Euphorbia Tirucalli

There are two Pencil Catcus growing on the edge of the canyon behind my home. They are approximately 8-10' tall and 5-6' wide.

There is a perfect sized empty plot in front of the cactus that I wish to use as a vegetable garden. To the right of the plot is a very large, very old Valencia Orange tree.(Fabulous producer)

Is there a problem planting veggies due to cactus? I have grown a vegetable garden in this plot, several times, but before the cactus were rescued, as babies, and planted there.

Thank You,
I appreciate your help.

 

E. tirucalli is toxic in and of itself, but I wouldn't worry too much about planting close to it. I use it as perimeter fencing and grow corn right up to within about a foot of it, with no ill effects to myself, the corn, or the cacti.

 

Are you worried about watering your veggies near the Euphorbia?

 

Oh, E. tirucalli will take all the water you can give it without a fuss.

 

Thanks lorax, good to know. can you post pics of your Euphorbia fence?

 

I actually don't live there anymore - I've moved 3 times since I had the Euphorbia fence! I have pics of the individual plants before I made the fence, but I don't think I have any of what it looked like when I was finished - it was an interwoven thing of E. tirucalli and Xyloxanthum spp, definitely something that robbers wouldn't want to come through!

 

I give up - got in a funny loop when I googled Xyloxanthum out of curiousity....try it out....

http://www.google.com/search?client...en&source=hp&q=Xyloxanthum&btnG=Google+Search

 

LOL! Xyloxanthum is Szechuan Pepper. It's got wicked recurved thorns like cat claws.

 

I think I can see what has happened. I think Lorax may have mis spelt Xyloxanthum. It is therefore the only one on www to have that spelling, which was what took you in a circle Susan.

Try Zanthoxylum!

http://www.google.com/search?q=Zant...UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=ie7&rlz=1I7SUNA_en-GB

 

Thank you Silver surfer. Yet again you are a great source of information.

My 'false' journey bore fruit - lead to wonderful sites about the use of living fences. And, to long, long lost bits of information about "The Chagga home gardens: A multi-storeyed agro-forestry cropping system on Mt. Kilimanjaro, Northern Tanzania."

 

I think Lorax must have given it the old Ecudorian Maya/Inca spelling Ha Ha! Easy done in Latin America. Its good to have Silver Surfer to sort us all out.

I have a couple of Euphorbia that I was given that I need to identify and if I get time at the weekend SS I would be grate ful if I post some pics if you could please identify them for me.

Muchisimas Gracias!!

Nath

 

Will you be posting a new thread?

 

Yup, that'll teach me to post without spell-checking. Boy is my face red....

 

giggle OL. Hay, it was worth it, or, the sterile site bore fruit. Lead directly to finding out about the Tanzania gardens.