Sometimes Changes are Difficult

Goodbye Cactus Hill

I'm sorry I haven't been more active in the past several months but a major change is taking place for me and my mind has been on other things.  I am having a new house built and I will be selling the property I lovingly call Cactus Hill.  I really do love this piece of ground and it will be very hard to leave it, but it is just too big and too much work for me to maintain.  The property is now on the market, but it could take months to sell, so in the interim I'm going to take photos as a remembrance and post a few here. 

On the bright side, I will have a new house and a new, albeit smaller yard.  The new property is no far from Cactus Hill, about 55 km further south.  It was part of an old farm, which mean lots of sun for my cacti and succulents, but no existing trees, shrubs or flowers, only grass.  Cactus Hill was exactly the same when the land was purchased 22 years ago.  Now, Cactus Hill is very park-like, with many trees and shrubs and flowers.

The house and front yard of Cactus Hill.   The total property size is 1.2 hectares (3 acres) with about half of that lawn area.  The house sits on the highest elevation (the hill) and was the genesis of the name Cactus Hill.   I haven't even begun to contemplate a name for the new property.  

June is cactus flowering month at Cactus Hill so I can't post a blog without at least one cactus photo.  This is Cylindropuntia imbricata, commonly known as a Cholla.  It's one of the winter hardy cactus at Cactus Hill.  I've rooted a few cuttings of this plant and they will go with me to the new house and property. 

Cylindropuntia imbricata

  

 

Winter, Winter, Go Away

Winter, Winter, Go Away

Yes, it has been a while since I reported from Cactus Hill.  Summer and autumn have gone, and it seems as if winter will never go.  I had really hoped for a relatively mild winter.  Mother Nature obviously has no interest in my desires.  :(   Temperatures in January and February have been way below average.  Cactus Hill has routinely experienced night temperatures below 15 degrees F. (-9.5 C) with five nights dropping below 5 degrees F.  (-15 C).  I understand that many areas of North America and Europe are much colder than this but the over-wintering of much of my cactus and succulent collection is based on temperatures being average... MOST... of the time.  If you are not familiar with my over-winter system, he's a look at it. 

  

I have three of these over-wintering boxes, I call them frames, from the horticultural term cold frames.  The difference from a typical cold frame is I have a small electrical heater in each frame.  When temperatures drop below 50 degrees F. (10 C), the frames are covered in plastic, as seen below.

When temperatures drop below 30 degrees F. (-1 C) I add a second layer of plastic cover, and when temperatures drop below 15 degrees F. (-9.5 C) I place a blanket between the two layers of plastic.  For the past 15 years this system has worked well for me.  Plants over-winter in good condition with the strong light and cool to cold night temperatures; the heaters maintain the low temperature at 42 degrees F.  (5.5 C)  Four years ago we experienced heavy snowfalls, and the frames performed well in the snow. 

But this winter more than 10 nights have experienced low temperatures below 5 degrees F. (-15 C) and this is a danger point, because if one of the heaters fail, or we lose electrical power, the temperatures in the frames will drop below freezing in less than three hours.  During these nights I must check the temperatures in the frames every few hours in order to have time to fix a problem quickly.  Each frame has a thermometer that sends a wireless signal back to the house.  Thus, I can monitor the temperatures in the frames without going outside.  I know this is all part of the system I have decided to use to get my plants through the winter, but most winters, average winters, are easy to deal with, but this winter has just be tough.  So, winter, winter, go away, I'm more than ready for spring.