A prickly situation

I decided yesterday to decimate my rockery as it had become overgrown and had no structure to it. These fine specimens have been in the rockery for about 7 years. I keep chopping them down and they regrow stronger than ever. I chopped the four larger cacti down and have left the smaller ones.

When you chop them up they look like kiwi fruit inside, they are lethal to handle as they are covered in very sharp needles.

Despite wearing gloves and using a towel I ended up full of pin pricks. Still it was worth it, rockery looks much better with newer and smaller plants and some white stone chippings. Job well done!