More Pruning

Since I had the pruning shears out I thought it might be a good time to tackle the hedge in the front yard. It's evergreen but it seems that winter is still its slowest time. In the spring it puts out a lot of growth then blooms in the summer and develops seeds in the fall.

Although I haven't identified this plant yet I love it for holding up the hill. It is growing vigorously and the trunks seem rock solid. Right after these plants the hill drops off at almost 90 degrees. I guess it's more of a cliff than a hill.

I didn't want to tax the plants but they have grown so much in the past couple years that they are tall and leggy. They are shading everything beneath them and don't screen my yard from the street as well as they used to. I'm hoping that with some aggressive pruning they will growing in fuller and a little lower.

My photos are horrible so it's hard to tell what's what. That's part of the problem for me. The hedge is consuming the magnolia sapling and hiding all of the the other plants growing here.

After the pruning you can see that there's actually a palm tree growing on the cliff as well. I think this is a volunteer from the large tree on the empty lot next door. I haven't seen much of it until now.

You can also see some of the aeoniums that I planted a couple years ago. Since they've been in the dirt that have probably quadrupled in size. They are surging over the little curb and trying to occupy as much space as possible. I'll probably have to do something about them next year, but for now I like how lush they look. In the Summer one of them turns much redder and the whole bed gets a lot more texture. There are also some aloes in there but I may have to move them. They don't seem as competitive as some of the other plants.

It looks a little sparse right now but hopefully it will leaf out soon. I think I might have to coax it along over the Summer with more pruning. Last year it grew long spindly branches with only a few leaves. I would like to encourage it to become more dense and not grow so tall.





I also decided to cut the bloom stalk off of one of the foxtail agaves. I was waiting for it to grow some bulbils, little plantlets that I could propogate, but it never happened. I got sick of looking at the ratty brown thing.

The stump already has some little sprouts coming out, so hopefully it will soon be covered in new little plants. And now I don't have to duck under it to move around the yard.