Succulents and More™

In February 2014 we decided to remove an overgrown Japanese mock orange hedge ( Pittosporum tobira ) along the street side of our property and replace it with a variety of desert natives and suitable companion plants. Even though the hedge was technically along the narrow side of the back yard, I’ll refer to this project as the “front yard desert garden” because it is an extension of the planting strip that wraps around the front yard. This index lists all the posts pertaining to this project. RELATED POSTS: ≡ February 17, 2014: Big changes coming to the front yard ≡ March 4, 2014: The plants are here! ≡ March 6, 2014: The pittosporum hedge is gone ≡ March 10, 2014: The soil has arrived ≡ March 16, 2014: First look at planted desert garden ≡ April 9, 2014: Quick update on our new desert garden bed ≡ May 16, 2014: Rock mulch for desert garden bed ≡ June 24, 2014: Front yard desert bed—June 2014 update ≡ September 30, 2014: Front yard desert bed—September 2014 update ≡ Ap...

Like most gardeners and garden bloggers I typically don’t lavish words of praise on weeds. But today I will. Well, not on weeds per se, but rather on Weeds Find a Way , a children’s book for 4- to 8-year olds written by Cindy Jenson-Elliott and illustrated by Carolyn Fisher. I received a complementary copy from the author’s publicist but I was under no obligation to review the book, or say anything nice. But the book had me right from the cover. The illustrations are superb and pull you in immediately. Kids who can’t read yet will be able to follow along just by looking at the pictures.

A couple of years ago I bought a kumquat variety called ‘ Fukushu ’ ( Citrus japonica ‘Obovata’). It lives in the backyard in a glazed pot under the bay trees where it gets no more than 2-3 hours of direct sun. It gets by with drip irrigation, and even the cold snap we had in early December didn’t faze it. It’s my kind of plant! At this time of year, I love looking out the kitchen window and seeing it dotted with bright orange fruit about 1½” long.

I’m very excited: Succulents and More just received its 1000th like on Facebook! My Facebook page updates automatically when I add a new blog post so you can access my latest blog posts from there. In addition, I post a Photo of the Day five days a week, and I preview new photos before they appear on this blog.

Here is a quick update to yesterday’s post on making hypertufa pots . I didn’t think I’d have something to show so soon but I do. I checked the pots yesterday afternoon, about 7 hours after I’d make them. They had set enough to make drain holes. I used an apple corer like this one . This gadget had proven itself very handy when we made pots at the Sacramento Cactus & Succulent Society . After punching out the holes I re-covered the pots with plastic to prevent them from drying too quickly. This morning, about 24 hours later, I decided to check whether the cardboard boxes that I used as molds would come off. It couldn’t have been easier. The cardboard was moist and soft, and the boxes peeled apart with virtually no effort. Outside dimensions (width x height x depth)

I’ve been wanting to making hypertufa pots for years. As is the case with so many things, however, I never got around to it. Until today. I finally had everything I needed—including spare time—so there was no more excuse. There are many different recipes for hypertufa but typically it is made of Portland cement, perlite and peat moss. I used 2 gallons of Portland cement, 2 gallons of perlite, and 4 gallons of peat moss.

When we visited the Wave Garden in Point Richmond on Presidents Day, we ended up parking a few blocks away because we didn’t know where entrance was (it’s at the end of Grandview Court). I enjoyed the short walk because we saw quite a few interesting sights on the way. Point Richmond is right on San Francisco Bay and hence virtually never experiences frost. Their zone 10 climate is ideal for tender succulents like Agave attenuata and Crassula ovata . Here in Davis, just an hour away (zone 9b), they would struggle to survive outside during the winter even though our winters are anything but harsh. Foxtail agave ( Agave attenuata)

In the spring of 2013 I heard about a mysterious garden overlooking San Francisco Bay that features stunning concrete work and the most amazing array of plants. Called the Wave Garden, it isn’t a public garden, yet it’s open to the public. I never got around to visiting at the time but the Wave Garden had been on my mind since then. This past Monday was President’s Day here in the U.S., one of the few public holidays we have. Nudged by a post on Loree Bohl’s fantastic site Danger Garden , I decided to take this opportunity and finally make the 1-hour drive to Point Richmond. The owners of the Wave Garden, Jeanne and Vern Doellstedt, bought the property adjacent to their home to prevent it from being developed (and presumably from blocking their view of San Pablo Bay, the northern extension of San Francisco Bay). They decided to turn it into a collaborative space combining concrete walls and paths, metal gates and fences, and lush yet drought-tolerant plantings that provide visual in...

There is one side of the front yard I rarely show: It is dominated by a Japanese mock orange hedge ( Pittosporum tobira ). This hedge might look decent elsewhere but here it is crammed into a 6-foot 48-foot planting strip and needs constant maintenance to keep the branches away from the sidewalk (a city requirement). The constant pruning has exposed the trunks—and ugly sight I try to ignore as much as possible. On a positive note, the hedge does well with no supplemental water (its roots must tap into the irrigated planting beds inside the fence) and it does make our backyard very private.

Instead of cut flowers, this is what I gave my wife for Valentine’s Day: Daphne odora ‘Maejima’ A wonderfully fragrant daphne with particularly striking variegation. This relatively recent introduction is called ‘Maejima’. The cream-colored leaf margins are wider than in the more common Daphne odora ‘Aureomarginata’, and it supposedly is a bit easier to grow as well.