Agaveville

I had a couple from my security cameras this morning with nice lighting and decided to post. Post a few of yours when you get a chance

We started our garden from a flat concrete pad 18 months ago, removing all the concrete with a digging bar and 11# hammer (remind me to never do that again...) and we used the chunks of concrete to build raised beds. A few tons of fill dirt and decomposed granite later, we planted all the plants we had been collecting on the patio of the previous house. We had our first rain of the season today and I expect everything will really start growing in the spring. We have a front yard and a side yard of a similar design, and two xeric community gardens in the city too.

We're all out of space already! It's likely we will sell or rent this place and find somewhere with a bigger garden space in a couple years. I have no doubt that the new owners will love and cherish a 7' wide Agave "Green Giant" by then

Wow, nicely nicely done..... I would have never guessed that garden was only 18 months old(or less). I’ve run out of space as well, but I’ve planned on constantly modifying and started to fill in some of the gaps.

Very nice! Is that bamboo in the background of one of the photos (IMG_3680) by any chance?

Thanks folks!

Yes DesertDweller - black bamboo (Phyllostachys nigra), Bambusa multiplex "Alphonse Karr" and you can't see the Mexican Weeping bamboo (Otatea acuminata) off to one side. The first two are contained in bamboo barrier 24" deep, but they still make me nervous...

Mine is looking fall with Ash leafs all over it.
Whats the story on the Dragon Tree? Its biggest one posted by anybody living in the bay area. Looks to have been cut back hard or recovering from a freeze of a few years ago?.

Stan, that dragon tree was given to me like that by a good friend who was rescuing it from someone about to dump it when they bought a new house. The whole tree was so heavy that he cut off most of the limbs to try and re-root. I tried some too. No luck. But of course the somewhat funky-looking remaining tree rooted in just fine so we shall see if it ever recovers new branches, or just looks like that... forever!

San Francisco's climate is so underrated..even by me. I wouldn't doubt in the Mission District there are 20' Mango tree's with fruit on them. Tropical plants take to the climate better then people. Its just amazing what "L.A. Plants" can be found growing there.

I think that’s the first time I’ve heard someone say San Francisco’s climate is underrated. Maybe in California, but I don’t think anyone else in the US would turn down a trade of weather

MeanGreen, people in the Bay area always complain about SF weather. In the city, you'll often get fog rolling down from the beach in the afternoon and suddenly people who expected "California" weather (Baywatch-style beach weather) are freezing and running to buy a fleece. (Typical tourist outfit: shorts and sandals on the bottom half, fleece and hat on top, grimace in the middle)

Similarly, locals from the N, E or S Bay regions get significantly warmer weather (often 20+ degrees difference) and they often commute in to SF for work. So you can leave home in summer gear and arrive to find the fog (affectionately known as Karl, and has it's own twitter account) has beat you there and summer is just a distant memory...

To compound all this, summer in SF is usually foggy, whereas fall is usually sunnier. And some areas of SF are much sunnier all the time (Mission, Potrero) than others. Thus adding to the confusion.

Personally, I am from the UK so for me SF weather is GORGEOUS and people need to stop hating.

Yeah, but better than mid to high 90’s with 100% humidity and mosquitoes swarming. The summers with drought it will make it into the 100-110 range with still high humidity. During the winter you get atleast 3-4 nights where it makes it to mid to low 20’s, sometimes lower. Just enough to kill any cool or expensive plants. Which is why I have very little from Africa/Madagascar (learned the hard way)

Oh absolutely - Californians are just fussy The amount we pay for rent/real estate tho, poor weather can make us grumpy...

Today. Aloidendron tongaense's second bloom this year. I still have the seeds from summers bloom saved I got to get them out soon,I know.

Soon,that Magnolia tree will be like an Araucaria-ha. I keep pruning it higher and higher.

Aloe vanbalenii. Would be a much large clump by if not hemmed in by Aloe sp. and Agave americana. But,still makes a good look.

Also..the ONLY Pachypodium you will see fronting a bay area yard. Maybe ho-hum in soucal like many of these plants,once you get to the bay area only plant nuts will have them.Its been there since 2006 as a wee 6" clay pot plant AND I thought it was rootbound and stunted. Its done well.

I was looking forward to seeing pictures from your yard. Very cool.

Thanks Meangreen. I've thought of making some changes to that front yard. Its a little dull in color. The Firesticks is nice..but otherwise lots of blue green shades. This little front yard gets plenty of unwanted shade. So I might have to mix in some non C&S for color. The Aloe "California" ( so generic looking) is taking up a spot for a good show plant. I might remove that one. Agave americana..when it blooms ( planted in April of 1995) its not being replaced. I moght also cut back the tall E. abyssinnica to the right and hope it branches lower. That plant is so tall and thin,I kind of worry it will fall over. The E.ammak had had lower branches removed and a few more I see..people need room to walk by.
But color is my main need. I'm just not sure what I can get into that solid bed of roots!

Well we moved to a rent house while we look for property. I built a bed for the larger plants

Wow, that must have been a big chore! I guess that's what you call a "cramscape". Was it hard to find a place with a landlord that would let you replant the yard?

Thanks it was a ton of work, the vast majority are still in containers, some struggling from it. The landlord said it was fine as long as we clean it up afterwards or replace them with something else. It looks like we may be here for about 2 years before we make another move

Well I see we aren’t the only ones that dig up everything we have planted moving a couple times. It’s a chore for sure especially moving 15 ft tall by 3ft thick p-stem banana plants. Not to mention the huge mats they form. Then tons of potted stuff.

Looks good man, what did you use for the soil in those beds?

I’m trying a mixture of haydite with flower bed soil this time. The haydite is expensive but for the amount of rain we get it seems to dry out quickly. Sand, decomposed granite, etc. retained too much moisture from my experience. A lot of the more sensitive agave would rot.

Huh that’s good to know as would have thought the sand and granite would have worked great.

What a job. I would never leave some things you have behind either. Takes too long to get feet out of cactus. I think- you might have been better potting them. That ways in two years,no breaking of roots to move again. But,your a hot climate so redigging one last time might not be as bad as it would here where it can set plants much farther back. My Aloe marlothii was dug up twice in three years and seems to have gotten back to normal after two years of settling in. More touchy things might not.
Love them big T. terscheckii. Big barrel cactus are even hard to find here.

Initially I was going to keep everything in pots, but certain plants started to noticeably suffer with our wet cold. The pots seem to trap too much moisture. The stuff I planted doesn’t seem to care about moving,some of it laid on the ground for over a month bare root just fine.

A few days ago. Pixlr is a bear to figure out now.

It looks like that palm is about out of space. Beautiful yard.