First Take

Several years ago, my co-worker, John Vaughn, gave me a bucket of desert plants for my yard.

They were perfect for my style of gardening, which is basically plant it and promptly forget about it.

It’s been over a decade, and these plants have thrived.

My husband and I recently decided to tackle one of the agave, which has become the final resting place for all the neighborhood leaves.

Armed with shovels and gardening gloves, we started pulling out piles of debris from under this plant. And, readers, I knew this guy had grown significantly from his days of arriving in a bucket, but WOW. I had no idea how big it was until we started cleaning it up.

Underneath the debris, we found lots of baby agave offshoots – enough to fill our own bucket to give to friends.

But our giant agave didn’t give up its treasures without a fight. Based on the scratches, I should have worn a coat of armor!