Rare agave garden in Templeton resembles a desert ghost town

In the hills of Templeton a unique and rare garden has been sown that really should be growing somewhere in the desert.

Jim Harlow has created a wonderland of over 100 species of agave — and that doesn’t even take into account the varieties of cactus and yucca. In a relatively small space of 30-by-60 feet, his garden follows a winding path along a hillside slope.

Harlow became interested in cacti more than 20 years ago while living in San Diego. He says he’s “into spines,” and as he describes each succulent or cacti his passion becomes apparent. He is a proud propagator and speaks lovingly of leaf patterns, colors, end point spikes — or each plant’s unique growing habits.

When it comes to the spines, “they are just the plant’s defense mechanism, how can you fault a plant for that”?

After choosing the perfect spot for his garden, Harlow dug out the hillside, preparing the foundation with sand, a needed component for good drainage for these varieties. With a large boulder at one corner, he built a stacked stone wall around his garden with rock from the property.

However, rains washed away most of the soil prep work, and in 2003 the earthquake took care of the walls. So Harlow took a different garden path — opting to plant in the native soil.

When planting a cacti or succulent, he adds his own mixture of cactus planting soil but leaves the surrounding native soil untouched. If a plant doesn’t survive for some reason, he digs it up and plants a new favorite.

He rebuilt the rock walls using rusted wire as a brace, and rustic objects became a theme throughout the garden. Paths evolved with each new planting, winding back and forth towards the bottom of the hillside. He waters them during the hottest part of the year and uses row cover to shield tender succulents and cacti during winter frosts. If a plant has “fleshy” leaves, it tends to hold water and is more susceptible to freezing.

In describing the different varieties in his garden, Harlow said agaves have lanceolate-shaped leaves and are monocarpic, meaning the plant only blooms once and then dies. The leaves originate from the cayote, which is the center mass of the plant. You never know when they will bloom; it may take years.

The agaves send up a long stalk or inflorescence with flowers at the top. Some of these stalks actually have pups or bulbil, and if removed with roots intact can be easily planted. Agaves also send out pups that are miniature agave plants on runners along the ground. Those can be dug up and planted to ensure that the agave species will survive once the main plant flowers and dies.

Yucca, on the other hand, looks like agave but blooms every year depending on weather conditions; it does not die. Cacti bloom depending on age and weather conditions and may flower with autumn rains. Most bloom in the spring, however.

The cacti and succulents in the garden are interesting, but so are many of Harlow’s hidden treasures. He has old broken bottles, pestle and stone bowls from years past, rusted artifacts and a large cement cattle skull. A faux rattlesnake suns on a rock.

Some of the more interesting plants are variegated leaf agave Y. aloifolia, dark green with feather-tipped spines Agave elbopilosa, and A. tequiluana, the agave used to make tequila. On the day I visited, a small cacti covered with long white hair named the “Old Man” peeks out from behind an agave. An Echinopsis huacha with multi-tall single columns features a beautiful red flower. And a F. latispinus, a small barrel-type cactus with flower-like pink spikes covering green wavy folds, shows off a small bright purple flower nestled among the spines.

This garden reminds you of a desert ghost town with all of its hidden treasures — but it has the sophistication of a botanical garden.

Harlow likes to say that nature calms him. But with each unique, different and interesting plant in his garden, you can see that Jim has calmed nature in a place that usually doesn’t grow such beautiful plants.

This story was originally published November 23, 2016 at 5:48 AM with the headline "Rare agave garden in Templeton resembles a desert ghost town."