New temporary outdoors cactus garden

Well, it's time to find out how well some of my cactii will handle the outdoors. After last weeks heatwave here in Sydney, actually broke records as the longest one recorded, I started noticing how some of my potted columnars started growing eoliated from lack of direct sunlight.
So to combat this I've decided to speed up my plans of putting them fully outdoors, originally planned on getting the bed ready for next spring...that way I could do the digging during the cool of winter rather than on a 33C degree day (90F or so) that we had today.

So I got all the things needed today, or so I thought as I didn't get enough scoria to put down as a base and will have to go back for more tomorrow, and started digging. Right now the frame is in place and as soon as I get another bag or 2 of scoria down in the bottom I'll start filling it back in again with a mix of the original soil, some regular potting mix, cource sand and perlite.

It's 120cm by 60cm now but come winter I'll extend it into an "L" shape going almost all the way to the fence.

Going into the bed tomorrow will be the following.
P. Pachycladus
C. peruvianus
T. Bridgesii
T. pachanoi
E. grusonii
N. leninghausii
N. magnificus
And possibly my Echinopsis hybrid aswell as an M. compressa.

A normal C. peruvianus gets very large very quick (once it's established a decent root network) - will you have enough room in this garden bed?

In fact C. peruvianus will almost always do just fine in ordinary garden soil.

region4 wrote:

A normal C. peruvianus gets very large very quick (once it's established a decent root network) - will you have enough room in this garden bed?

In fact C. peruvianus will almost always do just fine in ordinary garden soil.

Yes C.Peru is one tough customer and will grow almost anywhere once established.

I'm sure it wouldn't have enough room in this little raised bed in the long run but it's only going to be in this spot for 7 months or so. Come the cool season I'm extending this bed along the brick wall almost all the way to the colourbond fence, plan on leaving just enough space between the fence and bed that I can get a lawnmower in there. And I'm also planning on extending it about 2 or so meter along the fence and that bit will be wider than the current little rectangle, virtually an "L" with a fat bottom.

The C. peruvianus will be relocated to a spot in the bottom of that "L" along with some Opuntias, and the other columnars will be spread out along the brick wall. Apart from the ones already mentioned I also have a C. strausii that will be put there aswell.

Not to worried about space in that bed, I'm sure they all will have room to grow for quite a few years before it will be crowded. More worried about the bed I have out in the pool area. There I have one Aloe plicatilis, one C. peruvianus and one M. geometrizans all planted within 50 cm of eachother, that will be a squeeze in a few years I think!

Well, checking the soil in the bed this afternoon it turned out to be drier than the soil in the pots the columars were planted in. And that's even though it's just on a week since I watered them last and it's been raining almost constantly all of yesterday.

So all 4 has been planted out now, waiting a few days before I toss out the small ones...want to get up some shadecloth to block the midday sun first.



As for the winter extensions, here's the plan if you excuse the MS paint artwork.

That will extend this 1.2m long bed by another 2.4m along the brick wall and by another 2 or so meters along the fence.

Likely going to curse the fact that I didn't do more to keep the kikuyu grass out but I'll just have to live with it now and keep the weeding up.

Put the rest of the planned ones out today, got overcast days for the coming week according to the prognsis but I'm going to keep a close eye on them and if they start showing hints of sunburn the shadecloth goes up.


Left to right:
N. leninghausii
E. grusonii
N. magnificus
M. compressa
And my Echinopsis hybrid.

Also found the first casualty of likely overwatering, nice clump of M. glasii started rotting from the center. Think I might of saved some of the pups that were furthest from the rot, both bodies and roots still looked and felt ok.

Looking good mate

Finally got around to start getting what I need to turn my temporary raised bed into something permanent. Starting to sink in just how much work I've got ahead of me now

Temporary bed dwarfed by the beginnings of the new border, temp measurements are 120cm x 60cm.


Heading back to the gardening place tomorrow to pick up bricks for a second layer, could only fit 40 bricks at a time into my little hatchback and just that near bottomed the suspension out
Main bulk of the work will come after I get home from holidays in August, diggin out for and concreting a footing for the bricks and thenreplacing the old topsoil and grass for a sandy loam mixed with dg.

Probably be aiming towards a second bed being made aswell in another spot, that one aimed more towards columnars and some opuntia's.

Also redone an older flowerbed in the yard from being overrun by "flapjacks" to be 99% cactii.
Before

After

Nice work, I'm really impressed. I like the chilli plant sneaking in there too...

That's the "before" image though mate
Only 2 things still alive from that image is the M. geometrizans, the Aloe plicatilis and the Aloe vera. The Aloe vera has been relocated to a big pot as it was just getting to large for that bed.
Chilli plant was taken out a long time ago though as it got scorched to death from the sun last summer. It's tried to grow back several times since though as lots of the chillies it grew fell off and germinated.

Here's what the bloody flapjacks went and did before I took a knife to them.


And what the cute little Aloe vera turned into, that's a 60cm pot it's sitting in!

Those flapjacks can get very invasive... that said, I reckon for speedy growth and their striking colouring they are hard to beat in a large C+S garden. That Aloe vera is going well too. Your climate is obviously highly favourable to these plants.

Bout time I update this thread as the new permanent bed is just about finised

After more than a year without any progress I got started again and have slowly been working towards the finished product.

This was the state in August after work had been halted for over a year, not really a pretty sight in the backyard.


Realised that I'd never get around to finishing it with the then plan of laying down a concrete footing for the retaining wall so I changed plans. Instead of concrete to keep the grass out I created a 2 foot wide "firebreak" that can be nuked with roundup whenever needed. Will be filled with crushed pebbles once I'm finished with putting in plants.

Edging bricks sunk down 15cm into the ground aswell as a 30cm deep plastic edging just inside it ought to keep most of the grass out, anything growing under the bricks will be forced up to the surface by the plastic edge.


Raised gardenbed taking shape, bedded down on a thickish layer of brickes sand and top layer of bricks glued down for added stability. Took abit of angle grinder work to get everything to fit, had to trim the edges on just about every brick in the top layer to get the staggering to work right.

Last 2 weekends (Thursday/Friday to be honest but as I work weekends it's all happening on my days off) I've spent first wheelbarrowing in 1.5 tonnes of sandy loam and then just now finished mixing in quite a few bags of crushed terracotta and a few bags of potting mix, the loam turned out to be mostly straight sand so I had to cut it alittle more.

Also dug in a microspray irrigation line if natural rainfall isn't enough to keep the plants happy.

Speaking of plants, I've had a selection outside under a insectscreen shade sail in order to get them more adjusted to the increased level of direct sunlight. Tomorrow I'll start arranging them up and planting them in, starting with a E. pachanoi and others I had in the temporary bed.

Also plan on moving a 5 foot C. peruvians from my older bed to this new one, be a job and a half I suspect as I'll be attempting it on my own.

much 2 fancy for me. that looks great! nice oreo. i wouldnt plant those opuntias if i where you. they go feral in no time.

Planning on putting one of them in, the macrocentra, if it does go feral it's not to hard to keep cutting pads off to keep it in check. The other one, ficus-indica, I'm keeping in a pot though...just got to pot it up somewhat.

Its gonna look amazing once its done, good work man!!

very cool!! can't wait to see the finished product!!

I have to make a garden too. I would like to have 3 trees removed first. When I start I will keep you updated. Well done keep us posted. (I bet they will grow fast once they hit the ground)

Little update.
Finished amending the soil, placed out some rocks and put a few plants I had in the temporary bed back in.




Tried making abit of a ledge using the rocks but it's hard to see as there's no real shadows falling with the sun just about right overhead. Going to start planting in the rest as soon as I can get my C. peruvians relocated into the new bed.

So the next project in line is to tackle the removal of this one, nicely wedged into a corner of the yard and with other plants all around it that I don't want to disturb more than what I absolutely have to.

Cereus sucessfully transplanted today with a minimum of bloodloss, even managed it without disturbing any of the other plants though it was a bit of hassle having to step over and around them.

Hopefully it will be happy in it's new home.

Give it plenty of room I sucpect it will grow big!!!!

Cool, your cactus garden is looking amazing!! A piece a cactus paradise in your own backyard! Well done & thanks for sharing the process. It's really inspiring. Looking forward to seeing more updates when available.

I've been looking at this with some interest because I'd like to create my own cactus patch after i move house.

Anyway I have a C.peru - its in the garden. I got it as a cutting about 5 years ago from the people up the road. Their peruvianus is quite big, must be 4- 5m tall with heaps of branches, its like a small tree.

Mine however, grew really well for a couple of years and then just stopped. It hasnt really grown in 2-3 years now. It looks ok, just doesnt grow. Maybe its the roots. I'll dig it up and have a look.

Small baby steps will do the trick in the long run.
No new plants put in as I'm waiting for some cooler weather to hit, they are right now sitting underneath some temporary shadecloth as I had to keep them in a shady spot for a few weeks. Planning to start the planting out Thursday this week if the weather behaves.
First 7 bags of pebbles went into the "firebreak" today, likely need another 5 bags to finish that off.


Once I get everything planted I'll topdress the bed with a mix of these pebbles and bluestone river pebbles to give it some variation.

Well done Snow.... I am just thinking with all that work, how 'temporary' is it really?

yes i wondered that as well