When a cactus garden works

In my opinion, a cactus garden is one of the toughest to make aesthetically pleasing. This one in Hillcrest pulls it off with plenty of charm. They do it with a blend of cactus, succulents and drought tolerant perennials.

A few things they did that I think helped to make this such a beautiful garden:

1) They arranged the plants in compact groups/clumps. Each clump is its own composition and has plenty to look at.

2) I love the use of rocks. They use larger boulders, smaller boulders, gravel and beach pebbles. Notice how the beach pebbles are artfully arranged, probably by hand.

3) Color. There is a lot of foliage color and some flower color. Both add interest.

4) They didn't leave out the trees. Many cactus garden focus on specimen cacti but don't include very large specimens to fill in the vertical plane. Here the smoke tree and Palo Verde give definition to the garden.






Interested in a cactus garden of your own? We'd love to help! Please go to www.sageoutdoordesigns.com and fill in the contact us form. Sage Outdoor Designs is a San Diego landscape design firm. Our Principal, Kate Wiseman, has been a San Diego landscape designer for the past ten years- ask how she can help transform your garden into the one you always wanted.