Do you see any cottony webs in the tree? It looks like it has been stripped by webworms. That is typical of how they work. The natural predator for webworms is the paper wasp that lives in the paper nest under your eaves. If you have those and are not allergic to wasp stings, then leave them there. You can easily have a normal relationship with wasps if you simply don't get nervous. Don't wave your arms around to shoo them away. Don't run away from them. Don't get too close to the nest until you have developed the non-aggressive relationship. It only takes 5 seconds of not being aggressive to develop that rapport. In 2012 I had about 50 wasps living on my back porch - the one with the very low overhanging shed roof. They were literally 6 inches above my head, and I never had a problem. The second natural predator for caterpillars is a liquid suspension of bacillius thurengienses, a bacterial disease that affects only caterpillars. It comes as the brand BT Worm Killer, but Green Light. BT stops them from feeding on contact, and they die in about 3 days. A small bottle of the stuff will be a lifetime supply. It has a shelf life of forever.

OMG, are you sure ? We have had so much rain & I worried too wet. I would seem to think good drainage in this wall area & it I remember, we put some stone in the hole just a tad with the tree to help. I didn't water it much last summer after we put it in, just here & there & it did fine. If you push your finger down 1" beside tree, wet soil so, I haven't watered. Any suggestions ????? TY :)

Gotcha Dave. Sour is often used to mean acidic, though most folks don't probably realize that when they use the word. But I see what you're saying. For my part, I would never advocate purposely mixing uncomposted woodchips into soil. As a mulch layer over the top-yes, of course. But not mixed in. The other problem with bark or woodchip mulches is their tendency to form a hydrophobic mat. It seems that some of these beneficial fungi which colonize the chip layer, over time, glue the whole thing together with their mycellia. I've already seen it where you can lift an entire tree ring of mulch with one hand like it's all one-piece. The only reasonable method for dealing with this-so far as I'm aware-is to get your three-prong cultivator out and gently work the stuff up. That also freshens its appearance. We use wetting agents to water some of our ornamental plantings in areas where stirring up the mulch isn't feasible, but I wouldn't expect the average homeowner to be purchasing wetting agents! BTW, some folks claim just your general-purpose dish detergent will "work just as well" as the expensive pro stuff. I can tell you from direct experience that's not necessarily so. The big manufacturers of consumer goods like dish detergent vary their recipes as different supplies come and go, or as ingredient prices rise and fall. So you never really know what you're getting. At least with professional wetting agents, they are what they say they are. And it is possible to find relatively low-cost ones, relatively being the operative word there. +oM

Hi, Thank you everyone very much! To answer your questions: - Location: Melbourne, Australia - Sun: this area gets a good half a day of direct sunlight - Water/Drainage: This photo as I mentioned, was taken immediately after it rained, so it looks very wet. It is generally well protected from the rain by the leaves. Yes the rocks and sand and coal (i think perlite is another name) is ⅔ of the pot from the bottom. There are 4 big holes in the bottom of the pot and it drains really well. The plants were growing like crazy in this pot for over a year. And I replanted them 3-4 month ago, adding those rocks and sand. So the drainage issue is unlikely. The roots looked healthy. I could put some more rocks on top to protect it from the rain even more. -Plant type: don't know the name, it certainly looks just like K. luciae pictured above in Crenda's comment. There is a different succulent on the side. The very tall fast growing one. The leaves start to develop these black spots or dried edges and then bubble almost in an acid burn looking manner and die off. Should I trim those effected leaves?