Succulents and More™

Greg Starr needs little introduction. He’s an inveterate traveler and plant explorer, a leading expert on agaves, the author of many articles and several books, and a popular speaker on the cactus club lecture circuit. His contributions to botany include the formal description of eight species and one subspecies of Agave [ 1 ], three species of Hesperaloe [ 2 ], and one cactus species [ 3 ]. In addition, he is the owner and operator of Starr Nursery in Tucson, AZ. In 2021, Greg published the revised edition of Cool Plants for Hot Gardens highlighting 150 plants ideally suited for arid climates ( click here to read my review). His new book, Cool Cacti and Succulents for Hot Gardens , is a companion resource. It features 150 water-smart choices for the Southwestern U.S. and California as well as dry regions of Australia and parts of Europe that have a Mediterranean climate. In the introduction, Greg explains how to use the book and briefly touches on things like climate zones, planti

My main focus this past month has been on renovating parts of the backyard. The first step was removing a large Agave chiapensis , as detailed in this post . Then I dismantled the remaining two raised beds in the side yard on the north side. They were originally built for vegetables, but they’d fallen into disuse in recent years because growing vegetables in our climate requires a lot of water and effort – and the payoff often is disappointing. The soil in these raised beds was shockingly sandy. No wonder vegetables didn’t do too well. After I’d taken out the horizontal bed, I evenly distributed the soil from both beds to form a base layer. I had to reuse the soil somehow. The bougainvillea at the left in the next photo, a variegated dwarf cultivar called ‘Bambino Sophia’, is the only plant that has remained. It’s thrived on neglect for a number of years and has earned the right to stay. Then it was time for the delivery truck: Half a cubic yard of crushed rock... ...four cubic yards o