I wrote
last week about how we have started to create the cactus garden
next to WP668, our backyard caboose. Here is the second installment
about that ongoing project. Of course, any new job requires at least
one new tool, so John started by renting a small fork lift to move the
two new boulders into the garden. (The boulders are from the California
Sierra range, one weighs 1,668 pounds and the other 1,242 pounds,
according to the tags from South Bay Materials where we bought them.)
Hertz Equipment Rental (San Jose) delivered the forklift last Friday
right into our driveway. Hertz does a great job.
Next day, John and Felix Quintero took down a section of the fence,
emptied the hot tub, and moved the emptied hot tub (with help from
Paul and me). Because a hot tub’s water is treated with
chemicals to keep it clean, it has to be emptied into the sewer
instead of the storm drain. The rocks at one end of my garden also
had to be moved to get the fork lift through. We sacrificed some plants
in that bed but they are bulbs so they will grow back. One of the boulders
got dropped (no damage to it or us, thankfully) and the lawn and brick walk
got dinged some but otherwise, all went well.
After the boulders were placed, we started spreading out the
gravel we moved in last week. We also planted the Agave parryi
John bought me last September. It arrived with a baby poking out the
bottom drainage hole of its pot. We managed to save the baby and plant
it next to its spiky mother. On Sunday, I planted some more
of the cactus I have been saving up for the new garden. There is a
3 spire “Silver Torch” Cleistocactus Strausii (green skin, white spines, magenta blooms),
and a pair of Argentine Giant Cordon (Trichocereus candicans, Echinopsis)
each of which has many babies riding along.
Did I mention that I hate, dispise, and will always revile the
company that we hired to take out our pool? We asked for and paid
for good clean top soil fill and they (unknown to us) snuck in some nasty
tarry stuff full of concrete, trash, and plastic wrap. We made them spend
several days picking out all of the big pieces of concrete and plastic but
I will spend many years cleaning after their cheap tricks. Did I say I
hate them forever? (OK, I don’t hate them but every time I
pick a bit of wire or string or plastic or asphalt or concrete out of my
cactus dirt, I don’t bless them either.)
Folk lift delivery
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Before the forklift
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Before forklift
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1st rock through the fence
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John vs. tight edges
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Rock up high
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1st rock placed
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2nd rock through backward
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Paul marking sprinklers
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Felix places 2nd boulder
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Paul watching
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New Agave parryi
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New rocks, gravel
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Cleistocactus Strausii
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Cactus blooms
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Trichocereus
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New cactus bed
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Boulders and cactus
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Work in progress
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Images Copyright 2008 by Katy Dickinson
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