One thing leads to another, or: Why stop now?

Last month I gave you an update on the new succulent beds in the backyard. Even though I continued to make small edits, I thought I was done with larger projects for a while. But of course that’s not what happened. I was so happy with the new beds that I decided to work on other areas in the backyard. I mean, why stop now when there’s still so much left to improve?

I started with the bed in the southeast corner of the backyard. This bed is what we see when we look out the kitchen window. I had already done some work on this bed in December and January, clearing out overgrown areas and putting new plants in the ground. Because this bed is in the shade most of the day and I had already decided to water more than I had in the past, I opted for a lusher palette. It includes foxtail fern (Asparagus densiflorus ‘Myersii’), Japanese holly fern (Cyrtomium falcatum), California gray rush (Juncus patens), variegated Japanese sedge (Carex oshimensis ‘Evergold’), and Tasmanian tree fern (Dicksonia antartica):

January 2025

January 2025

January 2025

I liked what I had done in this bed earlier in the year and decided to expand the front of the bed to make room for more plants. The first step was to add soil. I started out with ¼ cubic yard of garden blend mixed with ⅜" rocks I had sitting around (thanks, Michele). That wasn’t enough so I got several loads of free compost from our county landfill.

Free compost at our county landfill

The next step, predictably, was to make a trip to the rock yard, in my case Dixon Landscape Materials (they’re only 15 minutes away).

Rustic red boulders at Dixon Landscape Materials

It took two trips (800+ pounds in total) because I didn’t want to overburden our poor old van more than I have to.

Two 400-pound loads of rustic red boulders. It may not look like much, but 400 pounds is 400 pounds.

Below is what this bed looks like now. I used most of the soil and compost and half of the rocks. Instead of discrete mounds, I was aiming for more of a gentle slope down to ground level.

Expect for some low-growing ground covers (Dichondra argentea ‘Silver Falls’ and Dichondra repens ‘Emerald Falls’), none of the plants I used were new purchases. The bromeliads (on the left) were moved from elsewhere in the backyard, and the succulents had been kicking around in my “nursery” area by the greenhouse. I’ll post a plant list once I’ve decided on what will stay and what will go.

One small vignette: replica of Sylvia Shaw Judson’s Bird Girl statue (made famous by John Berendt’s book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil) next to a variegated dwarf Ginkgo biloba

The rest of the soil and compost, and the other half of the rocks, were for a small area in the northeastern corner of the backyard, behind the two new succulent beds:

This is what it looked like before (sorry, I couldn’t find a better picture):

I had already built a small mound with material left over from the other two beds, but it was surrounded on two sides by ugly old 2×4 beams. I dug out one beam...

...and laid out a rock border, first straight...

...then curved to the left...

...and to the right (immediate ugh).

With the one 2×4 gone, the hideousness of the remaining 2×4 (along the bottom in the photo above) was even more apparent. The solution was obvious: remove the second beam and create a rock border, utilizing as much available space as possible. Here’s the result, with the newly added space filled in:

As you can see in the next three photos, I did gain an appreciable amount of real estate for planting:

Some plants were already there, including Aloe ortholopha, Mangave ‘Golden Friendship’ (supposedly a cross of Mangave ‘Jaguar’ and Agave victoriae-reginae), Scadoxus multiflorus (South African bulb with red flowers and bright green leaves), and a Gasteria acinacifolia towards the back. I added an Agave attenuata ‘Ray of Light’ (a pup from the mother planted under the chaste tree on the other side of the backyard) and a partridge-breast aloe (Gonialoe variegata) that hadn’t liked the two spots it had been in previously:

Agave ‘Ray of Light’

Scadoxus multiflorus, Gonialoe variegata, and Agave attenuata ‘Ray of Light’

Building a rock border, even a simple one, is like putting together a jigsaw puzzle. I’m quite happy with how this one turned out:

A few photos of how this bed fits into the larger picture:

The existing plants include (from left to right) Beaucarnea recurvata, Agave ovatifolia ‘Vanzie’, Agave dasyliroides, Aloe helenae, Aloe dawei, and Agave geminiflora (hidden by Aloe helenae in the photo below):

The most recent additions:

Isotoma axillaris ‘Fizz ‘n Pop™ Glowing Violet’ (contender for the silliest plant name of the year) and Delosperma ‘Jewel of Desert Topaz’

You might have noticed a seemingly empty ring of rocks in the center of the mound. That’s where I planted an Encephalartos sclavoi that hadn’t done well elsewhere. It promptly dropped its leaves, and I wasn’t sure if it had survived at all. But look, new growth pushing out of the ground! With any luck, it’ll soon look like this.

Encephalartos sclavoi flushing from the caudex (mostly buried)

There’s still plenty of room left for more plants, but I want to go slow. Look for an update later in the summer or early fall. For now, I consider this bed — like the areas adjacent to it — a work in progress. Rome wasn’t built in a day either. It took approximately 800 years. My goal is to be done with the backyard faster than that.

Quick update on the bottle tree. I had to take it down when I created the new succulent beds, but it’s back in a much better spot under the bay trees:

Kyle had given me a square steel tube to hammer into the ground for the upright piece of rebar (the “trunk” of the tree) to slide into. My initial attempt to dig a hole failed because of the bay trees’ impossibly dense root system that goes all the way to ground level. Luckily, there’s a tool for every job, in this case an auger drill bit, 1.6" wide and 16.5" long:

Auger drill bit

The auger bit did exactly what I was hoping it would do. It’s a good tool to have on hand for similar jobs.

There’s more work to be done in the backyard, much more, but that will have to wait until late summer. The entire house will get new siding soon, and that will require moving everything away from the house — including plants, rocks, and soil, both in the front and back. I’m not looking forward to the upheaval that will ensue, but having beautiful new siding will be worth it.

What’s better to close a post about the backyard than with a photo of Stella:

Stella on her daybed in the backyard

© Gerhard Bock, 2025. All rights reserved. To receive all new posts by email, please subscribe here.