Up-close viewing of plants in the garden

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Plants need to be organized in your garden as "foreground" and "background" plants. Foreground plants are those that I call a "walk up to it", something that invites closer inspection. If your "walk up to it" plants are tucked away in some obscure place in your garden, not only is their beauty wasted, it invites people to walk up into the garden, which is not good.

On this corner, I am trying to apply some of the principles that I have learned. Most importantly, there are clear barriers along the edge - pointy rocks - and I need to put in more. The rocks also give a visual clue as to where things like misting heads are. You can see one in the foreground, but mostly they disappear, which is what they are supposed to do.

The stars of this corner are the Partridge Breast Aloe, which is next to the spotlight at left, and the tall thin plant, also a succulent, called Euphorbia pedalanthus. There are more aloes in this garden, and a small agave. The leaf litter from the olive trees acts as a mulch, and I will go into the front courtyard later today and get some more. That's another nice thing about olive trees, the leaves are of a small scale, turn brown quickly, and provide a nice, free mulch.


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