My overgrown cactus garden

[MerryPrankster]

So, a lot of these cactuses have been in for 5-7 years and for the last 3 or 4 have been completely neglected. While I haven't gotten much height, there are a fuckton of pups. I want to dig them out, put in better soil and revitalise the area. I also want to put down rocks to keep the grass down. I would just weed it but some of those spines are huge, so I think it would be easier to dig everything out. 

 

Any ideas on what I've got here and how to best attack this problem? 

 

 

[Evil Genius]

My experience with planted out cacti is kinda limited because it's too cold here, but I would definitely remove all the weeds in the area and put stones around them to keep them from coming up again. And yeah, I'd also use lots of fertilizer and plant extracts to improve their health. Get a good professional fertilizer that doesn't cause burns and use some like Seaweed extract, calming, diluted coconut water etc. There's lots of things that improve plant health and I feel you should just keep the area more dry and provide more nutrients. 

[MerryPrankster]

I've developed a plan:
 

• Pull everything that is not a cactus out
• pour lots of watered down compost tea on it and then cover with a layer of fresh soil.
• I think I have some forest mulch somewhere so I'll mulch it, that should stop the weeds. 

[Xperiment]

Throw down some old manure or slow release fertiliser and sheet-mulch over the grass with wet cardboard, then whatever you like over the top of that 

[zelly]

If i wanted the results ur looking for I'd go scorched earth approach...all them weed & grasses have seeds which will sprout forever, even thru layers of rocks....burn em & their parents....use a propane torch or similar around the plants you want to save, the ashes will benefit the soil & roots.

 

digging them up puts them in shock which will retard growth for awhile while they recover...bad idea imo.  burn out the grasses weeds & seeds  then sprinkle time release ferts around the plants.....each time the ferts get wet they release a tiny bit of chems, thus providing regular feedings over 4-6 months