Front yard Cactus garden

[Steve-0]

Here's a recent cactus project. While moving my outdoor overwintered cacti from the backyard raised bed to the front, I thought the porch was looking crowded and needed a better solution.

So I asked my wife if creating a cactus garden was okay. Got the nod and went at it. First I dug up and transplanted a bunch of existing plants, then shoveled 500 kilos of gravel into the alloted space and laid out my cactus then dug them in.

This pic is a few weeks later. Still a work in progress. But those in ground will stay in ground.

[Vingames1]

Looks good

[anttisepp]

Great view!
PS put a pair of red LED lights in a skull

[MrXeric]

Looking good so far!

[madkactus]

what will you do to protect the cacti from cold snaps or torrential rain ?

[Steve-0]

what will you do to protect the cacti from cold snaps or torrential rain ?

These are all Utah natives. I'm going to be their step caretaker after Mother Nature. Today was that 'torrential rain'...next ten days dry and moving up into the high 70's. We'll see how they fare . The Echino. Coccineus has plumped up happily as have the Opuntia polyacantha. This is a South facing plot of my front yard which over ten years ago fried a Japanese maple . I had 130+F degrees in these same cacti's pots last summer during a heat wave. All survived. How the roots didn't boil is beyond me.

[Steve-0]

Great view!
PS put a pair of red LED lights in a skull

Great idea! I happen to have some. During Halloween week this fall for sure. But I could test drive that idea this evening, methinks

[Steve-0]

The idea was gestating and the process began. A friend gave me two Agave parryii. This Echinocereus coccineus has been in the same pot for nearly ten years ...and always outdoors throughout those years. A hard life for sure.

[Steve-0]

Pics from moments ago.

[madkactus]

what will you do to protect the cacti from cold snaps or torrential rain ?

These are all Utah natives. I'm going to be their step caretaker after Mother Nature. Today was that 'torrential rain'...next ten days dry and moving up into the high 70's. We'll see how they fare . The Echino. Coccineus has plumped up happily as have the Opuntia polyacantha. This is a South facing plot of my front yard which over ten years ago fried a Japanese maple . I had 130+F degrees in these same cacti's pots last summer during a heat wave. All survived. How the roots didn't boil is beyond me.

Very nice collection. Yeah, as we all know but perhaps sometimes forget, cacti can take care of themselves. In nature there is nobody to fuss over them and they thrive and do well on their own.

[Steve-0]

[/quote]

Very nice collection. Yeah, as we all know but perhaps sometimes forget, cacti can take care of themselves. In nature there is nobody to fuss over them and they thrive and do well on their own.
[/quote]

My wife reminds me of that very thing....frequently. And when I'm out in the front yard....she says " out communing with the cactus?"...And I of course agree quickly.

[Steve-0]

Last year our summer weather turned the heat up a few notches and during our October vacation trip to Capitol Reef National Park we noticed the difference from the normal late summer dry environment and that current baked earth. The whole state was baked to a crispy, crackly, crunchy tinderbox.

Yeah we had fires, too. But what didn't burn had already been burned by the sun. Even the cacti were cooked. The Scleros took it hardest followed by Opuntia and the Escobaria fared the best. Lots of dried out husks of spines in the shape of a small barrel cactus. Sad. I posted about those in the cacti places sub forum. Right now we're getting a better amount of precip than last year in the snow pack and spring rains...but the forecasters say "not enough". We're in a mega drought and possibly a harbinger of our desert west's future.

The new normal will be no more lawn watering, go xeriscape, rationing and a very slow reversal of human migration out of the desert states. Not fast enough of human egress looking at the current rate of growth, but I predict an eventual reality when the water is all gone. The "water wars" have been brewing for decades. Now science is starting to acknowledge the reality of "perhaps we're too late". The Colorado River feeds 7 states all vying for their share. Las Vegas is the litmus test, IMO. No amount of money thrown at it will bring back the aquifers and Lake Mead. They just tossed $800 million in the latest "straw" to suck more water out of Lake Mead. pffft! Wrong approach, IMO.

Okay off the desert sandpile and back to cactus care and cultivation.

[Steve-0]

A few of my in ground cacti blooming.