ALL CHANGE

One thing that never changes in the world of gardening is the need to make changes, and although there is rarely a need to get them done with haste we really felt this one needed to be addressed at once. It is right outside our front entry.

 

The soft leaf yucca, Yucca recurvifolia, which had survived the winter and flowered so beautifully a few weeks ago, suddenly went into a decline. I know when something looks like this that there is no hope for it to recover and my biggest fear was that it had been visited by the weevil. Yes, they are not above destroying yuccas as well as agave. It needed to come out post-haste. David duly sawed it off at the base and used the pick axe to get out the thick root as I stood by. I was ready to gather up any weevil grubs or adults. But there was no tell-tale sign of weevils-usually a hole bored right up through the center of the stem. It's out and it will remain a mystery as to what caused its demise.

 

I pondered on what to put in its place. Another one? No. I had planted one there 20 years ago which died after 10 years and then about 5 years ago another popped up in its place. It is never a surprise to find agave and yucca leave behind some root with a young bud. This is what we found when the extended root was removed...in fact two young ones which I shall plant in another area of the garden. 

We had just had work done on the front entry wall and on the right hands side of the gate I had to remove a few native golden groundsel while they worked. I had asked David if he would just fill in with some flat rocks we had stacked on one side.

 Maybe do the same on the other side instead of planting. This would balance out the area. 

 We did have to keep the area of bull rock because there is a drain from one side of the path to the other. All in all a cost efficient solution.

 

I refreshed the pots on either side of the gate with dianella, Dianella tasmanica 'Variegata' and coleus. This is deer country and my research showed that these plants should survive. We shall see. I have never planted dianella before but I know it is used to great effect by many of my Austin gardening friends.

 Quite honestly the work we have been having done has been a nightmare for a gardener. At least here there was little for them to destroy but nearby is where they had a lot of equipment, mixed their product and then washed out their equipment. Not only did they trample all the native plants that had been growing successfully in the area but they threw their cementitious water over all the plants. My beautiful agarita, beloved of the bees and which gave us such fragrance every spring is completely covered with a fine layer of cement. It won't even wash off. Heartbreaking. I regret now that I didn't go out at the end of every day with the hose. To make the area look presentable David brought it lots of leaves gathered from under the trees in a more remote part of the garden. 

There is much more work to do in other places they have been working but they should be finished by the end of this week and we will have the garden to ourselves again.