Looking good as we head into winter is our patch of Echinocactus texensis, aka: horse crippler cactus. These Texas and New Mexico natives are loved by gardeners who grow winter hardy cactus, but equally despised by ranchers who have to deal with horses, and farmworkers, who step on them. Their low growth profile, along with their ability to pull themselves down into the soil for winter, are what ranchers really detest. In the Southwest US, ranchers us a combination of herbicides, pick axes, and large trucks with log chains, to eliminate the plants from their fields. Sounds like we need a cottage industry to rescue these amazing plants. As the old adage goes, “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.”
