Succulent Zen Garden

I have an area in my backyard that hardly gets any water. It's up against the house where it's protected from most rainfall, and gets full sun. I've tried planting many things there over the years, but nothing has done very well.

I planted these weigela bushes several years ago, and they took over the area, making it look weedy and overgrown. I love the weigela bushes, but I've always hated this area and never really knew what to do with it.

Weigela bushes makes area look weedy

Ugly right? Well, one thing was for sure - the weigela bushes had to go*.

I finally got an idea of what I could do with this dry, full sun area of my yard on a trip to California in 2011. This beautiful succulent garden inspired me and I knew it would be perfect in my trouble spot. I was going to call it my succulent garden.

Succulent garden in CA, my inspiration for this project

Once I had a vision, I was excited to get started and we moved out all of the plants right away last spring. Here's how the area looked after we moved the plants out. It looks much bigger.

Garden trouble spot, dry with full sun

I added some of the succulents and cactus, and things were starting to come together. I knew I wanted something tall in the left corner, maybe a fountain or a large planter. But I couldn't find anything I liked for that spot, so I lost my motivation. And, like usual, I had a million projects going on at the same time, so this one was left unfinished.  Here's how the area looked last fall.

Started planting succulent garden

Well, it's a good thing I waited, because I found the perfect idea for a planter this winter (I'll tell you more about that in a future blog post!). It helps to hide some of the utilities that are on that side of the house. Plus, I planted succulents in the planter that will eventually cascade over the top to soften up the planter, and add even more color to the garden. Once I had that figured out, the rest of the project came together easy.

Here's the result...

My succulent Zen garden

I wanted a lot of color in the area, so I chose several different types of succulents with colorful foliage, which will bloom too. There are many different types of succulents that are hardy to zone 4. I also added a hardy cactus and yucca to the garden.

The most expensive part of this project was the large flat river rock I used. I love the look of this rock. It was what drew me to the garden I saw in California, so I had to get it. I was able to justify the cost of the rock because I didn't have to buy any plants, and the planter was pretty inexpensive to make.

Succulent Zen garden

I couldn't be happier with the way this garden turned out, I love it! I'm glad I waited until this spring to finish this area, it wouldn't turned out this great if I would have rushed to finish it last fall. My husband calls it the Zen garden. That wasn't my intention, but I think this name will probably stick.

Once established, this should never need to be watered. This is great project for anyone who has a trouble spot in their garden where little else will grow, or someone who wants a low maintenance garden.


What do you think of my new succulent Zen garden?

*Disclaimer: no weigela bushes were harmed in the process of building this garden, they were moved to a new spot, where they look much better.


Update 06/19/2012: Here's the blog post on how I created the planter in the corner... Building a Cinder Block Planter