Mister Spikey

We thought when we moved here that the landscaping was pretty well established. We built an arbor and planted veggies and a cutting garden of flowers and added a few plants to soften the effect of the many yuccas, agaves, palms and other sharp and thorny plants and that kept us pretty busy.

Mr Spikey in his huge white pot stayed where he was outside our bedroom because we didn't know what to do with him.

After a couple of years, we began to realize that everything in the garden that wasn't getting eaten by gophers, girdled by moles or dying of unexplained causes was actually growing like mad. This led us to believe that perhaps the landscaping wasn't as established as we first thought.

Phase two began in the garden when we started pruning, hacking back, removing and rearranging things. We put in a hot tub with a deck around it and spent more time communing with Mr. Spikey. He was definitely getting bigger, blocking access to the faucet and the hot tub filter, but that made the thought of moving him even more daunting.

The solution, if not the mechanics of moving him presented itself when we had a palm tree that was planted too close to the house taken out, leaving a perfect spot for Mr. Spikey. Yesterday I told the tale of moving him twelve feet to the spot vacated by the palm tree. Today, I took his picture in his new home and realized that we have become quite fond of him....