Succulents and More™

My main focus this past month has been on renovating parts of the backyard. The first step was removing a large Agave chiapensis , as detailed in this post . Then I dismantled the remaining two raised beds in the side yard on the north side. They were originally built for vegetables, but they’d fallen into disuse in recent years because growing vegetables in our climate requires a lot of water and effort – and the payoff often is disappointing. The soil in these raised beds was shockingly sandy. No wonder vegetables didn’t do too well. After I’d taken out the horizontal bed, I evenly distributed the soil from both beds to form a base layer. I had to reuse the soil somehow. The bougainvillea at the left in the next photo, a variegated dwarf cultivar called ‘Bambino Sophia’, is the only plant that has remained. It’s thrived on neglect for a number of years and has earned the right to stay. Then it was time for the delivery truck: Half a cubic yard of crushed rock... ...four cubic yards o...

Loree over at Danger Garden posted a partial list of her plants this morning. She mentions the benefits of having such a list on her blog, but also registers some concern: “[c]an you still respect me now that you know the true depths of my plant lust?” Loree, not only do I still respect and admire you, I also feel inspired by your list and will start one of my own. I used to keep track of my plant purchases in a spreadsheet, and while I haven’t entered everything, a lot of the basic information is in there. Agave potatorum ‘Kichiokan’ (or ‘Kissho Kan’) Many of you probably think this is a touch obsessive-compulsive. I wouldn’t disagree with you there, but I do think it’s useful to know what you bought when and where. It’s much easier that way to keep track of which plants have thrived, which have croaked, and which are just hanging in there. Agave chrysoglossa Starting out, here is a list of all the agaves in my collection. This may seem like a lot, but please remem...