Hasta Luego Agaves

We planted the three agaves above when we first moved in to the house about 8 years ago. All three were hand-me-downs from friends. They provided great structure for our early garden, but they have worn out their welcome. The middle one in particular is a variety that just has never looked good in my opinion. It's hella spiky and always kind of floppy from not being in full sun. Plus, the pups drive me crazy and have started coming out of cracks in the wall and in the paths.

I've been thinking about removing them for a while now, but always balked in the end. Well, this weekend, I got to courage to go for it.

Too bad I don't have a tequila making operation in the garage. 

In the end, I couldn't bring myself to get rid of all of them and left one as a specimen, for now. I'm not sure if I'll like to keep it there, but will do so until spring blooms forth and I can see how everything works together.

After I get a haircut, I usually look in the mirror a feel like I look weird for a day or two. It's kind of the same thing with removing plants. 

That said, I'm looking forward to filling this space left by the agaves with more zexmenia and other flowers plants that will attract butterflies and birds. It's hard to tell from this photo, but the front garden has plenty of other spiky yuccas and things, so I don't think the agaves will be a great loss.

I'll be pulling up pups for a while yet, and that one agave left in the ground will continue to send them up too, but hopefully less so than three of them together.

I'm late getting to trimming all my plants for the spring season, but that was a good start. Today, I'm thwarted by rain and cold weather. Meh. Still need to get out their an trim, prune, plant and transplant before spring hits in earnest!