Cowboy and Indian garden

Make your toy cowboy and Native American red Indian action figures feel right at home by creating a Wild West desert in a pot. This garden is dead simple to make. All you need is a good sized container, several cactus and a handful of your favourite toy figures. Best of all, this garden is really easy to look after - all you need to do is give the plants an occasional watering and they will thrive for years. 

Cacti come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. If you are using a large terracotta bowl, buy enough plants to fill the pot, but don’t overdo it - you don’t want the bowl to be too crowded or you won’t be able to admire the plants or have any room left over for cowboys and Indians. About four or five plants in small pots, depending on their size, would be perfect in a 30cm diameter pot or bowl. Make sure you choose a selection of different types of cacti to make the display look interesting - try combining upright columnar cacti, with those that are barrel or globe shaped, along with opuntias - these have a number of prickly flat pads that are joined together  

Cacti hate sitting in wet soil, so fill your chosen pot with a well drained, gritty compost (John Innes No.2 would be ideal), leaving a 2cm gap between the surface of the compost and the lip of the pot. Firm the compost gently with your finger tips and leave a flat surface.

Arrange your cacti, while still in their pots, on the surface of the compost. Move them around until you’re happy with the arrangement - larger plants tend to look best at the centre of a display, while shorter cacti look best around the edges. 

Using a large spoon to scoop out a planting hole for each plant, ensuring that it matches the size of each plants pot - the top of each plants rootball should be level with the surface of the compost. To avoid spiking your hands, put on a pair of gloves, then take a strip of cardboard and clamp it around the top of each plant so you can lift it from its pot. Lower the plant into the hole firming the compost around it. Repeat this process until all the cacti are planted. 

Water the plants, then finish off the garden by covering with a layer of horticultural grit or silver sand to create a desert look. Spread it fairly thickly so it sits just beneath the edge of the pot.

Put your finished garden in a light spot as cacti love to bask in the sun - this is especially important in winter, when light levels are lower. The cowboys and Indians garden is really simple to look after. All you need to do is water the plants whenever the compost dries out, from late spring to the end of the summer, and then reduce watering to once every three weeks or so from mid-autumn onwards. 

If you have some time and patience you may choose to grow from seed. We have a selection of cacti seeds available. Alternatively the following suppliers can be of help :

Tel: 01629 580306

Tel: 01205 820314

Tel: 01778 570168