Weekend Wrapup: Escapees & a sad picture

My garden is set up with planting beds edged with concrete edging, to keep the plants away from the decomposed granite (DG) empty spaces. Think of the DG like a desert-appropriate alternative to grass, maybe? It's permeable, and allows any water we do get to soak into the ground. It also lets other things grow, although since the DG isn't watered, usually nothing much grows (other than mutant, alien Bermuda grass, for some reason). In the Spring, all poppies and other wild flowers do like growing in the DG after winter rains. But the edging keeps a pretty clean boundary between the very full planting beds and the "negative space" of the DG.

This has worked really well for a long time... until i noticed this:

this is Epilobium canum

and this is Aloe maculata

Just to clarify, the blue lines are where the edging is. Plants are supposed to stay on the other side...

i mean, this plant has basically taken over the entire bed, so maybe i shouldn't be surprised?

but the Aloes are barely winter hardy here?

For the record, that edging is probably about 5-6 inches deep, and about 4 inches wide. So yea - nature will always find a way? I'm conflicted about whether to pull them out, or admire their tenacity. At least it's not Bermuda grass?

Speaking of sad things, this has always been one of my favorite views in the garden:

Agave ovatifolia  and Opuntia macrocentra, both probably 8 years old, planted at the same time

Those two plants have been growing since the first year that i had a back garden to grow something in. The opuntia blooms it's head off each year, and the agave always looks good. Except...

that is rot... sigh

that is not good

I'm willing to bet a medium sum of money that the Agave is more gopher damage, probably made worse by the wet winter we had? Or maybe the snow? Our winter wasn't usually cold or wet, but the snow was strange. The opuntia is a bit more of a mystery, but there is gopher mound right in the middle of the plant, so hey, let's blame them!

I didn't have the heart this weekend to pull them out... so stand by for future pictures. I'm trying to be excited to plant something different, but honestly, i will likely replant some of the opuntia pads, and get a new agave ovatifolia. I like this combination so much... 7 years isn't that long to wait?