Empty land Grandma spent 40 years building a meaty forest

California in the United States is so hot and dry all year round that the sun stings so hard that it can't keep its eyes open. It's all over the desert, and it's almost impossible to see a trace of green.

But in the small town of Walnut Creek, there is an oasis full of tall cactus and colorful succulent plants.

This oasis is Ruth Bancroft Gardens. In a world full of yellow sand, such a green succulent forest suddenly appears, which makes people think that they have broken into Wonderland.

The succulent garden covers an area of more than 10, 000 square meters and is full of more than 2000 kinds of succulent plants, such as cacti, succulent plants, palm trees and so on.

The flowers of other people are bigger than our succulent plants.

Such a magnificent cactus forest, Huahua also wants to go in and experience it!

I have seen the peacock with the opening screen, but Huahua bet that you have never seen the succulent one!

The owner of the magnificent succulent garden, Mrs. Ruth Bancroft, 109 (who died in November 2017), spent 40 years building this desert oasis.

Ruth has been fond of flowers and plants since childhood, but she became associated with succulent plants in the 1950s. At that time, she bought the first pot of succulent plants in her life. From then on, she became infatuated with succulent plants and got out of control.

(the offspring of Ruth's first succulent tree)

At first, the bought succulent plants were placed in greenhouses and toilets around the house. Later, more and more succulent plants were bought, and there was no room for them at home. In 1971, her husband gave her three acres of the family's land to grow succulent plants.

Looking at the open land, nearly 70-year-old Ruth came up with the idea of building a desert succulent garden. She wants to try to create a green miracle in this barren land.

From early morning to sunset, she spent nearly 10 hours a day in this courtyard, planning, designing, planting and watering, almost all by herself.

But things were not always plain sailing, and in the second year of construction, Ruth's garden encountered the greatest difficulties. The winter of that year was so cold that almost all the delicate succulent plants in the garden froze to death.

But instead of giving up, she started all over again in the spring. In order to prevent the succulent plant from freezing to death again, she asked someone to customize the anti-freezing wooden box, and later built a special greenhouse.

Because she doesn't know all the succulent habits, she has to read many books before planting a new variety. After planting, she will take notes every day to record the growth of succulent plants.

Ruth studied architecture when she was in college, and her knowledge played a big role in building a succulent garden.

In order to break the flat landscape of the courtyard and make the garden feel more hierarchical, she added some undulating mounds in the garden.

Simply planting succulent plants made the garden look monotonous, and she built a central pond in the garden.

I just didn't expect that the pond turned out to be a habitat for birds.

She also has her own ideas about the combination of succulent plants. Some brightly colored, small succulent plants are laid on both sides of the gravel path, while larger succulent species are scattered on the higher slopes.

Later, Ruth Garden attracted the attention of relevant organizations in the United States. Because of its great reference to the idea of desert garden, Ruth Garden became the first private garden protected by garden organizations in the United States in 1989.

In 2011, it was rated as "the most meaningful private garden on the west coast of the United States" by Pacific Horticulture Magazine.

Ruth herself did not expect that a small idea would have such a great social impact.

In addition to being for tourists to visit, it has also become a wedding mecca, and more and more young couples choose to come here to take wedding photos. The succulent garden is full of romance.

Mrs. Ruth gave the rest of her life to the succulent garden. In the last years of her life, she could not stay in the garden every day, but she would go to the garden whenever she had the chance.

There is an old saying in China

"Life is rare since ancient times."

And Ruth, in her rare years,

To create a succulent garden that admires the world.

As long as you have a garden dream

It's never too late!

Has your dream of garden come true?

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