New high bed for small outdoor cacti

Jens · Post by **Jens** » Sun Mar 27, 2011 5:16 pm

Progress on the little cactus-highbed:

I first put in a drainage of coarse sand and stones between the GH and the highbed.

Then I layed 3 layers of old brick around.

Next will be some more stones for drainage, then a layer of water permeable fleece to prevent the substrate from filling the holes of the drainage layer. And then the substrate for the outdoor cacti + some more bigger stones.

Jens · Post by **Jens** » Tue Mar 29, 2011 6:28 pm

Slowly progressing....
Some stones and sand

water permeable fleece and more sand and stones

Next layer will be the growing substrate.
I will use stony sand also and add some porous material.. like this.

It is used for damping under floors in dry construction, I don´t really know what it is but a friend uses it in his cactus substrate a lot with some success.

And maybe also some organic material like this?
What do you think?

Peterthecactusguy · Post by **Peterthecactusguy** » Tue Mar 29, 2011 11:28 pm

Jens, I personally would be careful adding that to a cacti bed. (I mean the organic materials).

The other stuff seems ok so far so long as water can drain through the soil quickly and doesn't get trapped and stay wet for a long time.
The compost would be great for a veggie garden or something like that.

Post by **daiv** » Wed Mar 30, 2011 3:23 am

Jens, that garden cart looks pretty new. I think you need to make a few more raised beds to break it in.

The picture of the organic material looks like it has a lot of clay in it, but the close-up looks like a sandy loam.

I guess you'll want to mix in some sort of organic matter unless you plan on regular fertilizer use.

Jens · Post by **Jens** » Wed Mar 30, 2011 6:22 am

Thanks Peter and Daiv,
I was planing to add like 10% of the organic material which is pure degraded material from the garden and household and charcoal from the bon fires in the garden...

...as Daiv suggested to use it as a fertilizer in the groundmix.
I will put in all of the airy stuff and maybe some perlite and lavagrains and some granitechips.
I´m going to plant some of the Echinocereus und Escobaria from the greenhouse in there.
Jens

Jens · Post by **Jens** » Thu Mar 31, 2011 4:35 pm

The growing substrate was put in consisting of stony sand that already had a little rotten organic material in it, grey granite chips , degraded granite (only about 5%), airy dry construction stuff.
Maybe I should put on a top layer of lava chips between the plants to keep their necks warm!?

Peterthecactusguy · Post by **Peterthecactusguy** » Thu Mar 31, 2011 9:21 pm

Jens ok. I just didn't want you to add tons of the organic stuff and run into trouble in the future!

Jens · Post by **Jens** » Sat Apr 02, 2011 7:06 pm

Oh no no Peter
That was really usefull to think about. After all this is going to be a place for cacti other than opuntia which will probably grow slower and (hopefully ) do better in the cold if not pushed too hard with fertilizing contents in the substrate. I decided not to put in any of the black stuff in the end.
Thanks again for your coment.
Jens

Peterthecactusguy · Post by **Peterthecactusguy** » Sat Apr 02, 2011 11:03 pm

Jens no problem. I don't use much of the organic stuff for plants I put in the ground. I do use fertilizer and some of the plants I don't water hardly at all are doing fine in the crappy dirt that is in my yard.

BTW it looks wonderful. I can't wait til you get some plants in there!

I like watching other people's projects unfold. One of these days I will do a segment on all the different areas of my yard and what my plans are for the future.

Jens · Post by **Jens** » Tue Apr 05, 2011 7:23 pm

I finally put the first plants in

Overview

EC russantus , EC reichenbachii v. baileyi fma. albispinus, Escobaria emscoetteriana v. runyonii

Seedling Ec russantus from West river Range

Seedling Ec adustus

Escobaria sneedii and missouriensis and EC dasyacanthus (might not be too coldhardy

)

Gymnocalycium bruchii and gibbosum

3x Pterocactus (valentinii, gonjanii, tuberosus)

RayC · Post by **RayC** » Tue Apr 05, 2011 7:33 pm

Looks good to me Jens

iann · Post by **iann** » Tue Apr 05, 2011 11:08 pm

I have an Echinocereus dasyacanthus in my garden. It survived last winter with no protection from me, but it is in an extremely dry spot and very close to the south wall of my house. In fact right now it looks about the best of all my outdoor cacti. Presumably still has its roots from being in a dry spot but is finding enough water to make it fat.

Jens · Post by **Jens** » Wed Apr 06, 2011 9:54 am

Thanks Ray.
@iann : gives me some hope for this dasy. It is a trial and error game anyway- but still will be fun to find out.
Jens

Christer Johansson · Post by **Christer Johansson** » Wed Apr 06, 2011 10:28 am

It looking good

If I ever gets a chance to make an outdoor plantation with cacti I will take a picture from above the plantation and add text as labels, print that out and get it laminated, and finally remove the labels from the plantation. But that's just me

Peterthecactusguy · Post by **Peterthecactusguy** » Wed Apr 06, 2011 10:46 am

Jens,
cool that you got your plants into the ground!

IT will be neat to watch your garden progress!
BTW it looks good too!

Good luck with your in ground plants!