My latest succulent bed rehab

Last week I started work cleaning up my street-side succulent bed.  Like many such projects, it started small and grew larger - and even now I suspect I'm not ready to leave it alone.  Let's just call this a progress report.

The only "before" photo I have to offer is one I took in early January when preparing my quarterly wide shots post.

From a distance it's hard to see its flaws

My original intention was to pull out a few dead plants and cut back the ice plant running amok on the south end of the bed (shown in the far right foreground in the photo above) to make room for a few succulent cuttings.  I got carried away, although I'm not sure that's immediately evident in my updated panoramic shot.

I cut back a lot of the ice plant and planted the cuttings I mentioned but it doesn't look all that different from this distance

Nor from this angle

One significant issue remains to be tackled but I'm still unsure how to proceed.

The Chondropetalum tectorum (which is probably actually C. elephantitum) has toppled over the three 'Blue Glow' Agaves in front of it.  Most online sources don't recommend pruning restios but, as the photo on the right shows, it's sticking into the street like a bad comb-over.

Leaving the Chondropetalum aside for further deliberation, I moved on section-by-section.

I only modified this next segment of the bed in minor ways, cutting dried leaves from the base of Agave impressa, moving a small Aloe buried behind the Euphorbia 'Sticks on Fire', and transplanting 2 stems of Aeonium 'Sunburst' after removing a dead clump of Aeonium arboreum

Clockwise from the top left are: Agave impressa, the noID Aloe, Dudleya cymosa, and Puya berteroniana.  I planted the Puya in 2014, only to forget about it when it was covered by the broad leaves of an Agave desmettiana for years.  Since that Agave bloomed out, the Puya finally has a chance to grow up and out.  I'd thought the two Dudleyas were long gone too.  I still need to move them out of the way of Agave impressa.

This photo shows the remaining Agave desmettiana, a pup of one of the 2 Agaves that bloomed out in 2019, and the transplanted Aeonium 'Sunburst'

This next area got a major cleanup.  In addition to removing more dead Aeonium arboreum, I transplanted 2 Aeonium nobile previously buried between other plants.  The blue Agave colorata between Agave attenuata (left) and Agave 'Blue Flame' (right) was transplanted earlier this year.  The most important change was adding the Yucca rostrata 'Sapphire Skies' I've had in a pot for 2 years, now situated behind Agave colorata.  I was told that it needed more root space if it was ever going to grow up and the encircled roots at the bottom of the pot showed evidence of the truth of that.

I pulled more Aeonium arboreum out in this area, sticking a stem of Euphorbia 'Sticks on Fire' in its place.  I also cut back the tall Senecio amaniensis (behind Agave 'Blue Flame') by more than half.  The latter had become extremely gangly.

This is what a better-behaved Senecio amaniensis in another part of my garden looks like.  Apparently, if it gets more water, it tends to develop an erect posture like this rather than decumbent posture it's demonstrated in my street-side bed.

The area beyond the Agave 'Blue Flame' was formerly covered by a thick, tangled mat of ice plant (possibly Drosanthemum floribundum).  I planted pups of Agave 'Blue Flame' and Agave mediopicta 'Alba' here, along with cuttings of 2 varieties of Aeonium.

Another view of the same area

I trimmed back the ice plant climbing underneath the Auranticarpa rhombifolium shrubs that loom over the succulent bed and pulled out a bucket load of grass weeds within it along the property line.  The ice plant could use more trimming, especially as the recent rain is going to prompt another growth spurt.

The street-side bed sits more than 2 feet below the level occupied by my lath (shade) house.  Cleaning up the lower level inevitably led to some tidying up of the area above as well.

I cut back the branches of the Auranticarpa rubbing against the side of the lath house and cleared the area on the ledge next to it of pots and a plant stand that had occupied the area since our home remodel

This is a view of the street-side bed from the lath house.  My hope is that the Yucca rostrata will eventually screen part of the area between our Xylosma hedge (to the right) and the large Auranticarpa shrubs (to the left).

Pots sitting on sections cut from a tree removed years ago partially screen the area now

I expect I'll be back tweaking this bed before the week is out but here's another view of what it looks like now.

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