aloe
Gray Day, Orange Aloe
This little 6" orange marmalade aloe chose the biggest Pacific storm of the year as the perfect time to put out this foot tall bright fuchsia bloom.
Orange Marmalade Aloe in Bloom
Walked into my greenhouse and there it was -- a glowing nuclear alien aloe with a 12" stalk as candy orange as the plant itself. So I took a few minutes out of whatever
Video: A Fallen Agave
The first real rains of the season blew down this 20 foot tall agave flower the woodpeckers had stuffed with acorns.
Orange Marmalade Aloe
Currently my favorite aloe is this guy, Orange Marmalade. In the winter he's a blue-green, but in the full summer sun he turns orange. Very cool.
Still Battling the Aloe Eater
Despite my best efforts to trap the little sucker, the aloe devouring gopher continues his reign of terror. I just came out into the yard to see that he's taken out the last large aloe vera in the bed. This means war.
Sneaky Gopher Got My Aloe (Video)
As I was touring the yard yesterday, I noticed a large aloe vera tipped over on its side. I knew the dogs couldn't have done it, so I decided to take a closer look. Here's the video of what I found. I've seen gophers pull plants into their burrows, but I've never seen one burrow into a plant. Time to find the gopher traps.
Found an Aloe Forest
For the past week I've been cleaning a long neglected section of the Acre in preparation for a chicken (and duck) friendly Mediterranean garden. To clear one area I had to chop down a rogue oak sapling and cut out a tone of dead brush below it. When I finally did get the area cleaned up, I discovered a rather large patch of aloe vera (Aloe barbadensis) growing quite happily along the fence line. I vaguely recall planting an aloe (i.e., one) there probably back in the late 90's-early 2000's. You think with no water, covered in debris [keep reading...]