Nicole Schuh and her father Tony are saving plants from destruction as they work on their three year plan to grow a cactus garden.
Some of the cacti are believed to weight up to 300 kg and were placed in the garden by forklift.
Nicole said most landowners choose to bulldoze cacti rather than deal with the prickly plants.
“We have collected plants over the past 10 years,” Nicole said.
“The plants had been put here, there and anywhere we could at the time.
“We are now 18 months into a three-year plan and the majority of our plants are now living happily in the new garden,” she said.
The idea to build a cacti garden bloomed further down the line with the Schuh family completing the basics first.
“There were no gardens at all,” Nicole said.
“We started with building tree gardens around the house yard, for animals and dust protection.
“Then we built a memorial rose garden and recently we started a three-year plan to build a cacti garden.”
The concept came to light with the help of a friend in need.
“The vision was always there and it wasn’t until a very good friend had some very large Golden Barrels to be moved that brought our vision to life,” Nicole said.
“Moving these barrels was an extremely complicated and dedicated task and the end result was astounding.”
“We did have a vision and we started talking about putting in a cacti garden about 10 years ago,” Nicole said.
“However, we did have a large cacti nursery in the ’80s and Tony wasn’t sure whether he could have another because of the amount of large and rare plants that he had in his previous nursery.”
The Schuh’s love spending time in the garden with a cactus almost always in flower.
“We love walking through every day and finding something new and interesting to look at and sitting with a quiet refreshing drink at the end of the day as the Cacti release their excess solar energy,” Nicole said.
Last week’s In our Garden: A house isn’t a home without a garden
