Jova’s raised cactus bed build, with pics! – Page 2 – Anything Cacti – PalmsNorth.com

Jova · 2010-03-18T22:52:34Z

A few weeks ago, after seeing some pics of amazing cactus gardens online, I decided to fill the ugly, empty space in the center of my circle driveway with a cactus bed of my own. I found a large pile of old bridge timbers from a railroad back in a clearing on my farm, so I planned to use those for the sides of the bed. This first pic is of the area where I built the bed before I had really done much work...Now, the real pain in the butt was that the ground wasn't level at all, and I wanted the bed to be level so it wouldn't look stupid, so I had to dig trenches where the railroad ties would go. Apparently, this area had been part of the driveway years ago, and I had about six inches of gravel to dig through, just underneath the sod. After a lot of time with a shovel and a level, here's how it looked:Next, we moved the railroad ties into the trenches I had dug. Other than the railroad ties being extremely heavy, this went pretty smoothly, and it all lined up much better than what I expected. Here it is with the first level of ties down.Next, we cut up some of the ties with a chainsaw and stacked them up into the formation that I had planned out. The idea was to build an artificial hill for better drainage. After we got all of them in place, we lined the sides with a layer of painter's plastic, as to try to keep the sand from seeping out through the cracks between the ties. Here's where we're at thus far:We leveled out the dirt in the middle, using a lot of it to fill in the excess space from the holes I'd dug. Next day off I'll be loading up several hundred pounds of sand and gravel from a riverbed to fill it up, and hopefully in a few weeks it will be time to start planting! And here's a bonus pic of my dog Ernie laying in the bed. I think he likes it because the freshly dug ground is cool, so he'd better enjoy that while it lasts! :)Thanks for checking out the thread, and please let me know of any suggestions. I'll keep everyone posted on the progress!Jova

Ronrostrata

(@ronrostrata)

Posts: 3

Active Member

Great job - looking good !

Posted : 26/03/2010 8:07 pm

ROBRETI

(@robreti)

Posts: 139

Estimable Member

This is sheer beauty, great job!
Rob

Posted : 06/04/2010 7:47 pm

lucky1

(@lucky1)

Posts: 11322

Illustrious Member

Jova's obviously still at the chiropractor...

If you drink, don't drive. Don't even putt.

Posted : 06/04/2010 8:27 pm

hardyjim

(@hardyjim)

Posts: 4697

Illustrious Member

That's a wise crack 😉

Posted : 06/04/2010 9:26 pm

Jova

(@jova)

Posts: 93

Estimable Member

Topic starter

Thanks for the comments everyone! And Barb, no chiropractor visits thus far, but the ole' tylenol bottle took a hit:) I'll have some new pics up in the next couple of weeks that actually show some plants:)

Posted : 15/04/2010 2:40 am

hardyjim

(@hardyjim)

Posts: 4697

Illustrious Member

Looking forward to it-

You won't believe how fast some of the "desert" plants can grow!

Posted : 15/04/2010 12:42 pm

Jova

(@jova)

Posts: 93

Estimable Member

Topic starter

Alrighty, finally snapped some pics of the cactus bed with some plants in it (sorry for the pic quality, took them with my phone). Everything is starting to take off, and all cacti are putting out new pads. It's been growing slowly for now, probably since it's rained almost every day for a month, but I'm betting that it'll take off once we get some real hot and dry summer weather. The aloe is the only thing that won't stay in the bed all winter, and it got a bit cooked in the first few days after I put it outside. Also, big thanks to Jim and Bill, since they sent me almost everything that is planted in there:)