In-depth tour of the front end garden

Last Sabbatum I hosted an opened upwards garden for members of the Sacramento Cactus in addition to Succulent Society. In grooming I did a fairly thorough clean-up of the front end yard. I fifty-fifty hauled out the pull per unit of measurement area washer in addition to blasted away years of grime from the flagstone. The air current undid my raking in addition to leaf-blowing efforts 3 times (grrrr), in addition to inwards the halt I exactly had to convey the fact in that location were to a greater extent than stray leaves than I wanted. Such is the life of a gardener.

This coming Sabbatum I'm hosting the California Horticultural Society for java inwards the garden, in addition to therefore I'm able to kill 2 birds with 1 stone. In addition, the front end garden is finally looking practiced plenty to give y'all an in-depth tour. It's been a patch since I did that.

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View from the street

Let's start with the planting strip exterior the front end yard fence, offset inwards front end of the household (the spot y'all come across inwards the photograph above). Here are some highlights:

LEFT: Aloe marlothii MIDDLE: Agave weberi 'Arizona Star' RIGHT: Eye-lash grass (Bouteloua gracilis 'Blonde Ambition')

Agave weberi 'Arizona Star' in addition to Bouteloua gracilis 'Blonde Ambition'

Catmint (Nepeta 'Walker's Low'), Aloe elgonica, yellowish horned poppy (Glaucium flavum), in addition to silvery cassia (Cassia phyllodinea). The pocket-size blueish flowers on the left are from electric-blue sage (Salvia chamaedryoides).

Three of a dozen potted plants on top of the fence: Epostoa lanata, Fouquieria columnaris, Agave × leopoldii

This is the desert bed nosotros created 3½ years agone equally a replacement for an overgrown Pittosporum tobira hedge. It's difficult to believe how much these plants get got grown. Everything y'all come across hither came domicile inwards our minivan—even the Aloidendron 'Hercules' in addition to the 'Sonoran Emerald' palo verde!

Aloe 'Erik the Red', at 1 time with 2 heads

Agave capitata var. quartziticola (Leucophytum brownii on the right)

Clockwise starting on the lower left: Agave americana 'Mediopicta alba', Yucca rostrata 'Sapphire Skies', Agave ovatifolia, Aloe hereroensis

Take a expression at the mighty Aloidendron 'Hercules'. It wasn't fifty-fifty 4 feet talled when nosotros planted it inwards March 2014. For comparison, this is a 6-foot fence!

Agave parrasana, Aloe broomii, Agave mitis

Aloe hereroensis (left), Aloe petricola (front), Aloe mitis (back)

Can y'all come across why I honey agaves in addition to aloes?

Aloe broomii (left), Aloe hereroensis (right)

Agave parrasana (front), Agave parrasana × colorata (back)

Aloe ferox and Baja fairy duster (Calliandra californica)

The Ag tree inwards the backyard attracted quite a fleck of involvement with the SCSS members who came on Saturday

It's a seed-grown Acacia baileyana 'Purpurea' I received from a friend

Agave gentryi 'Jaws' (left), Yucca linearifolia (middle), Calliandra californica (right)

Textural contrast: Manihot grahamii (top left), Sambucus nigra 'Black Lace' (bottom left), Salvia leucantha (right)

Now we're entering the front end garden proper. It has seen many changes over the years. Most recently, we removed the lawn inwards Feb 2016 in addition to replaced it with 2 succulent mounds.

The foliage on the left is a trio of ponytail palms (Beaucarnea recurvata), the bamboo on the correct is Bambusa chungii 'Barbellata'

Three Ferocactus glaucescens on the debate to the left of the gate

The potted plants on the walkway are recent purchases waiting to live position inwards the ground

The wood-and-metal tower was made past times Alan "It's Not Work, It's Gardening!" Lorence

Glimpse of the larger of the 2 succulent mounds

The flowering aloe inwards the middle is Aloe reitzii. It's been inwards this pot for many years; this is the initiatory of all fourth dimension it's flowered.

Agave 'Red Margin' in addition to Beaucarnea recurvata

Looking towards the bamboo; the gate is on the correct behind the ponytail palm

Agave cupreata

View of the front end door bed

My master copy destination was to get got equally many unlike textures equally possible

Clockwise starting on the bottom left: Agave cupreata, Yucca recurvifolia 'Margaritaville', Beaucarnea stricta, Yucca linearifolia, Agave schidigera, Agave guadalajarana 'Leon'

These are 2 clumping bamboos: Bambusa chungii 'Barbellata' inwards the front end in addition to slightly to the right, Bambusa oldhamii in the back

There are plants everywhere, fifty-fifty adjacent to the front end door...

...and inwards the walkthrough to the front end porch

Looking dorsum towards the front end door

Front door (left), front end porch (right)

Leucadendron argenteum planted inwards the Blue Planet against the post service to the correct of the front end door. Not certain how tall it volition arrive our climate, seeing how it isn't rattling hardy.

Front porch

Agave attenuata 'Boutin Blue', 1 of the few plants I encompass religiously inwards the winter

Agave attenuata 'Boutin Blue' (left), Aloidendron ramossisimum (center), assorted cactus

Pot ghetto around the corner from the front end porch. The foliage on the correct is Canna musifolia.

Agave victoria-reginae 'White Rhino'

One of my favorite views

Potted plants on the border of the front end porch in addition to suculent mounds beyond

The white cactus inwards the middle is a tardily expanding clump of Ag torch (Cleistocactus strausii)

Silver torch (Cleistocactus strausii) and Agave schidigera 'Shira ito no Ohi'

Tylecodon wallichii × paniculatus

Larger of the 2 succulent mounds. The whispy tree is a palo blanco (Mariosousa willardiana), an acacia native to Sonora, Mexico.

There are lot of plants here. I fully await I'll get got to create some targeted thinning inwards the years to come.

Looking at the larger succulent mound from exterior the front end door

Smaller succulent mound

Clockwise from bottom left: Agave pumila, Agave vilmoriniana 'Stained Glass', Yucca queretaroensis, Ferocactus acanthodes

Yucca queretaroensis in addition to Ferocactus acanthodes

Agave bovicornuta and Encephalartos lehmannii

Agave bovicornuta

Agave 'Royal Spine'

Eye-lash grass (Bouteloua gracilis 'Blonde Ambition') in addition to Grevillea 'Superb'

Eye-lash grass (Bouteloua gracilis 'Blonde Ambition')

OId human being of the Andes (Oreocereus celsianus)

New Zealand air current grass (Anemanthele lessoniana) in addition to a large terra cotta bowl with Agave touymeana ssp. bella in addition to 3 varieties of claret loving cup cactus (Echinocereus triglochidiatus)