Hold onto your hats!
With apologies to anyone living in wildfire-stricken areas of California, my gravel garden is a disaster area. I have a lot of ugly to show you. I seldom, if ever, show pictures of it anymore, or of anything growing or flowering in it, because I have ignored and neglected it for at least the last three years. I haven't watered, or pulled a single weed, or trimmed or cut back a plant in all that time. Originally conceived as a screen between me and the neighbors to my left, the bed rather quickly succumbed to weeds, as it became choked with weed seeds blown in from the neighbor's yard. The bed was mulched in gravel, which was really hard to dig in, and as a result, any amount of time spent trying to dig out weeds always resulted in hands covered in blisters. I gave up, and devoted myself to other areas, while occasionally wracking my brains about what to do about it.
This bed, which I call the Gravel Garden, was originally nothing but a pristine gravel parking area when we first moved in 9 years ago. You can see an End of the Month View post from 2013 about the Gravel Garden
here. And if you're interested in reading about its evolution and construction, you can see posts about that
here,
here and
here.
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| It doesn't look that bad from here, because the enormous Arbutus unedo 'Compacta' hides a multitude of sins |
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| It has turned into a handsome shrub, but I wonder if I should trim up the bottom to reveal some of the beauty of its lower branches, which have red, peely bark |
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| That even more enormous mass on the right is a Ceanothus which has completely taken over the space -- note the weeds below, which used to be gravel -- and still is, below the weeds |
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| Expanse of weeds, formerly pristine gravel -- the bare patch is where we had a pile of gravel which we used up last year building paths |
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| Culvert full of weeds -- no matter how much I top up the soil here, it keeps compacting down |
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| Weed-infested plants -- Yucca rostrata on left, Euphorbia at center, Dasylirion wheeleri at right |
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| Another smaller Yucca rostrata hiding in the weeds near the Dasylirion |
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| Beschorneria also hiding in the weeds |
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| I used to be able to fit through a gap here to reach the area behind the culvert to work, but not any longer -- the Ceanothus is a monster |
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| Weeds at the base of the Ceanothus |
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| There's a struggling Agave parryi in there |
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| Opuntia, Sedum Angelina and weeds |
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| at the back of the bed is a stock tank with a dead Tetrapanax -- Impossible to reach now |
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| Teucrium with crinkly leaves and the bare branches of a gold-leaf Caryopteris -- both deserve rescuing after surviving so well with no summer water for three years in a row |
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| I need to figure out what to do with this big empty pot -- like the culvert the soil keeps compacting down no matter how much I add to it |
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| Weed-choked patch of black mondo grass |
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| Weeds, weeds, weeds |
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| The other stock tank and guess what? Weeds |
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| Black bamboo growing in the stock tank, flanked by a patch of Calamagrostis 'Karl Foerster' on the left and Stipa gigantea on the right |
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| Another Stipa gigantea and weeds |
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| Japanese snowbell has thrived here, flowering profusely every spring despite no summer water -- I'd like to move it to a spot where it will get better summer care |
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| The other culvert planter, which has Alliums in it that I've tried digging but many still prove elusive |
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| Another thriving Teucrium |
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| Weed-choked Hesperaloe |
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| Weeds and sleeping Alliums |
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| Stipa gigantea |
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| Beyond the culvert, piles of junk below an enormous English laurel |
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| There was once a 'Fat Albert' blue spruce here, but it became engulfed by the English laurel and died on one entire side, and had to be cut down last year |
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| 'Fat Albert' stump and weeds |
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| At least with all those dandelions it's full of pretty yellow flowers in the spring |
I'd like to empty the stock tanks and move them out of this bed completely to a spot where
they're more accessible and usable. I've come to the conclusion that my
original plan to leave a path through the bed is untenable.
My current plan for this area is to pull out and save the plants that have survived neglect, because they deserve it, cut down the enormous Ceanothus because working around it is impossible, and turn the bed into a prairie/meadow style planting. That would require either tilling in the gravel mulch or sifting it out. I need to figure out what to do with all the gravel area in front of the bed as well. Weeds just want to grow there. I suppose I could dose it twice a year with Roundup. Or I could put in lots of paving stones, and some deliberate plants. Weeds will always grow where the plants aren't.
One drawback of all of that is that a meadow provides no screening from the neighbors, but as you can see from the pictures, what's there now isn't providing a lot of screening either.
One of my biggest problems with working in this area is that the neighbors on this side have acquired a large, black, aggressive, barky dog that reacts to me every time I walk through this area, even just to throw away trash. He has even barked at and rushed us when we've gone out to get our mail. You may have noticed the flimsy black wrought iron fence in one of the photos above, which is pretty much useless. On my best days I tolerate dogs (although Peter's Poms are cute), but on my worst days I'm terrified of them.
I suppose if I can manage to empty out the bed maybe we could then hire someone to install a big, sturdy fence between us and the neighbor.
This is probably my worst garden area, and also my biggest challenge. I still have lots of little messes to share in the future. So, do you have more ugliness to show us? Tell us about your garden problems in a post.
