Newly designed mini desertscape

[Jubaea_James760]

Yet another addiction i acquired from the palmtalk. org people 🙄 

First palms, then cycads & now succulents! What are you people doing to me 😂. Actually,  I was into palms before I found this website but still, I only knew about 15-20 palms before palmtalk...

Thanks to everyone posting native desert species, walks & adventure tours & they're own collections I'm now completely fascinated by all desert plants! You all know who you are 🧐

Anyways, I designed a little mini desertscape. Not quite finished yet, I still need to get some Arizona pebble/pea gravel in orangeish tan color to match my boulders. Most plants are in already & I included names in the pictures. Some are experimental stuff so will see what happens.  I amended the soil a little with pumice, perlite & small rocks. The soil was already pretty good as far as drainage but more wouldn't hurt i guess. 

 

I started off with the rock scape, arranging the boulders in a way to have raised beds within them. I had 2 main plants in mind with a third undecided when positioning the rocks. First main plant was a Aloe erinacea. I needed the boulders to create a slight wind block from the south & west winds & where the Aloe erinacea was facing southwest. It'll get the early morning sun exposure during winter. My house blocks the north winds so good there. My front yard is south facing where the desertscape is. Second plant in mind was Agave Utahensis var utahensis.  Just needed a raised area south facing of the boulders,  nothing fancy.  

Once I got the boulder design I just put the plants around to see how they looked & tried properly spacing them. All plants in this design are considered dwarf to small plants. 

 

 

[Jubaea_James760]

Here's the Agave utahensis var. utahensis & the Aloe erinacea below it in the forefront. 

I'm changing out the Agave utahensis var. utahensis to a Agave utahensis var. nevadensis once I receive it in the mail. 

Aloe erinacea took some damage from either to much sun or dried out in the pot to much. I was suppressing water due to these being notoriously prone to rot. Atleast from what I gathered on the web.

 

Aloe humilis, I ended up pulling it & replacing it with Aloe longistyla. This was the 3rd plant (although unknown at the time) when designing the boulders. 

[Jubaea_James760]

Last pictures are after I planted majority of the plants. Names included. Sorry about the poor pictures. It was getting late & I snapped a few pictures really quick to document names of the species in case I lose the tags or forget what I planted before I got on the road this week.

I did  4 position pictures. South facing, east,north & west. I still need to add 2 or 3 more things & remove the Aloe "melanacantha", which is clearly something else.

One of these plants has a ? Next to it. I'm pretty sure it's a Echeveria of some sort but then again I'm very new to succulents. What do you think it is??

 

[Jubaea_James760]

Some potted stuff. Have quite a bit so here's just a few.

 

Aloe ramosissima left, Aloe krapohliana var. dumoulin right.

Aloe longistyla left, Pilosocereus baumii middle, Pilosocereus azureus right

Pilosocereus azureus 

Agave potatorum 'kichiokan'

[Tracy]

Looking forward to periodic photo updates on the progress.  Nice arrangements. 

[Silas_Sancona]

Looks good..  As far as the rock " dressing "  you purchasing from a rock yard, or going to collect it yourself?

Will say, think you've caught the bug now?  ...Just wait until you really get hooked by Cacti, lol..

Can already see you putting together similar raised beds, but maybe dedicated to stuff like various spring flowering Echinocerus / summer flowering Mammillaria / Coryphantha / Escobaria ...and/or another bed ( or 2 ) for extra special Echinopsis / trichoceri  cultivars, or Barrels ( Ferocactus ).  Need -or want- to try a few things, let me know.. Have extras of some / will be cutting up some other stuff in the not too distant future. 

In the already designed bed, only thing i'd watch is the A. maculata. They will spread -pretty steadily- over a wide area.. hard to gauge the overall bed size from the pictures, but yea, lol.. thinking it will no problems filling it. A. brevifolia and " Blue Elf " will spread out a bit too, but not like maculata.  It's a great Aloe, just likes lots of real estate.

A. maculata at a nearby park..

[Merlyn]

I was thinking the same thing about Maculata.  It's in a good spot, just you might need to yank out some pups every once in a while.  Mine is about 2-3' total diameter now, after a couple of years in the ground.  It's one of my favorite clustering types.  It's in the center back here...beware of sea serpents!

The Pilosocereus Azureus on the left seems to love the weather here! 

[Darold Petty]

Rocks are expensive to purchase !   In the past I collected many nice rocks from a wash on BLM land south of Quartzite, AZ.  This was a lot of fun, and could be done on an annual basis.  The summer monsoon water surges would present a new array of stones each year in the same location.

[Silas_Sancona]

1 minute ago, Darold Petty said:

Rocks are expensive to purchase !   In the past I collected many nice rocks from a wash on BLM land south of Quartzite, AZ.  This was a lot of fun, and could be done on an annual basis.  The summer monsoon water surges would present a new array of stones each year in the same location.

Yep.. agree w/ Darold..  Rocks, ..which wouldn't take more than a couple people to lift, lol, ..or grit  for top dressing the beds,  ..or to use in soil mixes,  far less of an expense heading out into the desert w/ some buckets / truck bed  to collect from local washes, than making several trips/ yr to the nearest rock yard for similar material.

[Darold Petty]

I would never have known about this site, but was informed by a rock shop in Quartzite.  The access road is quite rough, and not really suitable for a two wheel drive city Tacoma, but I was very cautious.  There was a real possibility of puncturing the oil pan or gas tank.  No cell service and 9 miles back to town !   I did get the differential high centered once, but was prepared, and pulled the truck forward with a chain and heavy duty cable winch.  I also had a small boom and winch mounted on the back of my truck and thus was able to pick up and collect rocks too heavy to lift with my body strength.   (no longer have this vehicle)   

At this location  "incidental surface collection for private, non-commercial use" was permitted, however not all BLM land has the same conditions, so check your local BLM rules before any rock collecting.

[Silas_Sancona]

25 minutes ago, Silas_Sancona said:

Yep.. agree w/ Darold..  Rocks, ..which wouldn't take more than a couple people to lift, lol, ..or grit  for top dressing the beds,  ..or to use in soil mixes,  far less of an expense heading out into the desert w/ some buckets / truck bed  to collect from local washes, than making several trips/ yr to the nearest rock yard for similar material.

I should add, to make collecting it easier, i'll collect grit from areas where there are signs of heavy OHV traffic crossing / running through, or areas where you can see that the material in that particular area of a wash is moved around ( to keep it from washing over a road passing through it for example )  That way i'm not disturbing more sensitive areas.

[teddytn]

18 hours ago, Jubaea_James760 said:

Last pictures are after I planted majority of the plants. Names included. Sorry about the poor pictures. It was getting late & I snapped a few pictures really quick to document names of the species in case I lose the tags or forget what I planted before I got on the road this week.

I did  4 position pictures. South facing, east,north & west. I still need to add 2 or 3 more things & remove the Aloe "melanacantha", which is clearly something else.

One of these plants has a ? Next to it. I'm pretty sure it's a Echeveria of some sort but then again I'm very new to succulents. What do you think it is??

 

Succulent_James760 😎

[amh]

2 hours ago, teddytn said:

Succulent_James760 😎

[Jubaea_James760]

3 hours ago, teddytn said:

Succulent_James760 😎

Lol! 🤣 

[Jubaea_James760]

12 hours ago, Silas_Sancona said:

Looks good..  As far as the rock " dressing "  you purchasing from a rock yard, or going to collect it yourself?

Will say, think you've caught the bug now?  ...Just wait until you really get hooked by Cacti, lol..

Can already see you putting together similar raised beds, but maybe dedicated to stuff like various spring flowering Echinocerus / summer flowering Mammillaria / Coryphantha / Escobaria ...and/or another bed ( or 2 ) for extra special Echinopsis / trichoceri  cultivars, or Barrels ( Ferocactus ).  Need -or want- to try a few things, let me know.. Have extras of some / will be cutting up some other stuff in the not too distant future. 

In the already designed bed, only thing i'd watch is the A. maculata. They will spread -pretty steadily- over a wide area.. hard to gauge the overall bed size from the pictures, but yea, lol.. thinking it will no problems filling it. A. brevifolia and " Blue Elf " will spread out a bit too, but not like maculata.  It's a great Aloe, just likes lots of real estate.

I would love to collect myself but have no idea where to get the color & size I'm in visioning without driving far distances. Im thinking i need a half cubic yard scoop to do the desertscape & around my canariensis. All my boulders I collected out in habitat minus a few from my sisters house she wanted to get rid of. 

Definitely caught the bug 😁. I would love to have 1 or 3 more raised beds dedicated to succulents lol! I'm sure I may find a spot for atleast 1 more down the road 🤔

Thank you I appreciate the offer! I'd love to trade. Let me know when you have stuff available & the names so I can do some research 👍 Im really into the smaller stuff, things that dont take up alot of real estate.  

Speaking of taking up space I made an error on the Aloe maculata 😬 need to pull that out when I get home. Thanks for pointing that out &  @Merlyn aswell. After all my research I completely missed the fact that it spreads so much! Either way I still like them & will just pick another spot near my palms in my mulch bed somewhere. 

 

[Jubaea_James760]

I have a few Mammillaria. One I really want to add is Mammillaria perez de la rose to the rockscape. I have about 2 or 3 more little succulents I want to add & ill be done...  

[Silas_Sancona]

4 minutes ago, Jubaea_James760 said:

I have a few Mammillaria. One I really want to add is Mammillaria perez de la rose to the rockscape. I have about 2 or 3 more little succulents I want to add & ill be done...  

It's a great Mam .. After loosing both of mine,  i'll warn you ..seems to be very sensitive to over watering esp. when it is cooler though ..many of the nice ones are but seems PDLR can be tricky.  Would be sure it is planted in nothing but course grit / gravel, w/ only a pinch or two of Coco Peat, and placed in a spot where it gets shade in the afternoon..  Supposedly only hardy to about 25F as well so it might be better placed in it's own special pot rather than in a mixed bed.


 

[Jubaea_James760]

On 5/24/2023 at 11:07 PM, Silas_Sancona said:

It's a great Mam .. After loosing both of mine,  i'll warn you ..seems to be very sensitive to over watering esp. when it is cooler though ..many of the nice ones are but seems PDLR can be tricky.  Would be sure it is planted in nothing but course grit / gravel, w/ only a pinch or two of Coco Peat, and placed in a spot where it gets shade in the afternoon..  Supposedly only hardy to about 25F as well so it might be better placed in it's own special pot rather than in a mixed bed.

Thanks. I'll keep it in a pot if I get one 👍 

[Chester B]

@Jubaea_James760not sure if you watch Laura Eubanks on YouTube.  Some good inspiration in some of her installations.

https://www.youtube.com/@LauraEubanks

 

[Jubaea_James760]

@Chester B, thanks, I'll check her out 👍

[Jubaea_James760]

@Chester B, I have seen some of her videos before! I was just telling my wife about her a few days ago but I couldn't remember her channel lol! Might have been last year some time when I stumbled across a few of her videos & got hooked but never subscribed 🤷‍♂️ 

[Chester B]

This was my favorite of the yards she did because she worked around the existing palms.   Generally speaking she only does low and mid level plantings so for me without the height it’s incomplete.   Her work with the succulents and agaves is applicable to your design. 
 

 

[Silas_Sancona]

On 5/24/2023 at 9:48 AM, Darold Petty said:

Rocks are expensive to purchase !   In the past I collected many nice rocks from a wash on BLM land south of Quartzite, AZ.  This was a lot of fun, and could be done on an annual basis.  The summer monsoon water surges would present a new array of stones each year in the same location.

 

On 5/24/2023 at 9:56 AM, Silas_Sancona said:

Yep.. agree w/ Darold..  Rocks, ..which wouldn't take more than a couple people to lift, lol, ..or grit  for top dressing the beds,  ..or to use in soil mixes,  far less of an expense heading out into the desert w/ some buckets / truck bed  to collect from local washes, than making several trips/ yr to the nearest rock yard for similar material.

 Nothing better ..and cheaper.. than  heading out to collect your own materials..  Makes staging those special specimen plants that more enjoyable too..

Echinocereus englemanii



Echinocereus cinerascens  ..I know it will eventually fill this pot..



Mam. fraileana ** more properly:  M. albicans ssp. fraileana **



Mam. longimamma   Not entirely sure what it's issue is ..Thought maybe mites, or maybe a typical phase the old " nipples " go through as they pass maturity.  Gets chucked and replaced if mites / issue gets worse  ..No worries, ....No fleeting feelings of depression ( ..about having to toss it ) ...its a plant.  Valued part of my collection?, sure..  Worth keeping if sick?  Nope.



Jatropha cuneata, .. " Blue " rocks are from an old, exploratory copper ore location i stumbled upon not too long ago..



Collecting some rocks/ gravel / grit + exploring / enjoying a diversity of great plants -in habitat-, and immersing one's-self in another day long lesson in Botany, Geology, and Ecology  = far more valuable than a trip to a rock yard.

[Jubaea_James760]

10 hours ago, Silas_Sancona said:

Collecting some rocks/ gravel / grit + exploring / enjoying a diversity of great plants -in habitat-, and immersing one's-self in another day long lesson in Botany, Geology, and Ecology  = far more valuable than a trip to a rock yard.

Nice collection! I went on another little excursion near the California/Nevada border. Maybe like 15 miles into California, not right on the border. I'll post what i found soon.

I collected some sand/gravel a few days ago thanks to your tip! I went by a OHV highway & found exactly the sizes I need 😁. Ill take a picture tomorrow morning.