Some things look better viewed in close-up rather than from a distance. This can definitely be said of my new succulent bed. Although I bought what I thought were scads of succulents on a shopping trip with a friend last week, the space overwhelmed them and they look, well, puny in situ.
This space runs along the street on the southeast side of our property. Those spindly shrubs you may be able to make out in the photo above are
Pittosporum rhombifolium (I think). They were in horrible shape when we moved in 3 years ago. After years of being sheared from the top and sides, they were a thicket of dead wood with chlorotic leaves. I cut one back last year and, when it responded by putting out healthy new growth, I cut them all back hard in January of this year. Two were beyond saving and were removed. The remainder have been slow to fill in. I may eventually pull more - or possibly all - of them out as they don't match the
Xylosma hedge that surrounds the rest of the property but, at present, I'm trying to work with what remains. I cleared the weeds and thinned out the small-flowered ice plant at the base of the shrubs, leaving a lot of bare soil exposed. As this is a relatively dry, sunny area, I thought planting it with succulents would be a good idea, especially given our worsening drought conditions. (My wonderful husband is helping out by installing a new drip irrigation system here so we can eliminate all risk of sprinkler runoff.
I finished planting my newly purchased succulents on Sunday but there's still a lot of bare soil.
![]() |
| 3 Agave 'Blue Glow,' Calandrinia spectabilis (aka Cistanthe grandiflora), Portulacaria afra and miscellaneous small succulent cuttings are planted here with 3 struggling Chondropetalum tectorum (aka Cape Rush) |
![]() |
| Agave Impressa is surrounded by Dudleya (noID) and Senecio cuttings here |
![]() |
| Agave desmettiana provides the centerpiece among Aeonium 'Kiwi,' Aeonium 'Sunburst,' Aeonium nobile, cuttings of the noID Aeonium given to me by a friend, and more Portulacaria afra |
![]() |
| Agave 'Blue Flame' is surrounded by Aloe (noID), Sanseveriera (noID), Graptopetalum paraguayense, my noID Aeonium, and another noID succulent |
While the slow-growing succulents will get larger over time, I think I need more to fill in some of the emptier spots. Before I undertake another shopping expedition, however, I'm going to see what I can do with succulent cuttings from elsewhere in my garden.
