How I Made A Trellis

How To Make A Trellis From Scrap Wood 

Rose On Trellis March 24, 2016

It started out when our Rose that was climbing up the side of the house decided it wanted to grow the opposite way.  Oh I trimmed it every year, but it still grew towards the ramp.  I also wasn't happy about how the house looked with the lattice on the side.  Someone told me that it looked like my house had wings.  They weren't all the pretty either.  So  I decided to allow the Rose to do what it wanted to do and made a trellis for it to climb on.

The Rose in the Wooden Barrel.  See opening on the bottom of the house...
that is where the rose decided that it was going to send the tap root to.

At first we thought that it would be easy to dismantle the old wooden barrel that a neighbor gave us to uses many years ago when she was moving and couldn't take it with her.  That was further from the truth as one can get.  Oh, taking down the boards around the planet was the easy part because they were so decomposed.  Digging out the Rose was an entirely different story.  The main root grew and grew and grew and it is still right where it grew and we cannot find the end.  It grew right down under the house and we cannot get to dig anymore under there, so there is where it stays.  

So we kind of leaned the Rose up against the trellis.  It likes it there and is coming back pretty good as you can see on the top picture.

I went around the yard and under the crawlspace and under the back deck looking for things that I could use to make an easy and pretty Trellis.  I found a few 2x4's and some old wood flooring planks that were left over from making our kitchen counter top with.  I measured the deck or ramp at the point where it was the most straight.  It does curve before the banisters start.  So I had to get it just right. 

All parts painted and ready to be put together.

I figured out how deep I needed to make it and measured the boards and then cut them.  I want birds and bees to nest and feed in the Rose and on the trellis so I pained the boards bright colors.  The Rose is a bright Pink.  I don't think it really matters because when the Rose gets full you will not be able to even see the trellis.  During the winter months you will though and I painted them to match the colors in my Raised Gardens at the top of my lot.  We have an acre but only want to use the top portion.

Duke

After painting the boards and allowing them to dry for a day or so, I started to assemble them.  The boards all looked very pretty.  I had to find something to go over the top so that the Rose will climb over.  I wish that I could put another climbing plant on the other side but my dog will tear that out the first time he runs to greet his Daddy when he comes home or after a cat that comes within his reach.  Oh he doesn't hurt them or chase them.  He loves them and they love him and the cats are always sniffing in his ears or rubbing up against him.

Skeleton of one side of the Trellis.

To put the board together I laid them down on the deck and screwed them together one side and then the other side.  This is where I needed someone to help me.  After screwing them together I needed some one to hold the sides up to the deck so that I could screw them into the sides below the floor.  Man was that so difficult!  The deck wood was pressure treated and it was deck wood.  It is a special kind of wood used for anything made to be out in the weather.  It was like cement!  I am not making it bigger than what it is.  

Side is ready to be put up.

My husband even tried hammering nails into it.  I hammered nails into it and the nail head was imploding into itself.  Nope not bending and I could understand that.  I even drilled starter holes in the wood and broke off two drill bits.  Thar wood is like petrified.  We think that we got enough steel in it to hold it. Crazy!

We finally get the sides up and still I have not figured out what I can use for the top.  Oh and my husband is tall and I had to make the trellis high even that he would not hit his head on it.  I had t get on a step stool for me to reach the tip of it.

Here I am tying down the lattice.

We had. still do, pieces of white plastic lattice leftover and so I screwed two pieces together in the center and laid it across the top of the sides of the trellis.  I had to put some leftover PVC pipe alongside of that to keep it from falling in.  I think that I did a pretty good job as we had 42 inches of snow fall during the winter....all at once and it is still standing.

When doing projects at our house, we really need to get creative.  We don't have a whole lot of money and I don't just up and throw things away.  I am resourceful and I like to recycle and re purpose things.  

That's How Gardening is On Misty Acre!

How To Make Your Own Compost Bin

Re-Purpose a 33 gallon Trashcan

I do not use these larger trashcan for trash or garbage.  I never really have since we moved into this place that we call home.  It used to be my parent's vacation cabin.  They transferred the deed to us and I have loved it ever since. 

I love working in the soil and it give me great peace of mind and the love of nature and all that is around me.  This place and my parent's gave me this wonderful place to do so.  It is my stress reliever of sorts as when I take care of all my gardens they also in turn take care of me and it is the only thing that I think about when "playing" in the dirt.

So this 33 gallon trashcan was used as a rain barrel that I collect water in for watering my plants.  I hate to use the city water for them.  We did in stall a water softener but it used salt to filer out the muck and chlorine from the city water.  So I use Mother Nature's watering system as much as I can.  Rain is a much better option and I do use that to my advantage when I plant plant right before it is going to rain.  Collecting the water is the next best things though and we have been doing it for years.

Well my rain barrel split open and it would not hold water past 2 feet up.  My husband was going to take it to the recycling center, but I got the bright idea of re-purposing it for a compost bin.  We do now use one of the gardens as a compost of sorts as we put our kitchen scraps in it and till it once a week or less.  I want to plant something in that one and this was the perfect idea.  We have had a few other purchased compost bins and none of them were nice enough to put it where we needed it.  It needs to go right up there where my raised gardens are.  That would make the most sense anyway.  It will be between the Yellow and Pink beds.  It is in full sun and will get hot very quickly to "cook" the compost.  It will be where I can use it the most.  We did have one down on the right side of our house, but it did not get enough sun and I had to lug things there and then up to the garden beds.  

Anyway the plastic can was grey and had a grey lid.  We did have a replacement for that as we had another trashcan that was not being use.  I switched the lids with that one because I had holes frilled in the top to allow the water into the can and not the leaves or other debris that flies around these woods.

I painted the bottom black with a Outdoor Satin paint and the blue on the upper part.  Then I painted some things on the black with the other colors that are used on the raised gardens.  Voila!  Now I just need to put it up there in the middle of my garden beds and start filling it up.  The first thing will be some of that compost from the Lilac colored raised garden that we are now using as a compost of sorts.  

March 2016 Garden At The Allen Home

Gardening At The Allen Home

Survey of Gardens In The Lower Yard

This year we start off with surveying our gardens. Everything has fallen into disrepair here this year.  We need to do lots of things, ...well not really lots but more time consuming. Everything around here is time consuming and it all requires that nature cooperates with us.  As you can see all the boards that surround our various garden plots in the lower yard need reset.  We cannot do this yet as there is more winter weather heading our way.  

The Vegetable Gardens

Last year we knew that a few of these would be needing some extra tender loving care.  We had already gotten the boards that need the most replacing and painted before winter hit.  Now we just had to cut them to the right size and paint them.  We cut them, but as yet it has been too cold and wet to paint.  The wind doesn't help either.  Nature just is not cooperating with us this year so far.  It is supposed to be a balmy 70 degrees in the next day or so, but it may bee too windy.  I did some painting last year when it was windy and I think that I got more paint in the woods than on my project.  So I will just wait it out.  I was hoping to try growing some colder weather vegetables this year, but that my not happen. 

Jonas, The Snow Storm

Jonas, The Winter Storm of 2016

Nature played a trick on us this year.  She sent in a freak snow storm and the weatherman named it Jonas. That storm dumped 42 inches of snow on us in a couple of days time.We couldn't get out our front door without trying to shove it open enough to get start shoveling. It was like a nightmare.  I have pictures on a deer coming to play with my dog Duke that very morning before the snow started coming down that evening. The weatherman only called for between 18 inches and 30 inches.  We got socked. It took 2 months before it all melted.  

Two Out Of One

Some work to be done.  The yellow raised garden is literally falling apart.  I mean that the boards are rotting enough that the nails have just about gone right through them.  It will not be too difficult in taking that raised garden apart.  We have no more use for those boards and found other boards to use and also bought two last year for another garden that we didn't make.  Boy do making gardens get addicting.  I need to stop that, but this one is a fixer upper.  With the boards that I marked and cut we will be able to make two new raised gardens out of the one. They will be smaller, but more manageable than the one long one.  That is going to take the most time and will be complicated.  We are waiting for the weather to cooperate so that I can paint them.

Spring Has Sprung

Due to the high volume of snow that we had and the longevity of it being here most of my flower bulbs were stunted.  I had many Irises planted in one garden that most of them aren't even peaking out of the ground.  So to end this I will leave off with a group of Daffodils that I took a picture of a few days ago.