GARDENING

Gerald Filipski

Whether a gift for a friend or a project for yourself, cactus planters are fun to create and relatively maintenance-free once completed. Simply explained, they are a piece of pottery, either a dish or a bowl, that is large enough to hold some soil, a layer of pebbles, and cacti.

Garage sales are a great place to find some unusual dishes, and many garden centres now carry pottery that can be used for a cactus garden. A container with drainage holes works best, since too much moisture around the roots will cause root rot. Cover the drain holes with a piece of mesh, such as that used for screen windows, or try my favourite new trick: a coffee filter cut into pieces large enough to cover the drain holes.

Cacti require soil that drains very well. You can buy special soils designed just for cacti or make your own mix by combining one part potting mix to one part coarse sand. Fill the container threequarters full of the soil mix. Leave enough room at the top of the container for a decorative finish on top of the soil.

I recommend buying small cacti in 5 – 7.5 cm pots rather than large specimens. The smaller plants are much more affordable, and you can easily plant them without doing too much damage to your fingers from the sharp spines. Make a hole in the soil with your finger and place the rootball of the cactus into the hole. If the cactus is equipped with spines, you might like to use a pair of tongs to hold the plant in place while you firm up the soil around

the roots. You can let the top of the rootball show a bit since it will be covered later with the decorative fill. When you have finished planting, tap the bottom of the container gently but firmly on a flat surface to settle the soil around the roots. Then comes decorating the surface of the container. Some of the choices include pebbles, coarse sand, gravel, or even larger stones. Personally, I use pebbles with one or two larger stones that add interest to the arrangement. This fill not only adds a decorative finish but also helps with the drainage of the arrangement.

Caring for the arrangement is simple. Place it in a sunny location; the more sun, the better. Remember, these are desert plants. Keep the cacti out of drafts, and in the summertime they love to go outdoors( just remember to bring them in before any danger of frost). You can easily kill cacti by overwatering, so less is better. In the summer months, water them regularly but allow them to dry out before watering again. By late summer, cut back on watering so that by early fall you are only watering a small amount once a month.

This is one of my favourite activities over the winter. When finished, whether tucked on a sunny windowsill or brightening a patio table, cactus planters remind us that beauty doesn’ t always demand constant attention. Sometimes the most rewarding gardens are the ones that teach us to slow down, water sparingly, and appreciate resilience in all its prickly charm.

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