Front Succulent Beds

It's been a while, but that's another story for another day.  I have been going stir crazy not writing about my recent, or not so recent succulent happenings though. 

 

Since we brought Thing One and Thing Two, aka Charlie and Molly, home one and a half years ago, things have been a little stunted in the gardening area.

 

 

 

 

 

First, they decided that anything in the ground make for a great jungle like adventure and they took great joy in flatening anything taller than them in the back yard.  The potted things up on shelves survived until they realized that it was great fun knocking them over, tearing the contents apart and listening to Momma lecture.   By the way, the Kalachoe 'Chandelier Plant' has never truely recovered from this attack. 

Then came the greenhouse that had to be put behind a quickly put up fence after said puppies learned they could bust through and destroy relocate my plants and then make their escape. 

 

Keeping things behind the fence worked great all last summer. 

 

 

 

Then came the new greenhouse and a rather blustery Christmas Day and all that went to pot.  After having to spend the rest of the winter in the garage; thus kicking me and my car out of it, I decided enough was enough and put them all in the ground.  My friend Amy has her succulents in her back yard for the most part and they always do awesome during the summer.  I figured that since my front yard gets the same sun as her back yard that I'd just throw caution to the triple digit summers and give it a whirl.

 

And so the experiment begins.  Mixed in are some hibiscus that were either rescued from the crazy ants at the coast or added to my jungle from lack of self control.  While I was at it with the succulents, I decided to give these a chance to show off in the ground as well.

 

These next few photos were taken back in May when I was taking serious heat from my husband for junking up his gargae and the front yard.  

 

The bed above has one hibiscus on the left corner.  There is a Euphorbia 'Jacob's Ladder' and then is flanked by my newest hibiscus (at time of photo) that I absolutely adore.  I put the Kalanchoe 'Pinata' in a pot to add variety and keep it from taking over.  A Euphorbia 'Firestick' takes the middle spot of the bed and is loving it.  The Kalancho 'Fang' is one of my favs, next to that.  There are a mix of others including the Kalachoe 'Flapjack' and 'Fantastic' finishing off this side. 



Another angle of the left side.  I lost the Euphorbia a the far right side, so that is empty at the present moment.  I rescued a few pieces, and am hoping that they'll grow and I can put it back here when they get to a decent size.  My pig and red pots are loving their spots on the porch again.



The front porch has always been home to a number of my succulents, with a few additions this year.  The Epiphyllum strictim 'Queen of the Night' is loving her new home up here and has given me lots of pretty blooms this season. The varigated cactus is new this year to the front porch and is growing like a weed!

The bed to the right of the door is home to a number of my favorites.  Let's start with the Euphorbia 'Lady Slipper' that is in the pot at the left side of the bed.  I had her in the ground at one point, and had to rescue her from the puppies.  Since then, she's been in this pot and if her growth is any indication; loving her pot!  The back row is home to more Euphorbia's...'Pencil Stick', two that I don't know their fun names and the 'Red Bird Cactus'.  The hibiscus on the end is about at the end of my trial period and soon to be relocated.  There is a beautiful varigated 'Crown of Thorns' being hidden, so some rearranging is in order.  The Kalanchoe beharanis - both fuzzy and non-fuzzy cap off the ends of the second row.  Kalanchoe 'Silver Spoons and 'Bronze Spoons' are enjoying their new home as well. 

These weren't the best pictures due to the river rock that took the place of mulch thanks to the neighborhood cats, but they are growing and I will post new pictures later.  The back row is shocking as to how fast it filled in. 

The next group is just an update on the front tree succulents that I planted last year.  They survived the winter and have also done great over the summer this year.  I lost a few things, but for the most part, what you see is part of the original planting from this original post and this updated post.  I did add some things when I did the beds above as well to try and get everything I could in ground. 

 

I should have put a warnig that this one was going to be long, but hey...if you got to this point of the post, you are probably as crazy for succulents as I am!!  If that's not the case, thanks for hanging in there!

Happy Planting!
Mandy