The Stone Wall I Created For My Cactus Garden: My 2nd Entry To The Piled Stone Phenomenon Contest by @kus-knee

The Stone Wall

I have been longing to post about my Cactus and Succulent Garden in Andalucia. Since the theme on Piled Stone challenge emerged in The Old Dog´s contest which is still running now, I decided to give it a go .. This is my 2nd entry to the contest.

I created this stone wall three years ago to support the one side of my cactus and succulent garden and raised its side along the wire fence to level it up on our road to the other land we acquired located on the upper part our house plot... All stones used for the wall were gathered from the property as they were in abundance in the area. Some of the farmers´s terraces on the hills inland were created using stones piled just around a meter high. The stone wall is populat in Spain to prevent erosion. That´s what I have done to create a raised bed for the cactus garden. Below you will see how I piled the bigger stones line per line and and layer per layer. The in-betweens were actually balanced by smaller ones so the layers would be in one level.

I n order for me to bring the heavy stones on site, I used a roller and loaded every heavy ones, carried it to the garden. Of course, I was very proud of the project because I did it without the help of anyone. And then I planted all plant cuttings mostly without roots given to me by my friend. Three years after, they grew and grew with no maintenance in Summer...they survived tho.

The garden before

The Cactus and Succulent Garden Update - Dec. 27, 2019

The garden three years after

Today, I took these images to compare the before and after status or set-up of the garden three years ago and how it looks like now in the present time. The stone wall is still holding on and the cactii are growing even without maintenance during Summer time.

As I said before in my blog, we escape cold Central Europe each year because in Spain the temperatures are warmer and higher by around 10°C. Each Spring, when we go back to homebase, nobody is around to take care of my plants except for mother nature and yet they still they survived.

These are easy types of agave that could be planted without roots and will grow so because they do not need plenty of water. A few rain and they will survive. I only feed them during the time that we are here.

The Cactus Plants On the Other Side of The Fence

Parallel to the cactus garden with the stone wall, I also planted some various agaves even without roots and they survived. I have also gathered small stones that were simply piled to create a rocky effectalong its sides.

These Euphorbia Ingens were in small cuttings dumped on the green dumping plot, I stopped the car and and I picked and save them.....see how they looked in the beginning when I found them in the image below.

My cactii and succulents are doing great except for the fact that the fog a week ago ruined part of the elongated cactus (Euphorbia Ingens). But I know that they will recover.

This is a shout out for The Old Dog´s challenge called The Piled Stone Phenomenon Contest by @kus-knee. If you would like to join... click here for the rules.

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