All about succulents

The barks on my garden bed were so messy before.  Pieces shredded all over my driveway.

Then a brilliant idea came into my head.  I have some succulents happily growing in a few pots and in the little bed beneath my letterbox.  They could be planted as an edge to keep the barks in place.

I’ve two different varieties of those succulents (from the xerophytes family). Most if not all xerophytes are succulent plants, meaning they use their stems, leaves, and roots to store water when it is plentiful, saving it in their own tissues for use in dry times.

One breed is known as Echeveria Elegans, as the name suggests, an elegant classic.

The other is Echeveria Imbricata is sometimes referred to as Echeveria x Imbricata, to indicate that it’s a hybrid.

The difference (for someone who doesn’t know much about plants, credit to Drought Smart Plants for the valuable information) is the Elegans have thicker leaves (they are like mini agaves) whereas Imbricatas have finer leaves and their succulent sizes are smaller then Elegans.  Imbricatas form tight rosettes of fleshy, saucer-shaped, blue-green leaves

It was easy planting them along the edges of the driveway but not so easy to keep the birds away.  It did not take much digging (I used a hand spade) so the succulents were pretty much lightly covered in soil.  For some reason, the birds liked to disturb those new growths and it took a lot of patience and maintenance (in the beginning) to make sure they go back into the soil till the roots formed.

Be patient and watch them grow.
Happy and healthy succulents all in a row.