Creating a Cactus Garden, with Caboose

Between WP668, our backyard caboose, and the lawn, I am creating a cactus
garden. This ground used to be part of our old swimming pool and its wooden
deck before we removed those to install our 1916 caboose. The swimming pool
was filled with 180 tons of crushed granite, compacted every eight inches,
so drainage will never be a problem. Our neighbor,
Felix Quintero (408-592-4341, San Jose CA), is helping us create the new
garden.

I have been collecting plants for six months for this project. Already planted in January is an Evergreen Pear tree (Pyrus Kawakamii). The two biggest cactus are named
Boris and Natasha. Boris
is a Golden Barrel Cactus and Natasha is a Trichocereus Terscheckii. John
bought them from Poot’s House of Cactus
in Ripon CA for my birthday last year. Look at the photos below to see why Boris
and Natasha have those names.

Some of my inspiration for this garden came from the Pacific Horticulture
(July/August/September 2007 V.68 #3) story “A Cactus Garden Takes Shape”
by Don Shultz, about the redesigned Bruckner Cactus and Succulent Garden at
the Water Conservation Garden at Cuyamaca College in San Diego, California.

We started two weeks ago by surrounding the location which will be the cactus
garden with the spare railroad ties we purchased when we bought WP668 two years
ago. These border ties will help keep the new gravel off the brick walkways and
out of the lawn. Felix then dug a Y-shaped trench which will be the dry creek
(or arroyito). The dirt from the arroyito went into a new planting mound,
to which was added sand and compost to lighten the soil.

Last week, John and I went to South Bay Materials (San Jose CA) and bought
two 3/4-tonboulders plus a ton of “Salmon Bay” gravel. We have more rocks
and gravel to buy for the arroyito. Last Saturday, Felix and I planted seven
cactus. Next weekend, we install the boulders and the gravel and stones of
the arroyito. Here are photos of the work so far:

Natasha at Poot’s September 2007

Boris & Mr. Poot September 2007

Loading cactus September 2007

John, Mr. & Mrs. Poot September 2007

WP668 and yard two weeks ago

Arroyito dug out last week

Arroyito close up

Buying our new boulder

Gravel at South Bay Materials

1st Gravel delivery

New boulders delivered

Planting Boris

Felix Digging

Moving Boris into hole

Cactus Planting Queue

1st seven planted

Felix, Katy, John

1st gravel load

Gravel adjustments by Katy

Images Copyright 2007-2008 by Katy Dickinson and John Plocher