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Showing posts from 2013

Cactus moving day

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I'm not sure how you spent the early part of your Super Bowl Sunday, but I spent mine moving our Eastern prickly pear cactus. It began its journey with us in an unassuming, 8-inch pot. After languishing more than a year in our front yard, I built a scree (desert garden area) and transplanted it there, along with other succulents. I must have found the perfect growing medium, because after three years, it was trying to crowd out everything else in it. What happened was that every winter, when the plant went dormant, it shot new roots from the pads and expanded its footprint, as it were. Then when the weather warmed, the new, wider plant grew even more. How much more? I learned today. When the weather turned cold, I decided to divide it and move it to several spots in the yard. The first was a small raised bed where we had (unsucessfully) tried to grow leafy greens. The first bit to go was a pad that had broken off of the original plant and taken on a life of its own.