Arizona Tropical Backyard Bar

Its AZ. Its hot and dry, and I'm a tropical tiki sort of guy. Just move back to the land of the eternal sun after living in Newport/Costa Mesa for a few years. Since I need to be here for the time being due to family and career reasons, I figured I'd make the best of the desert environment by continuing to work on my tropical backyard with an addition of a tiki bar to whet the appetite for tropical drinks and rum.

It's spent quite a few years as an idea in my head but I'm finally getting started with my backyard tiki bar in Mesa, AZ. My obsession with tropical landscaping has been a 5 year hobby in the making and it is starting to come together with a few years of solid growth now so it seems the perfect time to add the bar and slowly let the landscaping interact with the bar.

I chose a shady niche in the back right corner underneath two 30+ year old orange trees and up against the side wall at the property line. I plan to plant giant clumping bamboos on either side of the bar before I start construction. I have old fashioned flood irrigation that comes into the yard via piping directly from the canals every two weeks so I have to plan this thing out so as to not be rotted by the occasional water.

Here's the first pic of the location. The previous home owner had built up a small section with a concrete pad for chicken coops, so I'll use this to start my foundation.

[ Edited by: jpnaz 2016-06-14 14:13 ]

Step one was to trench about 50 feet of wire for electric. 20 amp dedicated circuit.

Step two pour two additional sections of concrete to add to the original smaller pad. About 10 ft wide now.

The basic 4x4 post frame coming together

roof joists up

Plywood and thatch going up

Bamboo rain gutter

Looking good.

I planted some clumping bamboo about a year and a half ago and some shoots are higher than the back of my house. Its awesome. Keep updating your progress.

Magnum
PHX

[ Edited by: magnumstigers 2016-06-14 16:38 ]

I cannot get over those mature orange trees! Never seen them so large. Really majestic. They are going to really enhance the effect of whatever else you add.

Looks like you're off to a great start and should be a relaxing place when done. I like the idea of the bamboo drain pipe but won't the bamboo crack from the heat? We live in an area that can get into the 90s-100s too and heat and sun are just destroyers. Look forward to seeing your oasis in the desert come into being.

We have clumping bamboo too in part of our yard. It's a great look. Do make sure you leave room to get in there to thin out for maintenance. The clumping variety does want to expand the radius every few years unless you thin and maintain the root area.

On 2016-06-20 00:54, Polly_Nesia wrote:
We have clumping bamboo too in part of our yard. It's a great look. Do make sure you leave room to get in there to thin out for maintenance. The clumping variety does want to expand the radius every few years unless you thin and maintain the root area.

Yes, I have a few other mature clumping bamboos including a black bamboo and a Hawaiian variety with yellow culms and green stripes. Love my clumping bamboos but man do they create a lot of leaf litter!

On 2016-06-14 16:37, magnumstigers wrote:
Looking good.

I planted some clumping bamboo about a year and a half ago and some shoots are higher than the back of my house. Its awesome. Keep updating your progress.

Magnum
PHX

[ Edited by: magnumstigers 2016-06-14 16:38 ]

Clumping bamboos love the heat of AZs climate especially if you give them ample water. I also fertilize with manure which seems to accelerate their growth even more.