Unearthing (and moving) a buried agave

When creating a new area in the garden, the temptation is great to overplant – especially if you start out with smaller specimens. I’m certainly guilty of that. In fact, it comes naturally to me, probably because I abhor empty spots. Knowing that, I’ve stopped trying to fight the urge to cram. I simply let myself plant whatever I want, knowing full well that I’ll have to do some culling before too long.

To illustrate, let’s look at the reclaimed “bamboo hill” along the sidewalk. After having a large Bambusa oldhamii removed in October 2022, we built up the area with 1 cubic yard of screened topsoil, 1 cubic yard of very coarse sand, and 700 pounds of rocks.

Take a look at the spot indicated by a red arrow (first photo) and orange square (second photo):

October 22, 2022

September 30, 2023

Look what I found there recently:

Hard to see, right? Moving in a little closer:

There's an Agave simplex buried under a Euphorbia misera, which itself had been half buried until I trimmed the large Jerusalem sage (Phlomis fruticosa) next to it.

Even though this little Agave simplex had been starved of light for at least six months, it’s very much alive. It’s a survivor and deserves a better life elsewhere in the garden!

Moving it was a matter of minutes. The first step was to lift the root ball with my Root Slayer:

The root ball appears to be just a little bigger than last year – I originally planted it from a 1-gallon container

Here’s where I planted this Agave simplex for now:

It’s one of the sunniest spots in the winter.

I’ll leave it there until it’s put on some size and reevaluate then. Maybe it can stay there, especially if the Agave ‘Burned Burgundy’ to the right of it flowers and dies.

I wonder what other buried treasures I might find in the garden if I look closely enough?

© Gerhard Bock, 2023. All rights reserved. To receive all new posts by email, please subscribe here.