Cleaning up around the jungle

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No one was more surprised than me at how well the "jungle" by the dining room window had grown in the past few years, but it had created a problem. The cannas and the elephant ears had made it impossible for me to get access to the cycad, a dioon spinulosum, which is really supposed to be the star of the show in this area.

The winter frost, which was one of the worst I've seen here, knocked the cannas and the elephant ears to the ground. Last month I finished up clearing away the last of the devastation, and this month I'm getting a chance to redesign the area, with access a priority. Of course, the idea is to make this as inconspicuous as possible, so that it's the plants that display, not the access routes. These are access routes for maintenance, not garden paths.

As you can see, I have placed stepping stones on both sides of the cycad. There are also flagstones and stepping stones that run parallel to the house which will allow me to get back to the watering system more easily. Once the plants are all in, of course, these routes will become invisible from the front. I really don't want to look at the watering system and the access routes, but they are important!

By the way, the area between the foreground and the cycad isn't as dead as it seems. It's filled with bulbs, which will be starting to grow very soon. This is part of the reason that I want clearly-defined spaces for people to walk. If they step up here (or if I do!), it will crush the tiny emerging plants.


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