One area of our friends' garden is a mix of prize-winning roses, palms and succulents. They love the roses and seem to have mixed feelings about their spikier companions.
In contrast, I don't mind roses but love the tropical succulents.
Our front border now features a mix of both. The old rose has been the subject of several vicious prunings and has bounced back each time. It was cut back to a few inches above the ground last winter but is now twice the size that it was in these pictures which were taken at the end of last year. It's leggy and totally without flowers. Maybe it needs more food...
The succulents that my father planted when he dug out this bed are unquestionably thriving. The weedmat and mulch have done a good job of keeping out intruders and there is obvious growth amongst the new plants. And not a single one has been attacked by chickens! The bromeliads were damaged by a peacock but I hope that they'll survive. And the agaves which have been in this border through thick and thin (and renovations) have some lovely big pups beneath them now.
I hope to create similar borders below the house and the shed. There are some natives below the shed (flax and nikau) and one lonely canna lily after my other bromeliads and iris fell victim to a pukeko or possum. I think that some more exotic plants would look good - maybe a strelitzia and some red hot pokers.
Below the house, there's some good ground cover in the form of rosemary and native grasses but my father added some interest along the driveway with more succulents and miniature palms - some of which are even producing offspring. Driftwood and rocks have kept the chickens from scratching out the new plants and large logs in their old dustbaths have forced them to look elsewhere for their ablutions.
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