Landscaping with cactus

[CβL]

Congratulations bit! :D

About the only things I had to add you already have planned, the raised bed and the stone mulch. I hope you enjoy planting it out.

[bit]

Well, yesterday was MOVING DAY!!

I don't have too many pictures of the moving process. We started the day at 7.30am, and didn't finish till after 10pm.

We used a 3-tonne truck. Up until about 1pm we were moving furniture etc.

After moving a 4 bedroom house full of stuff, we were already pretty tired, but then it was onto the cactus! Three of us moved the bulk of the collection, continuing well into the dark. ( I can't thank my good friends enough). We all suffered spines in hands and arms, but nothing serious. Most of the "injuries" came as fatigue set in and we became complacent/careless with the handling.

We used a combination of trolley and hand-trucks to move the plants. A hand truck with plastic shopping bags (see pic) between the truck and stem, and another bags to steady from the the other side, made it fairly straightforward to handle even the biggest of the plants.

Once in the truck, they were secured against the walls of the truck using cushions, pillows, and bags. Bear in mind that I was only transporting less than 10 minutes down the road, and could happily drive the whole way at 40km/h. The pic shows after we had started to remove the cushions, hence the slack in the strop. I think we did four loads in the truck, and a load of the small/short ones in a trailer.

All of the bridgesii were laid down due to their lack of girth/fragility. At no point did we have any standing plants not along the walls of the truck where they could be secure, except once where I left a taquim unsecured, thinking it was too short at 2 foot to fall over. It subsequently fell over and skewered some of the bridge laying down

In terms of plant casualties:. Unfortunately the taquim referred to above is now a 3-header instead of 4 as I ripped an arm off (I was pretty tired by this point) while trying to stand it up (it was stuck pretty well to the bridge beneath hah). One of my 1m tall bridges was snapped almost totally in half, but I'm hopeful it can graft itself together again. Good thing I have lots of them anyway. And the other major casualty was my 2m+ tall fat bridgesii. I accidentally stood on it and broke the foot long pup off while unloading the second to last trip (pictured) (it got me back - a spine went through my shoe into the underside of my foot!) - again, I was really tired by this point and simply forgot it was behind me when unloading a plant on the right side of the truck. Not too concerned about it however, as I needed to propagate it as it was too tall to stand on it's own and was leaning against a wall for the last few years.

I think that's about it really. I was pretty lucky given the amount of plants, inexperienced helpers, and moving a lot in the dark!

I'll get some pics of their current home hopefully some time this week (unfortunately it's usually dark by the time I get home).

Edited May 20, 2012 by bit

[Bert&Ernie]

wow lovely looking cacti collection mate

I cant wait to see the rest of them in there new home

[mutant]

Nice!!! For inspiration,even though its not a back yard...

[bit]

I like the scattered rocks in those pics. I do have an idea that I'll create a couple of hidey spots for lophs to emulate their natural environment. I do have some nice hebes to plant too which will break it up a bit, as well as some nice echeverias.

A couple more pics of the removal of the ground plants. These I managed to dig out all by myself with next to no damage, quite happy with that. Got a mate to help me lift them into the back of a trailer wrapped in old blankets. They're currently on the lawn at the new place looking like bodies lined up

We also managed to dig up and transport our 7+ year old polyphylla. It's at least 1m across and heavy and awkward as hell to move!! There were about 5 more trips / trailerloads of garden stuff including cacti.

I'm completely shattered tonight. It's been one hell of along week being backward and forward. I think next time we move I"m only going to take 10-15 cuttings of my favourite plants, and that's it.

Oh, and I also had to walk around the yard in the dark and say goodbye and good luck to some smaller trichs I had to leave behind in the garden. I wished them luck and told them I'd come back for them if they're not wanted by the next renter. Was a bit sad :/

Edited May 24, 2012 by bit

[bit]

So this is basically what I have planned, lines are a bit crooked but you get the idea I hope.

The yellow is the garden outline, the red is the path through the garden. The pink is where the tall cacti will be, the blue is where the shorter plants will go

[Alice]

Good plan Bit, looks like you've got a really nice place there. I'd offer to send you a cactus cutting as a house warming present, but looks like you have that covered already

[CβL]

Hey bit,

I think you should touch that fence while you can, because in 4 years you won't be able to reach it ever again haha.

But in seriousness, I think they will grow very quick once in the ground, and that they will quickly merge together into a wall. I think you'll have something like this in a couple of years:

Is that what you're after?

[bit]

That's awesome!! but no, I will not be planting them in a line like they are lined up now :D There's not THAT many plants to fill a really large area - it looks smaller in the photo than it actually is.

[san p]

what a mission,good effort bit! have you had a look at PDs property on his gallery?hes my hero:)

[Halcyon Daze]

I like to use other South/ central american plants to complement my Trichos.

Eg. Birds of paradise, Agave mexicana, Monstera deliciosa, Frangipanni, Bromeliads, Crucifix orchids, Salvias. Anything with large tropical looking leaves looks really good with trichos. Many of these plants can handle a bit of frost. They all look really good together but are too sprawling for the smaller cacti which I leave in pots.

Also, get some feature rocks going. The bigger the better but it's not easy work.