My C+S garden

Well it's a quiet day on the forum so I thought I'd post these pics of what is doing well in my garden in Melbourne's suburbs. The ground is continually wet and cold in winter plus most plants are in full shade from the neighbor's house yet even some Astrophytum are doing well, mind you the soil is very sandy.
And oh, if you are thinking of telling me I need to paint the fence don't bother my wife has said it a million times....


One year ago..

Now...

I've been waiting for you to post some pics of this.

I'm still amazed at how happy the astros are in the ground at this time of year. The before and after shots are an interesting comparison too... looks like the columnars love being planted in the ground.

Yeah that is so cool to have astros in the mix and surviving. Nice garden

beautiful! really inspiring

Wow Looks fantastic.I should do something like this myself. Thanks for sharing!

Thanks all I am glad you like it, I reckon that Australia should have more like it. I only watered twice over summer and the it was because I wanted something to do I don't think anything really neded it.
I reckon the astros are doing well cause there are plenty of winter growing species (aloes) that probably keep the soil a bit dryer when it is cold.
I was learning landscape design while I planted this. This is what I reckon on cactus garden design for anyone considering one.
There needs to be thick gravel to keep the weeds down and rocks to make it nice. Take care to consider the height of things their body colour, spine colours and degree of woollyness or waxyness. Plant things close together, groups of ceroids are like cities, globular species in gravel look like things washed up on a beach. Consider and leave plenty of negative space, you can't see in the pics but areas of rocks and gravel look nice without plants. I paln to take out the echeverias because it is easy to over do contrasting colour with c+s. So take it easy with colours then use something to tie it all together, I have gone for pale blue on the chalksticks,ceroids and stuff.
I planted my garden with stuff in my collection that I had no room for and couldn't be bothered caring for. They have done exceptionally well and now this is probably my fovourite plant gazing spot. I highly recommend a c+s garden to any one considering one.

How old is the garden?

I love the pilosocereus azureus? and pilosocereus palmeri? ithink it is what they are good to see them doing well outdoors in melbourne i have a couple of each in pots under cover at about 50cm high they will be going into my small cacti only garden bed im making for spring planting.

Yeh thats right on the pilosocereus CC. P,Glaucescens and magnificus are also doing ok. I am after P.azures seed if anyone has some to sell or trade.
I started planting the garden March 2008 and finished it jan 2009, A couple of things have gone in here or there since then.

i realy realy love these outdoor gardens... they are my favourite and i too one day want to have a great one of my own. crypto yours is awesome and inspiring also. I will definately be getting some tips from yours when i get around to mine.

Anyone after some tips re cactus landscapes is welcome to contact me. I am always interested to learn more about what species will do good in our climate too.

I was interested in the age of the garden to know how many wet winters they had been through. Was your winter unusually wet last year? Ours was ridiculously wet. You seem to have a similar climate to ours down here in Tas... cold, wet winters. I'd like to do my own but the cold wet winters concern me. Geoff, in Devonport, has an excellent outdoor c & s garden... and now you've shown us yours... maybe I can do it after all The tip about winter growing succulents is excellent!!! I hadn't thought about that I'd have to bring in mountains of sandy/rocky soil... our red dirt down here is so heavy and wet during winter. Geoff has more sandy soil where he is too I think... I've started looking for winter active succulents... what others, apart from Aloes, are winter growers? Do Agave fit this profile?

Crypto's outdoor cacti garden was very much the inspiration for me to plant out my two garden beds. Seeing such beautiful plants growing so well in the ground did it for me... I started planning the beds immediately. I honestly never thought such a variety of plants would do so well in a Victorian climate, particularly throughout the wet winters we get.

Great garden Crypto, they all look very healthy too. Are there any species you've tried that just won't put up with Melbourne's weather that you thought might have or has everything gone pretty well so far ?

Hello and good morning. Nice blue c+s garden! Is this a P.azureus?


I have planted lots of plants outside since lest august, and some of my plants I often leave exposed in the rain even in automn & winter months, southern greece is quite mild in climate though, even in the winter.

I think you're spot on when you say planting many plants together, especially aloes+slowgrowers probably protect them from exceeding water, this seems to be true for pot compositions too.

A question: how low does temperature fall in Melbourne?

I will be posting photos of my own outside projects sometime soon

Thanks or the positive comments everyone. Tas V I think agave are winter growers. It is worth a try planting in any soil that is already there just to see how things go. Last winter here was unusually dry but this winter is shaping up to be wet and cold. We have already had some frosts.
Mutant; the winter here is fairly mild. We get few frost in a warm year and maybe a dozen in a cold one the day temp is around 11-15 mid winter.
Navajoa; more the other way around with survival somethings I expected to die have done really well and there are plenty of species that I am getting much better growth from in the ground than I can in pots E.g A.ornatum. That said I thought I would try A Asterias in there this year and it turned to mush but a Loph I chucked in for a laugh is doing fine. The myriostigmas had a few losses in plants under 4 cm but once they are about 6+ cm they seem to do fine.
Biggest problem is hail damage. It is a good idea to have some sort of tree to protect them we have a tea tree that does this to some extent. It has fine leaves that don't get caught up too much in the spines. I also found some of the more tropical Pilosocereus are a bit slow and one of them scarred a little bit when we had a hard frost the winter before last but that has grown out now. Also slug pellets twice in spring and autumn are needed.

Wow, that really is an inspiration. I have been worried about frost and this has stopped me attempting something like this. I may just try a small plot and see how it turns out, I might even get my verandah back, lol.