These cute chairs and pots have been empty for a couple of years, since the javalinas ate the plants. It’s the West side of the house, very hot and sunny (this is southern Arizona), so not much is happy here. It’s the side of the house you see first when you arrive, so it would be nice if it were pretty.
My husband announced he wanted to spend a hundred dollars or so to buy a couple of big colorful pots, and we went shopping. 6 stores later, we found the perfect pots. They were $500 each.
So I decided to make some pig-proof cactus.
Each one is several panels of a loosely woven upholstery fabric I got at a rummage sale. I left the seams exposed because the loose threads look like spines.
The tall, skinny organ cactus are each a single pool noodle, which turned out not to be that supportive, so I bought some cheap curtain rods to hold them straight.
The barrel cactus is three pool noodles cut and fit together into a star, then stuffed into the fabric cover.
The flowers are some cheap synthetic fabric I soaked in craft paint. That made it colorful, stiffer and fray resistant.
They’ve survived about 6 weeks so far, including a couple of fierce rainstorms. No javalinas have disturbed them.
