Arid Bed this morning.

All these plants stay out all winter. Survive or die!













Echeverias have suffered damage from the wet but are surviving.

 

Very nice.
Looks good.

Do you provide some sort of rain shelter?

 

Yep, I've glazed part of the Pergola. The back part is bone dry; the front gets some rain from the west swept in under the glass roof.

 

They are beautiful

 

What are the big Agaves (?) Kindredspirit?

 

They're ordinary blue Agave Americanas, LongK.

 

Thanks. I was asking as I'm bringing a few A.americana on to try a similar thing. Nice to know that I may have a chance.

 

I'm trying some too - from seed. No idea how long I have to wait until I have a monster?

Let me know if you want to start from seedlings - plenty of spares, although I wasn't planning to prick-out until perhaps Year 2 (next Spring)

 

Hi JWK,

I must confess there's no grit. I got a load of topsoil from beside a motorway and piled it up under the pergola. My brother then glazed part of the pergola where the Arid Bed is. They get virtually no water but they seem to like that as there are pups growing up all over the place. I'm in an area of very high rainfall so they'd stand no chance out in the rest of the garden. I had Agave Montana and A. Salmiana planted out originally but they expired in the two bad winters of Jan & Dec 2010, possibly more due to incessant rain rather than cold. :(

If I was you, I would plant them in a load of ballast, if you have no rain cover. Don't know how they suit chalk: I would imagine the soil where they come from, would tend towards the acidic side (but not certain on that.) so river gravel might suit.

Americanas were the only variety that I could buy locally at the time when I made the Arid Bed. :(

Piccie of pergola from the side. (taken 2013.)



There's more pics of the glazed part of the pergola (if you want to look) on "Goodbye lawn. Hello pond" in the Water Gardening section.

 

All looking good, Kindred, Is the pink ground cover Delosperma or Mesymbryanthemum?

 

Delosperma Cooperi, Strongylodon.

I see on one of the pics, Sea Thrift has crept in at the front.