Moving house with cacti... a mini-blog

Well folks, the time has come. I have to move house.

Moving house is usually frustrating and tiring enough on its own. I've spent the last week rummaging through a quarter of a century worth of accumulated... stuff. I've sorted and culled through papers (taxes, car rego, insurance), books (from comics to uni law texts), sporting goods (why do I have so many golf balls?), musical instruments (an accordian? I don't recall buying that...) and assorted stuff from my childhood (ZOMG space lego!). I've spent my first weekend off from work since october boxing stuff up. I've made umpteen trips to Bunnings to buy more plastic crates to store everything. I think I'm nearly ready to move all my stuff.

However, being a bit of a cacti freak, there's a spanner thrown in the works. How do I move all of this:



Stay tuned to find out...

um...very carefully? lol, keep us posted

Styrofoam boxes, I have many pots packed into those in anticipation of moving

I have all my smaller cacti in wire baskets, it ensures airflow under the pots and also makes them very easy to move around.

re the accumulated stuff. It's the only thing that keeps me from moving elsewhere! And I would need a truck just for the cacti collection and then i wouldn't trust anyone else to do it.
Keep us updated, will be interesting.

My heart goes out to you - the last time I moved 2 moving men got seriously thorned despite my warnings of how to carry them, and then my Dad did his back in lifting one at the new location.

Actually that one has been stuck on a chair at the bottom of the stairs ever since.

I recommend for the bigger ones you use one of those little trolleys they use to move fridges with. Even if they aren't that heavy, it still protects from the spikes.

LOL oh dear.... Well at least there doesn't seem to be any plants there there that are too big. Let us know how you go!!

Step one: Round 'em up.




Step two: Load 'em in.




Step three: Roll out...

As for these ones:




...You're gonna need a bigger boot.

This one wanted a window seat...

Good work bro!
nice view you used to have, green looking.
i like Mornington penninsula, where abouts are you moving to?

BTW nice pereskiopsis shrub. i see what you mean when you said in the other post about growing it just as a specimen plant. post if it flowers.
come on... someone has to get it to flower in Aus!!

Well, I was based in Mount Eliza, but I'm shifting to Langwarrin. Not as leafy and green, but more sunlight for my collection...

Load a few more up...

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Once they're at their new home, the site is prepared:



(In other words, dig a bloody great big hole in the ground, and ensure good drainage with a heap of scoria)


...And before you know it, the little devils are making their own way to their new home:

Looks great Lachy. It must be stressful for the plants and you to be moving but they look happy now. I can wait to see that bed in a couple of years.

Looks wonderful Lach Keep us posted on the growth

Well done, nice patch...

I regularly move my own cacti [mostly columnars] that have grown a bit from my home roof where I keep the most to a nearby location where I keep a mobile home and my cacti garden. I could provide photos of some such moving if you like. Oh, sometimes I get a spine or two broken, but that's all.

Awesome Lachy !

Cheers for the comments, guys.

This is definitely going to be an ongoing project. I've got a second bed planted out with US and Mexican species... However, I'm currently doing battle with the grass that has sprouted in the second bed, but once that's under control I'll get some more pics.

In the meantime, I'm already seeing good signs of growth on the plants in this bed. Several of the trichs are responding really well to the dynamic lifter that I forked through the soil prior to planting, and I reckon that this garden should look really nice within a year or so.

*WARNING*

When moving large trich's be careful they dont fall on you. My uncle Murry has been in and out of hospital all week getting spines removed from his scalp and back

BTW the garden bed is looking great... i use round up on the kikuyu in my garden.

darren

Quote :

My uncle Murry has been in and out of hospital all week getting spines removed from his scalp and back

Yeowch... that sounds severely painful. I hope he recovers soon.



Just out of curiousity... what species was it that attacked him?

Quote :

However, I'm currently doing battle with the grass that has sprouted in
the second bed

I am currently into such battles by self! pics coming too

I've actually seen ads for a gadget that is basically a butane jet lighter on a long wand, designed to incinerate the weeds in situ. I'm seriously considering getting one after attempting to hand weed around an Opuntia that I'm now dubbing O. bastardo-plantae, or possibly O. humungus-payne...

Link.

Quote :

Just out of curiousity... what species was it that attacked him?

i reckon T. bridgesii but severely malnutritioned!... i think it may have been payback for all those years of neglect.

Quote :

butane jet lighter on a long wand, designed to incinerate the weeds in situ

I HAVE GOTTA GET ME ONE OF THOSE!!!!!!!!
i am training my 3 year old son to remove all weeds from my garden he is coming along very well! O. bastardo-plantae & O. humungus-payne could prove problematic.

darren

As promised, here's the progress of the second bed:











And here's the one that bit me, identified by more charitable souces as O. aciculata:



I've tried weeding around it whilst wearing gloves, however I've since discovered that leather rigger's gloves are no impediment to vicious spines. In fact, they are simply a further source of discomfort as the spines also tend to break off, effectively stapling the gloves to my hands...