Friday, 12 May 2017


What bizarre weather we have been having, the arid bed has been covered protecting it from the recent, rather hard frosts we have been having.

The next few days are due to be very mild, wet and humid, so we have decided to uncover the bed and let a bit of rain get too it.

I love uncovering it to see how its fared, whats happened, what made it, what didn't.

Taaa daaa!

Wow, how things have grown. On the downside I have creeping violet growing through the Dasylirion Serratifolium

 this is a nightmare as this is an evil plant, the fronds have serrated edges with feathery tufts on the ends. I will need to dig it out, but to even go close to unwind the creeping violet I will need to buy some substantial 'gauntlets'.
They are supposedly slow growers, but I wonder as this is it when it was first planted in 2015

you can see how much it has grown in just 2 years.

The Yucca Rostrata has also grown tremendously. From when it was first planted, you can see it in the centre.

To now

it is huge!!! It still amazes me how we can grow these sort of plants in the UK. But you can provided you protect them from the winter cold and wet!!

These three have grown so much more than I expected. I have never been good at spacing and placing. So I will be moving two of the plants in the above picture to give them a bit more space.

the 'gap' in the above pic is going to be filled with one of the two cactus below, or I might put them both in next to one another.

I shouldn't have too much problem placing these as they really only grow 'upwards'! I will be glad to get them out of the greenhouse, as I keep getting spiked if I water, lean or bend over!! I kept all the polystyrene packing that they where delivered in to help protect myself when I plant them lol!!


  1. Hi Libby, just get yourself some long handles forceps on ebay, and yank the creeping violet out asap before they set seed. Should get rid of it. Using the forceps, you won't have to dig the entire plant out just to weed it :)

  2. Thank you for that Mark and Gaz, will give it a go!

  3. Your arid bed is looking glorious! The gravel mulch sets off the plants perfectly!

    1. Thank you. There is 3 tons of gravel there lol!

