflow going to a
nearby lush shade garden.

The next Bee Oasis workshop is on Rainwater Harvesting.  Participants will get to see firsthand how Don installed his rainwater tank and how he incorporated berms and swales into his landscape to slow the rainwater and allow it to soak into his soil rather than letting it run off into the street!

Homestead Garden Series - Rainwater Harvesting, Saturday, October 14 at 8:30 AM - 11:30 AM - Sustainable strategies for Harvesting the rain for garden and homestead resilience. From the top of your watershed.....Slow it, Spread it, Sink it. Store in the soil or in tanks for later, all this and more are demonstrated at the Bee Oasis.

The Bee Oasis holds classes monthly and has great upcoming topics -

2017

November - Soil Building
December - Pc Sectors [with a focus on cold/chill/freeze]

2018

January - Composting and more
February - Spring Garden, plan and prep
March - Bee Blocks for Pollination and the Natural Mozzie Trap.
April - Chickens and more
May - Climate, Microclimates and Inner climate
June - Garden Shading and more

Bee Oasis FB Page https://www.facebook.com/beeoasis/