Agave Americana Raised Bed

[JohnAndSancho]

As I'm sure you're aware by my 46 posts that are all 14 pages long apiece, my first ever garden bed will be comprised entirely of unwanted plants donated to me by this awesome community. Everything here is gonna be crap that someone was going to compost, or overstock. 

I have some Agave Americana pups in a box, and I just wanna get some opinions on this. I know they won't like my native soil or the swamp conditions, so I've laid out some bricks to build a raised bed, and I'm really looking to gauge y'all's opinions on the size and if it'll work. It's gonna be surrounded by various Sabals and a few Washies. 

 

I laid it right here as it's out of the drip line of the roof but still giving me room to plant behind it, God knows it'll get plenty of sun. I've got enough bricks at this size that I can go one more layer high, I'm 2 bricks short of 3 layers but there's some half bricks or I can leave gaps. I can make it a little wider, I can make it narrower and taller, but the goal is to just give it a growing medium it can thrive in. 

I also mixed up a soil to fill it with that's 70/30 rock and Miracle Gro Tropical mix. This is in East Mississippi on the zone 8a/8b border. I'll put the biggest one here and the rest in pots. 

Who are our desert experts? @Tracy? @Silas_Sancona? @aztropic?

[aztropic]

Where to start...?🤔 Probably should splurge for 2 more bricks from Lowe's at .68 cents each to raise the bed 3 full bricks high to keep the growing medium contained without washing out through holes of missing bricks. Agaves have relatively compact root systems, so the square is big enough, but be aware they will just rot in constantly wet medium. You also may not be aware of how big this species actually gets if it survives in your area. In the desert,they will fill a 5x5x5 area in less than 5 years. They do transplant easily though if it outgrows the area, but are also a LOT heavier than you would expect for their size. The spiny leaves don't make the job any easier if a move is required.

Here's an original planting of 3 agaves in my neighborhood that definitely were planted less than 5 years ago to better illustrate their size. They literally grow like weeds when they're happy.👍

 

aztropic 

Mesa, Arizona 

[JohnAndSancho]

Oh I know they get huge - there used to be some huge ones around the corner from my apartment. I tried to find them on Google Streetview, they were flowering in 2023 when I left and they're obvs gone now and the next earliest picture is from 2022 when they were relatively smaller. And they survived Palmageddon in 2021. I figured 3 bricks high in mostly rock will keep them alive and from getting too soggy. It's rockier than it looks. 

[Tracy]

29 minutes ago, aztropic said:

Where to start...?🤔 Probably should splurge for 2 more bricks from Lowe's at .68 cents each to raise the bed 3 full bricks high to keep the growing medium contained without washing out through holes of missing bricks. Agaves have relatively compact root systems, so the square is big enough, but be aware they will just rot in constantly wet medium. You also may not be aware of how big this species actually gets if it survives in your area. In the desert,they will fill a 5x5x5 area in less than 5 years. They do transplant easily though if it outgrows the area, but are also a LOT heavier than you would expect for their size. The spiny leaves don't make the job any easier if a move is required.

Here's an original planting of 3 agaves in my neighborhood that definitely were planted less than 5 years ago to better illustrate their size. They literally grow like weeds when they're happy.👍

 

aztropic 

Mesa, Arizona 

Ditto to the advice from my friend in Mesa, even after seeing the mix.  The higher your planter, and better draining your planter mix, the less likely your roots will be sitting in the soggy native soil during your wet season. 

[JohnAndSancho]

I could always make it a little narrower and taller if y'all think that'll be better for it. And there's a giant hill of white sand down the road, I doubt anybody would notice if I took a few 5 gallon buckets worth. It's been there for eternity. And I can always get more gravel. I have a feeling I'm gonna need a lot more to make this work here than what I've got. 

As always, I appreciate all the knowledge from y'all.

[happypalms]

I like it! Even better get your brother out there and gardening with you! 

[JohnAndSancho]

1 hour ago, happypalms said:

I like it! Even better get your brother out there and gardening with you! 

There's more details in my other thread. I'm hoping he can get approved to get back on the biologic medicine - yesterday was the first day he left the house without an ambulance in a few months. 

[Dartolution]

Word to the wise... 

Do NOT plant for present size, plant for MATURE size. 

Biggest gardening mistakes ever are always planting too densely and not accounting for mature size of whatever it is you're planting, and planting incompatible plants too closely together. 

One likes sun, one likes shade, one likes water, one likes it dry.... in your case, the sabals want lots of water, the washy less so, and the agave even less! 

I would strongly reconsider this planting space entirely. You will thank yourself in years to come when you're not battling with the palms and being impaled by the agave. 

[JohnAndSancho]

1 hour ago, Dartolution said:

Word to the wise... 

Do NOT plant for present size, plant for MATURE size. 

Biggest gardening mistakes ever are always planting too densely and not accounting for mature size of whatever it is you're planting, and planting incompatible plants too closely together. 

One likes sun, one likes shade, one likes water, one likes it dry.... in your case, the sabals want lots of water, the washy less so, and the agave even less! 

I would strongly reconsider this planting space entirely. You will thank yourself in years to come when you're not battling with the palms and being impaled by the agave. 

Honestly? This crossed my mind too. I mean, what drew me to these plants is the size of them - but if you go back a few years I'm also the same idiot that put a queen palm and like 30 others on the patio of a studio apartment. It was cool until the polar vortex rolled in. Plus I think there's like 3 or 4 of these in the care package. 

The cool thing is I've got plenty of wet spaces but not a whole lot of dry spaces. I'm getting conflicting into though - some say Sabal Minors like the shade (and Iook at the wild one in the woods), some say they do better in full sun. Some say Washies don't like water, I've seen absolute monsters in Houston. 

And I dunno what kind of germination rates I'm gonna get, but I've got a crap ton of baggies of seeds, and more unwanted plants coming soon. And I really don't want it to look like I just shotgunned palms everywhere. It's a lot to think about. And I want to find a way to do this so it doesn't clash and look tacky with all of these crape myrtles and cedars and oaks everywhere. Not to mention all the pines popping up all over the back field... 

[happypalms]

10 hours ago, JohnAndSancho said:

There's more details in my other thread. I'm hoping he can get approved to get back on the biologic medicine - yesterday was the first day he left the house without an ambulance in a few months. 

Keep up the faith, get him in the sun for vitamin B and spend quality time with him . 

[JohnAndSancho]

Ok so on to plan B - I was rummaging again and I found one of those fake plastic half whiskey barrel planters. I hate these things and I think they're tacky and hideous, but it's surprisingly sturdy and it's apparently very UV resistant. I'd have to drill a few dozen holes in the bottom of it, but it was in the weeds. I'd guestimate it to be about 8" deep by about 18" around. If it can handle me standing on it (I'm 200 pounds) I think it'll work, and I'll find something else special to do with these ancient bricks. My brother used it to grow herbs and lemongrass years ago. 

[JohnAndSancho]

Oh wowsers. I got a year or 2 before these get out of hand.