All things in the natural world age. We all grew up laying 20 Questions and we usually started with these categories – “Animal, Vegetable, or Mineral” – come from the Linnaean taxonomy system that were historically used in the parlor game. This basic classification system was popularized in the 18th and 19th centuries and is sometimes called the “Three Kingdoms” classification, though it’s a simplified version of actual taxonomic classification systems. The three categories broadly represent: Animal: Living creatures from the Animal Kingdom, Vegetable: Plants and other organisms from the Plant Kingdom, and Mineral: Non-living, naturally occurring inorganic substances. This simplistic system is now considered outdated in scientific contexts, as modern taxonomy recognizes many more kingdoms of life (typically 5-6 kingdoms) and has much more detailed classification systems. The problem is less with the minerals than with the animals and plants. The modern kingdom classification system typically includes Animalia (Animals) – Multicellular organisms that are heterotrophs (consume other organisms) and are generally capable of movement, Plantae (Plants) – Multicellular organisms that perform photosynthesis and have cell walls containing cellulose, Fungi – Organisms with chitin (a non-toxic polymer) in cell walls that absorb nutrients from their environment and reproduce via spores, Protista – Single-celled eukaryotic organisms (a cell or organism that contains a nucleus and membrane-bound organelles), including algae and protozoans, and Bacteria (Monera) – Single-celled prokaryotic organisms without a true nucleus. And this classification process just keeps getting more and more complicated as scientists break down bacteria even further and will likely find more reasons to do so even to greater extents. And all of those things except minerals age, some more slowly and some more quickly. Fungi can live for thousands of years and bacteria, while short-lived, can exist through their spores for millions of years. Some might even say that minerals age as well, they just do so at a much slower pace and in only the most obvious ways such as getting word down.
Plants can reach remarkable ages, with some being among the oldest known living organisms. Clonal Plants (groups of genetically identical plants growing from a single ancestor) such as “Pando” – a clonal colony of Quaking Aspen in Utah, estimated at 80,000 years old, King’s Holly (Lomatia tasmanica) in Tasmania – estimated at 43,600 years old, Creosote bush ring in the Mojave Desert – estimated at 11,700 years old, and Sea grass meadows in the Mediterranean – some estimated to be over 100,000 years old, age with impressive slowness. But these clonal plants are more durable than individual plants, which are known to have existed for the less impressive 10,000 year span. the survival factors for these include environmental conditions, disease resistance, ability to regenerate damaged parts, growth rate (slower-growing species often live longer), and protection from human interference. Now that we see that man may be a meaningful limiting factor to longevity (not hard to imagine given our own experience with Climate Change), its time to address my own gardening concerns.
My house was built in 1998 or what is now 27 years ago. I’m pretty confident that before that there was never any human habitation of any significance on this spot. The rocks (boulders), the dirt and the chaparral have lived here by themselves for millennia until that certain developer decided to plant the flag on this hilltop. I am the third owner of the property since the developer and I suspect that the original owner planted a few random succulents and cacti on the hillside during his initial eight year tenure, but not too much. I have an aerial photograph of the property from 2008, when the second owners were newly underway with their more aggressive landscaping plan, centered around succulents and cacti. The front hillside looked pretty sparse back then and yet I know that when I bought the place in early 2012 the front was pretty well grown up. I have the initial Zillow photographs from 2012 and so, I feel that sense is pretty provable. I don’t really remember individual plants or even specific garden areas back then, but I do know where everything stood in early 2020 when we moved here full-time. During the first eight years of my ownership, the only garden maintenance that went on was very episodic clean-up by the father/son team of Benito and Joventino. They used to tidy things up before we came for a visit, but no strategic planning of the garden was taking place to speak of. That began to change when we moved here full-time and I started to dabble in gardening.
Besides the expensive planning, planting and carving of paths and features into the back hillside, I have also redone the patio area and the entire area around the garage, including adding the Cecil Garden and the Betty Garden (In honor of our last two dogs). I took our old front dog run and turned that into a play area for the kids and since then, the front has been the focus of mostly repair work on this area or that area where I thought there was a need to thin out the plantings. I have now encountered another problem.
Due to the extreme heat and dryness of the past year, I felt that some specific succulents have withdrawn into themselves and would reemerge once more water was put on them. What I am now discovering is that certain areas are just getting too old and too weak to regenerate properly. Today I met with my irrigation guy, Andre, and he and I walked the print hillside and patio areas and discussed what would be best to do to repair some damage that has happened over the past year and which does not seem to be fixing itself. The most pronounced problem area involves large plantings of Hen & Chicks (Blue Rose Echeveria). must have 40 running feet of 3-4 foot high groupings of it that have gone totally leggy and totally withdrawn into tight little balls. What looks like dryness now looks like permanent damage to the plants and they simply don’t look good or healthy. Andre feels they are perhaps choked by over-growth and age, which makes some sense since their lifespan is 10-20 years and they must be all of that and then some. The same fate has befallen large swaths of jade plants (Crassula) that aren’t in a regularly watered area. Jade plants can last 100 years, but not if they are not properly watered and they have been allowed to grow thick and dense in limited soil.
I believe my task now is to pull all those afflicted plants and then do some soil amendment. Soil amendment refers to materials added to soil to improve its physical, chemical, or biological properties. These additions help create better growing conditions for the plants through Physical Amendments (improve soil structure), Organic Amendments (improve soil fertility and structure), and Chemical Amendments (adjust soil chemistry). I’m thinking I wish I had taken agronomy courses at Cornell. Then, once the soil seems right and fertile, I will go pick out a batch of succulents to plant in those spots. If I were doing small replacements and repair I would use cutting from my own garden, but I am thinking that I may have to buy some more well-established stock from my pal Javier.
I have come to grips with my own aging, but I really wasn’t expecting to have to deal with this much aging in my garden. I feel that my current challenge is now all about aging gracefully in all aspects of my life including my property.