Rain comes to the desert- July 1999

A Pincushion Cactus in bloom

We've found a very nice part of the desert in Catalina, Arizona, in which to build our strawbale house and live. You might find the village listed on a map just north of Tucson. Our place is quiet, has a great view, a shared well, beautiful rocks, some wildlife and many trees, shrubs and cactus. As only the most recent people to claim the land (it is only .2 of a mile from an ancient Hohokam village), we wish to take care of all we can. We aim to clear only what is necessary to prepare the site for our living areas. The other areas- about 60% of the land- will be left mostly as we found them. The first step toward living on the land has been lovingly transplanting cactus to preserve the life of this land.

Barrel, Hedgehog, Pincushion, Prickly Pear and Cholla cactuses are found all over the land. The Barrel, Pincushion and Hedgehog are beautiful, short cacti that are not as easy to propogate as the other two. So, we have been moving them onto safe spots on the land- areas to be left undeveloped, and a temporary nursery. We only wish the big developers would do this to the land they are building on.

Below, you will find pictures from the first part of our strawbale home adventure: carefully clearing the land and learning the rhythm of the desert.

Barrel Cactus are round plants that grow to maximum of about three feet tall, but can also be as wide. They flower in the fall, and fruit in the winter. Native peoples called them "desparation fruit," because it was the only food available in the cold season. They have long spines that curl at the end, and they can store a great deal of water in their barrel-shaped bodies.

To move a barrel cactus, we first found a suitable place to move it to with similar shading. It is important to maintain the same orientation of the plant so that it doesn't burn, so we marked the south side of the plant with some temporary sticks held by its own curly spines. We gently dug around the cactus, being careful not to cut the delicate roots. One can move a barrel by picking it up with gloved hands by its roots, or by placing it on a shovel and carrying it to its destination. If it is very large, sometimes it cannot be transplanted, but we were lucky to only have small to medium barrel cactuses in the house pad area.

We found a very nice spot for this medium-sized barrel, next to a prickly pear under the shade of a "Cat's Claw" Acacia tree. After digging the hole, we placed the barrel cactus in, carefully placing it so that the orientation is the same as it was. Doesn't it look cozy?

Hedgehog cactus are an endangered species, but not on our property where they are plentiful. They are short and long with a few shoots that come out of one root. They have straight spines, and a beautiful flower that comes in early spring. This is a family adventure, and here is our five year old son, Forrest, transplanting a hedgehog cactus. After carefully digging around it, he picked up the cactus by the roots and placed it in a hole in our temporary nursery.

Last updated on July 20, 1999