A little progress and a few lost causes

Given that the feeling of spring has been in the air for some time now, I've done remarkably little plant shopping and not a lot of planting either.  My focus has been on maintenance and weeding, more weeding and still more weeding.  However, earlier this week I finally hunkered down and transplanted a few agave pups that have been waiting for their forever home for months.

This is a wide shot of my northeast side garden area taken in early January.  The pots have been sitting there for months.

I ended up planting just the 2 'Blue Glow' Agave pups I harvested from their bloomed-out parent last September, and one still tiny Agave colorata pup I'd potted up in 2024.  I plan to add filler plants, Pelargoniums perhaps, to soften the look there.

Closeup of the 3 agaves.  The shape of the 'Blue Glow' in the middle concerns me a little but I'm hoping it loosens up now that it's in the ground.

I relocated the Agave geminiflora in a pot but it may not stay there

I'd planned to plant the large Agave 'Mateo' in the ground but it was badly root-bound and infested with ants so I gave up on that once I broke it out of its pot.  I saved 2 good-sized pups for placement elsewhere.

I've continued to my pruning efforts, although I'm by no means done there.  It's been my number two maintenance project after weeding.

Pruning the 'Wilson Wonder's Leucadendrons is a biannual task.  The photo on the left was taken in early January.  Its colorful bracts had faded and the stems were above the roofline before I trimmed it back, as shown on the right.  Bringing down its height and girth also required cutting back the Pittosporum tobira hedge next to it to allow me to reach the back of the Leucadendron.

I pruned the Senna bicapsularis back by a third and I was surprised how quickly and how well it's bounced back

Working on the ivy that takes off whenever I so much as blink feels pointless at times but things would be worse if I sloughed off that task entirely.  The back slope provides the biggest challenge as I'm not in control of the mass of ivy that spreads across the property line on our southeast side - there's no fence or other barrier there and the property line itself isn't clear.  In addition, the ground drops off sharply in some places, which isn't readily apparent because they're buried under ivy.

I didn't take a "before" photo of this area.  This photo was taken an hour or more after I cut back the ivy and grass weeds that covered the area in the foreground.  There's still a lot of work to be done to push the ivy back another foot or more closer to the property line, which I need to tackle before warmer temperatures bring out the fire ants.

The mass of ivy to the left of the area shown in the earlier photo (shown on the left in this collage) included woody branches I initially thought were leftovers of the dead Ceanothus I had removed in November.  As it turns out, those are trunks of ivy plants that have grown several feet tall.  I cut those back as shown in the photo on the right but, once again, more work is required. 

I recently spent hours working on another project that could very well be a lost cause too: the removal of a massive clump of Boston fern (Nephrolepsis exaltata) that's crept under the fence between us and our neighbor on our north side.  I made two runs at it before I was even partially satisfied.

The "before" photo is on the left and the "after" photo is on the right.  The bulbous roots of the Boston ferns are everywhere but I dug up as much of them out as I could.  Routine scrutiny will be required. 

The list of what may be other lost causes is growing too.

The lime tree is still producing fruit but it nonetheless looks sad - and I haven't even tried to remove the Boston ferns at its base.  I'm learning in the direction of removing the tree next fall, in which case the ferns will come out with the tree.

It made no good sense planting this Grevillea lavandulacea 'Penola' between a fence and the narrow path that leads down our back slope in the first place back in 2011.  Although it's flowered well, it's become woody and rangy with lots of dead branches.  Grevilleas don't like being pruned to bare wood but I may give that a try to see if there's any hope of rejuvenating it.

This Leptospermum scoparium 'Pink Pearl'  looked awkward here even when it was backed by a fence.  Its trunk now leans like the Tower of Pisa (as a result of that fence), although it's blooming better than it did before.  I'll try reducing it by a foot in height but I suspect there are plants that would fit better into this spot.

This dwarf Japanese maple (Acer palmatum 'Mikawa Yatsubusa') isn't looking so good now that it's no longer protected from the sun and wind by the former fence.  I'll wait awhile to see how it looks a month or two from now.

I'm not the only one working on my garden either.  I watched two major projects in the works over the past week.

Our neighbors across the street had their back slope cleared of rosemary shrubs and replanted with other shrubs.  I think there's Coleonema 'Sunset Gold', Salvia leucantha and another shrub I can't identify in the mix but I haven't had the opportunity to ask them what they included.  The work took most of 2 weeks, interrupted at times by rain.

Work restarted across the canyon after a lengthy pause (since my September post) but it's still focused on that neighbor's sprawling patio.  The contractors resurfaced the stairs to match the adjacent walls and pillars.  It looks as though they may be installing a water feature too, as well as adding more metal pieces to the guardrails along the elevated walkway.  There's no evidence of new plant installations, though.  

That's in for me this week.  I plan to make another pass at the ivy on the back slope this weekend and hopefully prune my other 'Wilson's Wonder' Leucadendron, with more weeding thrown in of course.  Enjoy your weekend!

All material © 2012-2026 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party