this is how I work with succulents roots for the most part are optional so when I
shop at the nursery I count heads the part of the succulent that I like is the
pretty top part as long as you don't set the plant material in standing water and
you don't water heavily until for a week to ten days the plants will be fine
they will root pack the soil back and around your cuttings
if the succulents will stand you've done your job it's extremely important when
you're designing a succulent pocket garden or really any garden is to create
elevation we need to see movement hills and valleys nothing is more boring
than a flat expanse of land with plants coming out of it now I'm going to build
up this area before I plant it so that the succulents are more noticeable so
I'm going to take this edge of area pop it out of its can when we plant
perennials and annuals and and trees the general rule of thumb is go as deep as
the root ball and twice as wide no such rules apply with succulents I think I
want mom as my centerpiece
I'm just going to clean up the dead leaves on the bottom there's still some
roots attached that's great don't ever start your arrangements right smack dab
in the center it looks it looks fake some other succulents that I have pulled
out of the garden I'm going to clean them up take pieces off
and tuck them in around our starter and this is how I get I get the mosaic by
taking cuttings I can use plants in a more dense presentation if you don't
like something to wear where it is you can always pick it up and move it to
another location I want height so I'll take this little
piece of senecio and pop it in here this is another cute piece
I don't need stem I oftentimes will remove bottom leaves just to give me an
anchor with which to set the cutting down into the soil succulents root and
they start to grow and throw off pups they just make room for each other it's
the most beautiful thing my garden at home is filled with cuttings that have
matured into beautiful succulent specimens a little blue spruce so
there's no reason why rosemary can't drive in a succulent
garden because it has much of the same water requirements it can survive for
long periods of time without any irrigation has can't succulent this guy
out of the ground you know and if you want to dig a hole and plant the whole
thing you sure can but my point is you don't have to so why do it this is so
much easier and more fun oh look at that little pup coming up amongst the
rosemary that's cute like that I guess the idea behind my aesthetic is not to
see any dirt a hole right here that's bugging me so I've decided to take some
of this aloe Blue elf and fill it in into that hole so we can expose a little
bit of the punks and I can choose a nice cutting
let's see here's a good one I'm just going to reach in there there now I'm
not even going to backfill I don't have to I'm going to leave those just like
that they're basically just sitting on soil they're going to harden off they're
going to root and in time they're going to grow I'm going to start tucking my
cuttings in with the idea that I might move them but this is kind of the
natural growing habit of this particular echeverria too they cluster and I love
that about them so I'm going to work with that remember we've got this down
hill slope so this gives the I think it kind of gives the illusion of water of
movement to have these guys just coming down-stream we started with the larger
one at top and then descending into the smaller here's the crassula it gives us
a little bit of height which I think we need right here they're just a little
misting once a week until these babies start to get their legs which will take
a couple of weeks and then you can rely on your drip or your whatever irrigation
method these shoes the plants with the thinner more delicate leaves tend to
struggle a little bit as cuttings and our best planted in the shade or in an
exposure that isn't in full Sun all day long this is a fantastic plant it's like
something right out from under the sea and when stressed and I don't know of
any situation that's more stressful than having your head cut off this is going
to color up to be red now from a design standpoint we've created a contrast here
which I'm feeling like I need to up in another part of the presentation
so I'm going to take some of these crassula and I'm going to pop them in up
here too so we have our two presentations of
crassula we need a third so I'm going to tuck some more in right here this
wonderful piece of crassula and I'm going to tuck it take a little hole and
tuck it right in there
softens things up a little bit or I have a have a look I see a little dirt
showing you can't have that so I'll tuck another piece right there go I'm going
to bring that crassula down pops them in right here going to take some
of this wonderful echeverria blue sky why in the world is she cutting up a
plant that is already packed so beautifully and so tight well because I
like to incorporate other plants in amongst the individuals what do you do
with the plant that has heads cut off you just set it in a nice shady spot in
the garden and wait for it to regenerate remember there are no straight lines in
nature everything needs to be odd numbers once three fives slightly left
or right of Center and these succulents are also going to shrink up a little bit
working with the cutting which is another reason why you want to pack them
in tightly I see the beginning here at the rosemary and then tapering down to
the front and I'm going to end it curve it around right about here so now I am
looking for slightly smaller specimens just for fun and as an anchor I'm going
to take this wonderful little agave be careful when you work with the agave
because they bite I'm going to clean off some of the soil why am i doing that
because I'm lazy and I don't want to dig a hole that deep and the plant doesn't
really care so why not push off some of the some of the soil trim up some of
those longer roots
I'm going to back fill that hole just a little bit when I stood up and looked at
the presentation from a different angle I realized it was screaming for sticks
on fire got a this is Palm Springs gold three-quarter inch gravel so you want to
make sure that you put on a good inch and a half to two inches of rock it
prevents soil erosion helps retain moisture and water it also works as a
natural barrier for weed growth and doesn't blow away like mulch or wood
chips
here's some sedum Bravo folia right here growing in Judy's garden as he terms
will tolerate water better than some succulents and actually really look
their best and prefer water in the hotter months you can see perhaps the
little red roots starting on the scam through that Bravo folio loot system and
tuck my confuse them right in the hole
some contrasting walk just creates more layers more texture more interests
and that is our finished succulent pocket guard
you