11 February 2009

Carbon Canyon Cacti Cleared


The "beautification" project carried out recently by an unknown benefactor, consisting of planing cacti alongside Carbon Canyon Road in Sleepy Hollow, has just recently been nullified, presumably by CalTrans.

One day, back in November just before the fires, several dozen small cacti were neatly planted on the north side of the road between Rosemary Lane and Oakway Lane. There they remained until just within the last few weeks and now all that's left are the shallow holes where these denizens of the desert for a short time stood.

Not that I'm a big fan of cacti as ornamental roadside plantings, but it sure was interesting to see them appear as if out of the blue one day. It was a little surprising that after three months, they were then removed.

This isn't the first time an ad hoc planting project was done in this area. About three years ago, a flatbed truck pulled off the side of the road, a couple of men got out, and a bunch of small trees were planted in the same general area. These soon, however, died out for a lack of water.

Anyway, residents of Sleepy Hollow hardly suffer from a shortage of plant life, there are still oaks, palms, eucalyptus, pines and other trees aplenty in the neighborhood, so I doubt these cacti will be much missed.

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