We’re having such a mild December and yesterday was pretty glorious so I decided to finally make a couple of moves I’ve been thinking about for a while.

I didn’t take a “before” picture of Stachyurus salicifolius in place but if you look at my last post, you’ll see it in my list of “losers” in the game of summer drought tolerance.  In this pic, I am pointing to where it was:

Way out by the street, where the hose doesn’t reach… and I hadn’t really noticed until my friend Paul Bonine (of Xera Plants, which is where I got this plant) pointed out that it’s been getting chomped by root weevils.

Here’s the plant after I dug it:

I read up a bit.  From PNW Extension: 

Adult weevils are night feeders that mostly remain in the soil or in debris at the base of the plant during the day, then climb up to feed on leaves at night. Look for ragged notches on the edges of leaves, or flower petals. Twigs of plants may die beyond where weevils have girdled the twig (salal, rockrose, yew, juniper, etc.). Larvae, found around roots, are C-shaped, legless, and white, or slightly reddish, with tan heads, up to 0.5 inch in size. All species are quite similar in appearance and habits of feeding on root hairs, larger roots and root crown.

Sounds like a job for some ducks, eh? To start, they help me dig the hole.

I put the plant near the chicken coop, but the chickens themselves actually don’t currently have access to the area (I can change that). Lots of benefits for Ms. Stachyurus in this location: WAY more water, higher soil nutrition, and ducks who will hopefully eradicate those weevils.  It’s also in a spot where I will see it every day, and there’s plenty of room there for it to get ginormous.

In the spot where the Stachyurus was, I moved (yikes, I know) a young Arctostaphylos ‘Lester Roundtree.”  

I had wanted a nice big evergreen shrub here, and this is definitely a better choice overall.  The spot I had this plant in is right in the middle of the front yard and I had been feeling uneasy about that placement almost from the minute I planted it there.  The new spot might be a bit shady, so I expect it to reach for the sun and get weird.  I love it when they do that.  We’ll see…

Here’s where the manzanita was: 

This is a small berm which I intend to enlarge and use for things that really love good drainage.  I was concerned that the smaller plants here would get overtaken by the manzanita.  What’s in there is Helichrysum thianschanicum, Stipa barbata, some Dierama seedlings that probably won’t make it (I’ll plant more), a couple Agaves, Euphorbias and Hesperaloe parviflora, among other things.

What should I put here? I was thinking another Agave… I really love the contrast of fine-textured plants like Stipa and Helichrysum against the stoutness of Agaves.