About Good Succulents
One Yard, One Conversion.
Everything Here Came Out of It.
Good Succulents is written by [YOUR NAME], in USDA zone [ZONE], where the front lawn came out in [YEAR] and never went back.
Who Writes This
I am not a landscape contractor. I am a homeowner in zone [ZONE] who got tired of paying to keep a lawn alive through a dry summer, pulled it out in stages, and replaced it with gravel, drought tolerant ground cover, a small strip of artificial turf and a lot of succulents.
That project started in [YEAR]. Most of the plants in the beds have now been through [NUMBER] full summers, which is long enough to know which ones were a mistake. The succulent growing pages on this site go back further, to years of keeping plants in pots before any of them went into the ground.
Everything published here has been done in this yard, in this climate, at this scale. Where something has not been tested, it says so on the page.
The Conversion
What Changed, Section by Section
Two drawings of the same front yard, before the lawn came out and after the beds filled in. They are illustrations rather than photographs, so treat them as a diagram of the plan, not as a picture of the finished result.
Before
Wall to wall turf, two sprinkler zones running through the summer, and the same bald patches coming back every August.
After
Gravel across the open ground, succulents and agaves grouped by water need, boulders for structure, drip line instead of spray, and one small strip of artificial turf on the high traffic side of the walkway.
Photographs of the finished yard are being added as each bed matures. Until then these drawings show the layout rather than standing in for a photo.
How This Site Is Written
No plant is recommended that has not spent at least one full season in this yard or in these pots. Failures get written up alongside the wins, because the plants that burned in full sun are more useful to you than another list of the same six popular varieties.
The plant that died here is worth more to you than the one that lived.
Where a page carries an affiliate link, the disclosure sits with the link itself. Products are named only when they were actually used here.
The Sections
What You Will Find Here
01
The Yard Conversion
Xeriscape design, drought tolerant plants and ground covers, the grass versus turf decision, and what the whole thing cost line by line.
02
Growing Succulents
Watering, light, soil, pots, propagation and the varieties worth planting, indoors and out.
03
The Planning Playbook
A free guide that walks through the yard conversion on paper before any money is spent on materials.
Get in Touch
Questions about a plant, a bed, or something on the site: [CONTACT_EMAIL]. Every message is read.
Planning Your Own Conversion?
Start with the same worksheet used to plan this yard. It is free.