Katy Dickinson

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

Posted at 05:21PM Apr 01, 2008 by katysblog in Caboose Project and Other Trains  |  Comments[1]

New Fence in Willow Glen

January's storms blew down the 94' fence which runs along the side of WP668, our backyard caboose. On the other side of the fence, the community garden and Guadalupe River embankment land belongs to the Santa Clara Valley Water District. It took me many weeks work, including getting a formal permit document from the SCV Water District, to arrange for a new fence. Last week, it was finally installed. Today, SCV Water District inspected it and found it good.

John and I picked galvanized steel mesh with brown plastic slats for the fence fabric instead of the wood used in the old fence. Not only was a metal and plastic fence less expensive than wood but, while the new fence is not pretty, it is very durable and will never look worse.

During the 3 day installation, we were surprised to find that the fence runs on top of what was once the concrete foundation of a chicken barn. We already knew that our home was on land that was a chicken ranch in the 1920s but we didn't know just where the barn was until the new fence posts hit concrete. One of the community garden old timers told John that the gardeners there often hit barn concrete. We ended up paying extra for Duran Fencing (San Jose, CA) to pound holes through that foundation. Duran did a good job (and squashed as few of my border plants as possible in the process).

While the fence was down, we got to visit the community garden plots and take pictures of the side of WP668 we don't usually see from a distance. Photos follow.

Blown down old fence

Old fence gone

John raking debris

Fence line

WP668 caboose

New posts

Wetting new concrete

New posts standing

Rails and Fabric

Unrolling fence fabric

Unrolling new fence

Last fencing roll

New fence!

Community garden

Community garden

Community garden

Community garden

Community garden

Images Copyright 2008 by Katy Dickinson and John Plocher

Posted at 12:41PM Apr 01, 2008 by katysblog in Home & Family  |