Tour of my 2025 Garden, Part One

It's tour time! A look back at the 2025 version of my garden with photos taken on September 3rd. We start in the front garden, I'm standing on the public sidewalk, at the end of our driveway, looking to the northwest—our home faces east.

Two things come to mind looking at this photo 1) I took these pics before I gave up and dug out the dying Agave ovatifolia at the far left, 2) I need to stop thinking of the crows and go ahead and cut off that random branch of the Arctostaphylos x 'Austin Griffiths' that juts off to the left. The crows and scrub jays use it as a perch, they're so cute sitting there watching the world go by, but that branch is annoying!

I used to love to share the straight on view of the house but now that it's screened it off, well, not so much—nobody except the neighbors across the street see this angle anyway. The image at the top of this post is the real "arrival" shot.

The base of Arctostaphylos x 'Austin Griffiths' with an Agave parryi 'JC Raulston' and it's pups. I should note that the groundcover is Juniperus conferta 'Blue Pacific'. It has gotten very thick in places.

Arctostaphylos 'Monica' and more 'JC Raulston' as well as an Agave ovatifolia. The smokey haze of a shrub on the right is Corokia cotoneaster.

Fruit on the Corokia, it was covered in small yellow stars (blooms) earlier in the summer.

Another Agave parryi 'JC Raulston' as well as another Agave ovatifolia. These poor plants are stunted from lack of summer water and a little more shade than they would like.

Legs of my third Arctostaphylos, A. densiflora ‘Harmony’.

Now I've walked up the north side of our front garden (via the neighbor's driveway), and I'm looking at the front of the house.

Agave ovatifolia 'Frosty Blue', Yucca rostrata 'Sapphire Skies', and in between the agaves a volunteer Euphorbia rigida.

Citrus trifoliata (aka Poncirus trifoliata) across from the agaves. It's a spiky corridor...

Stepping further into the planting, and the view up the street. Yes the neighbor's lawns have gone dormant in our summer-dry climate. They're all green again now as I type, in January.

On the left side of the front steps.

A tall volunteer Tetrapanax papyrifer on the right (and a shorter one on the left), a Yucca rostrata in the container, two Agave parryi in the front, Agave 'Baccarat' behind them, and a small NoID agave on the front right.

Microcachrys tetragona, the creeping strawberry pine—a Tasmanian conifer in the podocarp family.

A pulled back shot.

On the right side of the steps, cozied up next to one of the Agave ovatifolia, are two dry-land ferns; Bommeria hispida and Pleopeltis lepidopteris 'Morro dos Conventos'. There's another of the Pleopeltis in a container behind the Agave parryi.

This is the view if you were standing on the front porch, with your back to the house. The V shape is an Edgeworthia chrysantha in a container, a gift from a friend who rooted a cutting from her plant.

The two Dasylirion wheeleri help to screen the small containers from view of people on the public sidewalk. I've always been nervous to put potted plants out where they're easily stolen (we get a lot of foot-traffic passing by) but slowly I've given in to my larger desire to see these plants from inside the house.

The fern is Pellaea atropurpurea (purple cliffbrake)

From a different angle...

Semponium ‘Sienna’—Semponium are a cross between Sempervivum and Aeonium—the hardiness of these plants hasn't been thoroughly tested, but I've left mine in the ground to do just that (these plus two other types of semponium), to see how they do. Not that this winter has really been a test, so far the coldest temperature we've seen here is 26F, and only very briefly.

Looking backwards as I walk down the sidewalk towards the driveway.

The graveled V between the sidewalk and the driveway is the newly changed up area (last spring) that I wrote about in this post. I am still fighting Yucca filamentosa sprouts, and expect that I will be for years to come, but I am happy I made the change.

That's a Edgeworthia chrysantha behind the Yucca rostrata.

The newly planted space is a mix of ferns and agaves. It's very sparingly planted by my standards, but I wanted to make it easy to pull (or spray, at this point I'm okay with a little chemical warfare) the yucca sprouts. I'm already scheming on planting more things this spring.

Moving a few feet towards the house, this is the land of Aloe aristata, and friends.

A look back out over the front garden...

And now we've walked up to the area at the end of the driveway; in front of the garage door, just outside the backdoor to the house, and at the entrance to the back garden. This is also my hottest, sunniest spot in the garden and where my crop tanks are located.

Sour gherkins, Melothria scabra. So good...

Physalis pruinosa 'Aunt Molly's', aka ground cherries. Delicious!

In addition to the edible crops and the stems grown for cutting, there are (obviously) many sun and heat-loving containers grouped in this area. 

Come back on Friday when we go through the agave-gate into the back garden...

The Bit at the End

Thanks to my friend Heather for sharing this horrid tale of Los Angeles area agaves being chopped and slashed. It's an agave lover's worst nightmare.

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