To the Agricultural Question

[Bugbear]

nice to see you Ted

Thank you, Ali. I have tried to keep up on the goings on of the forum, and have followed your assorted sagas.

Glad you got your books back out of your hard drive.

I just had to write up a thirty or so thousand word research project (first draft), and I would be sick if I had lost it.

[ali8780]

Thank you, Ali. I have tried to keep up on the goings on of the forum, and have followed your assorted sagas.

Glad you got your books back out of your hard drive.

I just had to write up a thirty or so thousand word research project (first draft), and I would be sick if I had lost it.

"Sagas" is definitely the appropriate word!

....... yes, it was an awful feeling.

[Bugbear]

"Sagas" is definitely the appropriate word!

....... yes, it was an awful feeling.

I'm in the middle of a new saga, I'm digging up and removing a cactus hedge along one side of my property. It was a proof of concept experiment, and made a very effective fence.

I have decided to replace them with a mass hedge of Asclepias subulata, otherwise known as Desert milkweed because they are ugly, sticky twig bushes, and the butterflies love them. That should, at least, make the butterflies happy.

[MacBean]

Speaking of cactus hedges, (and not knowing where you are located), I am really fond of the leafy cactus Pereskia spp. as a hedge with its lovely rose-like flowers -- but that is far taller than the Asclepias you mention. I am not sure how well Pereskia does in desert conditions, it's more of a tropical cactus that can withstand tropical wet and dry seasons.

So now I'm curious, where are you?

[Bugbear]

Speaking of cactus hedges, (and not knowing where you are located), I am really fond of the leafy cactus Pereskia spp. as a hedge with its lovely rose-like flowers -- but that is far taller than the Asclepias you mention. I am not sure how well Pereskia does in desert conditions, it's more of a tropical cactus that can withstand tropical wet and dry seasons.

So now I'm curious, where are you?

I'm out in the east boonies of the Phoenix, Az area.

I have a Pereskia, and I grow it in a container because it has to be protected from the one or two nights of frost we have out here.
It will probably become trained as a bonsai one day. It does seem to flower a lot, though they seem to last about a day.

The desert milk weeds can get about four feet tall, and form leafless clumps of ugly, milky stick twigs.
That's why I like them.

I do have a Hoodia gordonii which would make an interesting, low hedge plant, but mine hasn't flowered yet, and they don't root well from cuttings and layers.