bit Posted May 7, 2012 Hi all Many of you will have seen my fairly extensive Tricho collection - well, the time has come to get it in the ground. We have purchased a good size property, of which a BIG corner will form my cacti and succulent oasis. I'm looking for ideas - layouts, materials, colours etc. I'm sure there are a lot of nicely landscaped cacti gardens around the world, and I'd like to see pics. Despite my assurity google seems to be letting me down. The gardens must be out there, but where are the photos??? Inspiration so far: . To give you an idea, I have about 15-20m along the longest edge, and the area is flat. I will be building it up approx 2 foot with free draining soil. I also want a pathway to run through it. Anyways, if you've got any fantastic examples of landscaping I'd love to see them! I don't care whether they're natural or man-made looking. With regard to weed control, I have been advised to use weedmat, and keep the holes for the cactus rather large 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bit Posted May 7, 2012 So, we took possession of the new place on Friday Hopefully you can click on the images for larger versions. As promised, here are some pics of the garden where the cacti are going. You can see in this first pic the edge of the deck. There will be pavers extended from the deck by about 2-3 metres. The garden will be extended to the edge of the pavers. Enjoy the following pics as the inlaws and wifey got stuck into bringing the trees down to ensure the cactus garden gets a bunch of sunshine! There's no pic of the entire garden and side of the house, but the garden will be extended to run down the entire side of the house, as per the plan view I sketched up above. A view from a bit further back - the tree in the foreground is approximately how far the paving will come out, the rest up to the fence will be CACTUS GARDEN!!!: One of the bigger trees, a leyland cypress about to come down :D Tiiiiimmmmbbbbeeeerrrrr!!! Still a few more to go, but they ran out of daylight. Bring back summer!! haha. Progress will be slow through winter as we'll be busy snowboarding every other weekend, and during the week we leave and get home from work in darkness. Hopefully we will have a good chunk of the work done by spring so that the plants can take advantage of the growing season 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Bert&Ernie Posted May 7, 2012 if i go over to my friends house some time soon he has a really nice cati garden and ill try and get some pics of it the main part has like a mound with like more succulents around the outside and cacti in the middle... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Bert&Ernie Posted May 7, 2012 looks like a pretty neat garden you have there i cant wait to see it full of cacti hehehe Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bit Posted May 7, 2012 Here's the plan view sketchup (not to scale) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tipz Posted May 7, 2012 (edited) (edit) I have seen your collection on youtube BIT, do you think your going to have enough room ? Your collection is gigantic ! Edited May 7, 2012 by tipz 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Bert&Ernie Posted May 7, 2012 (edited) wow tipz that second last pic is absolutely orgasmic I hope you update this thread while your doing the garden so we can see how it slowly grows Edited May 7, 2012 by jwerta Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tonic Posted May 7, 2012 I'm really looking forward to how this thread pans out and how your cacti garden turns out bit. Some great pics so far. I will see if I can add any and help with some suggestions too. I only have a few in the ground as yet. When I move eventually I want to have a proper cacti garden too. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
space cadet swami Posted May 7, 2012 ^^^^please keep us all updated with progress pics...am looking forward to watching it unfold. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jonstn Posted May 7, 2012 Looking forward to seeing the progress Heres some pics of the cactus garden at Adelaide botanic gardens: http://www.shaman-australis.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=30229&hl=&fromsearch=1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
zelly Posted May 7, 2012 Hey Bit, just a thought if it's not too late......what I do when i want to remove a big tree, stump & all is dig a hole, say a meter wide, all around the base of the tree, cutting off all the lateral roots I run into. Then it's fairly easy to topple the tree. and there's no in ground stump to deal with. About the only advice I can give you on your cactus patch is choose slow growing plants or plants that retain their basic foot print over the course of time. Dont be concerned about upward growth, its the lateral growth you have to worry about. For example I planted some small Euphorbia tirucalli plants I had and within several years they were so huge they were overpowering everything around them. An variegated Agave americana started out with 30 cm leaves and when it finally flowered it had 1.5 m leaves Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Sallubrious Posted May 7, 2012 (edited) It will be great to see how your new garden develops. Maybe you could save a few pictures of different species and photo shop them onto your background once you have it all cleared out. I notice the Echinocatus grusonii feature in a few of those pics, they really are an awesome feature in any garden, people who don't like cactus seem to like them for some reason. Maybe it's just because of the size they get to? I'd find a place for a few of them if I was planning a cactus garden, they make a good contrast to the upright columnar features of the trichs etc ,they tend to draw the eye in different way so the veiwers focus is never in place for long. They do cost a bit to get good sized specimens though. Edited May 8, 2012 by SallyD Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mutant Posted May 8, 2012 looking forward to seeing this Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
vual Posted May 8, 2012 WOW............. that garden is amazing! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Nemisty Posted May 8, 2012 Makes me sad to think I will probably never be able to afford a little slice of land in this country to call my own and make an awesome garden. Very jealous indeed man. Will be watching this thread with much interest. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
slice Posted May 8, 2012 sorry to see a tree cut down. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bit Posted May 8, 2012 More than one tree being cut down ;) Don't worry though they're not native, and will serve us well in the form of firewood Cutting the trees down also helps us as they were never pruned or trimmed, and have grown out of control thus dropping leaves and needles on the roof of the house which leads to the degradation of the tiles and ultimately holes in the roof! Thanks for the pictures and links so far! I will definitely be updating this thread, but as above it will be a slow process. The first thing will be the actual move in the next couple of weeks, during which I plan to just rest the pots on the top of the garden. After that I will need to do some careful planning and saving of pennies to afford the extra soil and edging and paving etc 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Bert&Ernie Posted May 8, 2012 (edited) Oh I forgot to mention you should get rid of most if not all of that lawn Edit: oops lol I meant LAWN xD Edited May 8, 2012 by jwerta Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
etherealdrifter Posted May 8, 2012 So, we took possession of the new place on Friday Hopefully you can click on the images for larger versions. As promised, here are some pics of the garden where the cacti are going. You can see in this first pic the edge of the deck. There will be pavers extended from the deck by about 2-3 metres. The garden will be extended to the edge of the pavers. Enjoy the following pics as the inlaws and wifey got stuck into bringing the trees down to ensure the cactus garden gets a bunch of sunshine! There's no pic of the entire garden and side of the house, but the garden will be extended to run down the entire side of the house, as per the plan view I sketched up above. A view from a bit further back - the tree in the foreground is approximately how far the paving will come out, the rest up to the fence will be CACTUS GARDEN!!!: One of the bigger trees, a leyland cypress about to come down :D Tiiiiimmmmbbbbeeeerrrrr!!! Still a few more to go, but they ran out of daylight. Bring back summer!! haha. Progress will be slow through winter as we'll be busy snowboarding every other weekend, and during the week we leave and get home from work in darkness. Hopefully we will have a good chunk of the work done by spring so that the plants can take advantage of the growing season the guy in the corner overseeing the worx is posing in the classic 'donger' pose. love it 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
shruman Posted May 9, 2012 Nice inspiration pics, the one common theme through all of them that I just hate & I hope you do not spoil your garden with is those stupid pebbles, eeuurghh yuuucckk, they look so artificial & fake. Bigger pieces of bushrock or something, check out some of Trouts in situ pics of lophs squashed in between rocks for inspiration there. All the best with it, shall be quite an endeavour but I'm sure your plants are gonna love you for letting them stretch there toes. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
san p Posted May 9, 2012 goodshit bit,stoked for ya! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
GoOnThen Posted May 9, 2012 (edited) This is a cool thread as I am hoping to plant a lot of mine out this year. I am also interested in how the move went and how you managed to move the bigger columns This is a amazing garden called Jardin exotique de monaco Cheers Got[ Edited May 9, 2012 by GoOnThen 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mutant Posted May 9, 2012 I hope I can take some shots this year from my outside project - its not quite the same thing as a house yard though, as it's semi-wild, so weeds always come back to co-form a semi-wild cactus-garden. I got a ferocactus spot - ferocacti love it the ground, so be sure to plant a couple or 15 of them in the ground! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
lhb2444 Posted May 10, 2012 epic thread, the 2nd last photo in GOT's post is crazy, can't believe how woody the prickly pear is! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites