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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.
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.
