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April 1, 2020 by Elise Xavier | Updated: April 1, 2020 - Leave a Comment

Minimalist Outdoor Succulent Arrangement With Portuguese Tiles

So a couple of months ago, back when I was doing up the rehab on my succulent flower bed arrangement, I decided to tackle a part of my garden completely overrun with weeds over the span of this past winter.

We got a lot of rain, unusual amounts for where I live in Portugal, and the only thing in this bed was two gorgeous orange strelitzia (bird of paradise flower) plants and a dracaena deremensis “lemon lime”. These being completely safe if I let weeds become overgrown to the point where they completely took over, I let myself be lazy and refused to weed until the end of the winter.

Then the rain finally stopped, and I cleared the area of weeds. I finished up the previous succulent rehab, and in the same day, felt incredibly motivated to get those pots I bought at a steep discount at the end of the season (a euro a pot – crazy!) into the ground where they could grow and be pretty.

So I took to planning, un-potting, digging up holes in the ground and placed my plants where I wanted them, then brought some kalanchoe in for the final touches. Here’s the result:

Pretty, pretty, pretty!

The plants in this arrangement, in case anyone’s curious:

  • Strelitzia “Bird of Paradise Flower” (orange variety)
  • Dracaena deremensis “Lemon Lime”
  • Kalanchoe blossfeldiana (red & orange varieties)
  • Aeonium arboreum
  • Crassula argentea hummel “Sunset Jade”
  • Crassula arborescens undulatifolia “Ripple Jade”
  • Echeveria secunda
  • Echeveria subsessilis (blue)

Oh, and I used the same amazing volcanic lava rock as last time as well.

What was left was a little minimalist garden that made me quite happy in a lot of ways.

First, it’s super low maintenance. I’ve learned from all the pots and arrangements I’ve done so far that I’d rather have fewer plants, fewer nesting and knitted sections, and way more stand-alones with the same plant large enough to own a space and fill it out on it’s own. This helps the maintenance a lot, and keeps the area looking clean even if it’s a long while between me even attempting to tidy up.

Second, it’s super colourful, even for the low number of pants used. I adore that.

Third, it’s easy for me to take apart and put back together if I want to, which I definitely will do in the future. I want to add some height to this thing if I can, but I didn’t want to do it that day, and I think I’ll tackle the rest of the garden before I swing ’round back to have another go at this section. for now, It’s making me perfectly happy.

Anyway, so my husband Thomas and I got to cleaning out an area under the staircase we haven’t touched in nearly a year. We found some gorgeous Portuguese tiles stashed from previous owners or tenants, and I absolutely had to stage them, so here’s the final result + close ups of how it looks now;

And there’s a fossil thrown in that we found at a charity shop to boot.

The close ups as promised –

I absolutely love it.

Can’t wait to use this lava rock in other places around the garden. Will need to buy more as I’ve nearly run out, and don’t have enough for another bed (used some beneath the bougainvillea in the front).

Definitely made me obsessed with top dressing. And with that + having mixed coarse sand into the soil, has made weeding an absolute breeze.

What do you think about this arrangement?

Filed Under: Green-Thumb Fun, My Garden, Succulents

About Elise Xavier

Gardening newb; hoping to get better with a little more research and a lot more practice.

Like to dig through more of my posts? Have a peek at my personal blog here, or browse through all the other blogs I pen & photograph!

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Hello, I’m Elise. A warm welcome to my corner of the plant-lover’s world. I live in Cascais, Portugal where I aim to create the drought-tolerant garden of my dreams. Join me as I attempt to take my green thumb from a pale pastel to a rich British racing green.

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