Monday, May 12, 2008

In the Garden

We drove up the Coast Highway on Saturday to Santa Barbara to visit MS. She had called and asked us to lunch and offered some plants from her garden.


MS's front yard has no grass (The Professor is cheering.) Most of the front garden is filled with succulents and they are overgrowing their space and threatening to escape on to the driveway. We cut back several of the larger plants and brought the 'starts' home with us. They filled our trunk and back seat.








Now I am rethinking the whole idea of putting succulents in my garden at Willow's Cottage. These plants are BIG. They can grow to gigantic sizes and I just don't have the room to accomodate them. I don't even know their names.

They don't share space well with roses or lavender. They require much less water than the camellias, so I should not plant them along the east side of the house.
What to do?

10 comments:

Unknown said...

Hello there, I saw your comments somewhere and was wondering if it was the same Willow I know, well it is :)

Just came back from Cambodia..what a trip it was!

big hug to you :)

Tracy said...

I like succulents...I did't used to, but they've warmed up to me in recent years. With summers being unpredictable in the water/rain situation, they make a great addition to the garden, and many of them have very pretty flowers when they come into bloom. But having them all on their own is a great idea--planting many types all together. Adding some small pebbles around them creates a mini desert-like garden effect. Pretty examples you have photoed here, Willow! Happy Day ((HUGS))

ellen b. said...

Well! If anyone can give you gardening tips that would be me...snort, snort. But it will cost you for my expertise :)

Flower said...

Succulents are a perfect addition to any garden. They don't require alot of water and mix in well with other kinds of plants. If you are concerned about the water, don't. Just water around them and they will do fine. They take heat and neglect quite well. I like mixing them altogether to create a mass of textures and bright beautiful green! They would do well on the bank.

Jane said...

Hi Willow, The top one could be an Aloe, but the second one i cannot place although it seems very familiar. and the bottom plant i don't know at all, sorry. I guess if you can give them their own corner they will look good together but i can see what you mean about not mixing with lavenders, roses and camelias Jane x

Heather said...

I love the perspective of your plant photos. You take us into the best part of the plant.

Sara at Come Away With Me said...

I think that first one is aloe and the third one is agave, but I could be wrong.

How about in pots? Big pots!

Sara

Bethany said...

We are having a similar day as my neighbor just gave me Aloe offshoots of her plant and I have them sitting in a cup, waiting to go into soil somewhere! And an urban garden shop we popped into today was full of succulents! I think it's a trend right now... I guess you could plant them...or sell them!

Knitting Linguist said...

Ooh, that's a tough one! I tend to be less of a succulents, and more of a Mediterranean herb-plant sort of person. Some of those plants are just gorgeous, though :)

Caroline said...

I agree with Knitting Linguist about the succulents, although they can be beautiful.

I thought of you this week because one of the counselors at our high school had taken a group of kids to tour Cal Lutheran. They went to visit the Gardens of the World and were amazed. I told her that a friend had told me about them:)