Me and Shaun went to a plant nursery today.

Me and Shaun went to a plant nursery today.

We've been wanting to keep our plants healthy, but we lacked the knowledge on how to care for the things that were planted in our yard, so they've just been doing their natural thing since we got here over a year ago. We started trying to prune them a bit over the weekend and found that some of our yucca, as well as a large portion of our butterfly bush, had died. 🙁 Shaun cut everything that was dead from our butterfly bush. It used to look like a small tree, but now it's about a foot tall (it's the sad thing furthest to the right that I didn't try to photograph, but didn't crop out).

Now we have a giant blank space to the right where our dearly departed yucca was. We would like to get another one to put there. But we also need to figure out if and how we should prune the brown leaves from the remaining yucca. They look like wooly monsters (which I honestly kind of dig), but I don't know what is best for them. I joined a local gardening group on here, though, so I will find out soon.

So at the nursery we bought some Baby Rita prickly pear. They will stay short but grow wider, so that's what we're going to put in front of the yucca. They are often a pretty purple color, so I love that. The pokey plants will help keep Cub from getting up there and jumping into the BACK back yard. (He can jump to there, but not back over and it's annoying). 😂

In the little area to the right framed by rocks is where we're going to plant the agave. I don't know the species of this agave yet, but it was more blue than the others and has black spines. I'm so excited to have succulents, both indoors and pampered, and who will thrive outside!

We have another area of our yard that needs attention, as well. I have got to do some Googling, but I would love nothing more than a big old patch of "big ball cactus" as Shaun calls it. 😂😂😂 I'm pretty sure they are barrel cactus, but like I said - I need to research.

Anyway. I'm excited for spring! 🌵💚