so mad I could spit - are they dead or can I save them?

14 years ago

this is clearly what I get for being so excited about my first attempt at a real succulent garden. After ten years of battling the Arizona desert for the life of anything I stick in the ground you'd think I'd have learned my lesson about optimism. . .

Background: a few weeks ago I planted a number of succulents in an area on the east side of my house (I'm in Phoenix). I watered maybe twice in ten days. Everything looked great and then I made two fatal errors:

1. I did not put a chicken wire fence around the plot - assuming that the rabbits and ground squirrels (with which I am plagued) wouldn't like succulents and would leave them alone; and

2. I went on vacation for 10 days and told my husband to water them once - and only more if it got really hot.

So, of course, when I returned, I was greeted with the scorched-earth devastation you can see in my photos at the link. Many stems from the ice plants were nibbled off and just left next to the plants and all the other plants were missing most of their leaves so I know that was due to the vermin.

The stems are, for the most part, completely shriveled and brown.

My husband swears up and down that he only watered them twice during the ten days (it has been windy and warm) but that both times he left the hose on them for around 20 minutes (like I taught him to do with the trees). so they probably drowned.

However, he also says he caught a rabbit in the act of nibbling on one of "the bushy things" in the front (one of the ice plants, I think) and has offered to blast them with his .22.

Yesterday I built a fence around the plot and inspected the plants more thoroughly once I could see straight since my anger had blinded me to the point of insanity.

Of the ice plants and elephant food - there are several green leaves left down at the bottoms of the stems near the ground. The Ghost plant was absolutely decapitated and one of the fleshy crassula-thingys was completely denuded of leaves, leaving only a thick stump.

What should I do now? dig everything out and start all over again (again??!?! perish the thought)? Or does the existence of the leaves mean that there is life and a shred of hope left?

Also, it has been very warm (almost 100 today) and windy. Should I water? I pulled out one of the dead ice plants and the roots were bone dry.

Any advice or input is greatly appreciated. And anyone who is interested in a little moving target practice is welcome to come for a visit. I'll even feed you. . . :-)

Here is a link that might be useful: After and Before photos

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Comments (6)

wantonamara Z8 CenTex
14 years ago
Was your husband watering in the middle of the day? The water and sun combined can fry things. I am not an arizona gardener, but , here in Texas I do most of my establishing of plants in the fall. What kind of soil preperation have you done. And what kind of soil do you have.
User
Original Author
14 years ago
he watered when he came home from work around 6 pm. I try to water in the am when it gets really hot, but since he's not the gardener, I was just happy he watered at all!

I prepped the immediate planting areas with cactus mix and some pea gravel. I had a bit of caliche in the bed, but broke it up several inches below the depth of the root balls. the rest of the soil is the sandy, clay-ey, hard-as-rock-when-it's-dry crap that we have here (probably similar to what you have in TX.)
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murmanator
14 years ago
Im a Phoenix gardener and can offer a few nuggets from my experience... did you use pre-packaged cactus soil? If so, I would suggest that this was not a good choice (sorry). I tried it once in a raised planter and would up digging everything out and removing the 'soil' and replacing it with something else. I found that it just could not hold water after it dried out and the plants were suffering. Since then, Ive mixed my own soil mixes and used my native soil as the base component. Ill mix in some 1/4" minus or pumice to get it draining better. I even have one raised planter that is pure 1/4" minus.

After trying to grow and killing so many ice plants I cant even count, I gave up. They just burnt out in the summer no matter what I did. Not to say it can be done, I jut am not the one to do it. I think of them as annuals here. Ive killed some crassula too so Im not the best one to comment on those. Maybe looking into plants that have caustic sap or some other forms of natural protection from the bunnies would help (like euphorbia).
User
Original Author
14 years ago
well Poo! I did use the mix my local nursery people (not at the box store) sold me, I did mix it with a little of the dirt in the plot - about 1/2 and 1/2. . . I'll try your mix with the pumice - that makes sense for the combo of holding water but draining well!

I was hoping the ice plants would make it because the plot is east facing - there are some green leaves coming out so I'm going to see what happens, but I won't buy anymore.

After I put up my Berlin wall I still lost one of the crassula - clearly nibbled away but the new elephant food I put in was not touched. They didn't touch the gopher plant or the aloe - or the society garlic!

I will definitely get some euphorbia, I am bound and determined to make this succulent/cacti garden work - maybe I can find a giant Venus Fly-Trap that's gotten too big for flies and has graduated to small mammals. . . :-)

anyway, thanks for the tips - the soil is a great starting point!
User
Original Author
14 years ago
I thought I'd post a little follow up - the fence seems to be keeping the pests away altho one of the crassula was still nibbled down to the ground. A leaf was left so I am trying to propagate that.

The ice plants all have new leaves on them - giving credence to my theory that the rat-b**tard rabbits ate every bit of green they saw.

I planted some new ice plants day before yesterday (before I got murmanator's words of wisdom) but first I swished their roots in water to completely free the pot-bound roots and get rid of any evil Home Depot soil. I watered the entire plot and then left it alone. I'm now going to ignore it and see what happens!!
beachplant
13 years ago
I can't believe they wouldn't sell you land mines. Those b@#%@$#! I tried to get a car alarm that shot out laserbeams but they wouldn't sell that to me either.
Good luck with the garden. Sorry about the rabbits. We don't have that problem, most of them drowned in the hurricane.
Tally HO!