gardenfun's Blog

Gardening Quote
Feb 20, 2008 | 11:49 AM PST
Tags: garden quote , art , monet
My garden is my most beautiful masterpiece.
Claude Monet

things to do in the winter
Feb 14, 2008 | 12:18 AM PST
Tags: things to do in the winter , still lifes , photos , teapots

I am now pretty much caught up with all of the kind comments you folks have been sending to me.  Thank you for all of the feedback.  I just posted some teapot still life photos I've been working on during these cold months.  I hope that you will find them enjoyable.  

R. 

Garden Quote
Feb 13, 2008 | 12:21 PM PST
Tag: garden quote
Gardening requires lots of water - most of it in the form of perspiration.  ~Lou Erickson

Purchasing Stone for Gardens
Feb 13, 2008 | 12:17 PM PST
Tags: purchasing stone , stone wall gardeneing , cheap stone walls

Hey,

When you get the urge to build stone walls for your gardens DO NOT GO TO THE LOCAL NURSERY OR GARDEN CENTER!  Go instead to the local quarry.

A pallet of garden stone at the garden center starts at about $250 and goes up from there depending on what sort of stone you purchase.  One pallet of stone is about all a pick up truck can haul home.  Don't poop in your pants at what I'm about to tell you, but at the quarry you can buy a pick up truck load of granite that they have there for rip-rap and erosion control for $25 a truck load. 

The trick is that you have to climb on the pile of rock at the quarry and pull out the stones that you think you can use.  You are looking for flat or square looking stones.  Remember if there are strange cuts in the stone so that its not perfectly flat or square all around that you can hide the imperfections by placing that part of the stone inward and it will be cover by garden soil. You will want to use the soil also to make it level for the placing of the next stone.  The guys working where I buy my stones think I'm quite eccentric and entertaining so they are actually very kind and helpful to me.  When I have plucked the useful stones that are easily accessible from the pile they will usually come by with their dozers and mix the pile up a bit for me (without my even asking) so a whole new crop of good stones pop up for me to pick from.  It takes about 45 minutes to load the truck up.  You also don't want the quarry folks just fill your truck with the dozers.  You need to be selective in order for this to work.  Although it seems tempting to let load you up with the dozer you will be disappointed when you get home and discover that about half of the stones can not be used to build a wall.  Surprisingly the work of selecting the stones at the quarry is not all that difficult.

I don't do much altering of the stones once I get them home.  I look at it as if it were a giant three dimensional jigg saw puzzle and fit the stones together as they seem to be suggesting themselves.  Also pick up big stones, medium stones, small, and even little stones.  The little stones plug gaps and level out some of the vexing larger stones.  The different sizes also add visual interest to the construction. Don't pick giant stones!!!!  They are difficult to place in the wall and they are back brakers just to handle.
 

Building a Wattle Grape Arbor
Feb 13, 2008 | 11:39 AM PST
Tags: grape arbor , wattle , uses for trimmed branches
Dudes and Dudesses,

I have this winter urge to build a wattle grape arbor.  

What is a wattle you ask???  It's the very old technique of weaving sticks from trees together and is usually used to create fences.  Apparently willow sticks work best and in England people actually make a living by doing this.  However you can use maple and other sticks to the same effect.  I have tons of maple.

I discovered wattling quite by accident by surfing the internet looking at photographers photos from Russia and Eastern Europe.  I guess folks there are still poor enough to make things by hand and not run out to home despot and purchase rolls of metal fencing. Wattling has been around for ages and you can see examples of it at Jamestown, Williamsburg, and the University of PA, has a medieval garden set up and uses it there.

I have been surfing the web looking for "how to build arbors" or "how to build a trellis" designs with very little luck in finding any true designs that I can use.  Geez Louise, it's frustrating that I can find everything but what I'm really looking for.  I guess they only want to show you designs that require you to go out and buy junk from the advertisers that bring you the website.  The unfortunate consequence of this that there are some lovely formal arbor kits that cost a whole lot of money and then there are the so called build it yourself butt ugly arbors made with things like PCV pipes and such.  That will really add beauty and texture to a garden. (he said as he puked)

There is one article by Mother Earth News that shows a single interesting photo of a wattle fence, and has some solid information on how to build waddle fences.

There's also bits of info that are of use here and there in the "build your own arbor" articles.  The most important of which seems to be to make joints where the support beams meet to give extra support to the structure.  The second most useful bit of info was where one fellow recommended using screws and not nails to again add strength to the structure.  Of course none of these folks were building their arbors from tree limbs trimmed from their yards like I want to do, so the useful info was sparse.

I know that I'm blessed with a fairly large yard compared to folks who live in cities or in track housing suburban blight. I guess if you live in these places building anything from a waddle design is prohibitive.  Still I get depressed when surfing the web and checking ten pages deep into what the search engines dig up, that most of what I find is telling us that we need to buy junk to build anything worth having.  We truly are a consumer society.  That's crazy.  

My side note here is that I have already been using trimmed tree limbs to build to build a rail fence for climbing roses and a background for some sun loving bulbs.  I also plan to use the trimmed branches to create tripods to plant pole beans on this summer.  I'm finding many uses for these trimmed branches.  They look much more interesting than buying milled wood products at the store and the best part of it all is that it's free.

Stay tuned and hopefully by summer I will have a cool looking arbor built and by summer 2010, I will have some delicious grapes established and growing on them.  

R.