Central Virginia Organic Gardener

"And 'tis my faith that every flower enjoys the air it breathes." - William Wordsworth, 1798

Showing posts with label trellis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label trellis. Show all posts

Saturday, April 3, 2021

Repurposing

I am a big fan of the philosophy "Use it up, Wear it out, Make it do, or Do without" especially the idea inherent in this, repurposing.  I try to follow this in my home and in my garden. I have used silver packaging plastic cut in strips and tied to a pole  to scare birds, plastic lids as plant saucers, that kind of thing. My latest creation is pictured above.  While pruning my figs last winter, I saved some tall and straight branches to use in the garden as stakes.  But the rest requires a back story.

In my 20's, I was a bad abstract artist, and several of my paintings made it through various moves to our current home.  I was doing a big purge just before the pandemic, and saw these terrible paintings. I put then in the shed to break them down and toss them out. I recently stripped off the canvas and pulled out the staples.  "Huh" I thought "What can I do with these old canvas stretchers?" I teamed them up with the fig branch poles, some string I has saved, and some zip ties...and voila!  Pea trellises! And I think they are fun!

Sunday, June 26, 2011

Trellis




I had a litlle extra fun in the yard and garden this weekend. What do you do when: a road crew chops down a stand of bamboo and your spouse trims the monster wisteria? You make a trellis for your volunteer passion flower vines! I made a simple tripod shape, wound and wove some pruned wisteria about it in three layers (for the middle and bottom "loops", I made two wreathes, one smaller than the other, put them one the tripod and tied them into place) and voila! A trellis for the wayward passiflora!
Happy gardening!

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Bean trellis

Bean Trellis
One great thing about pruning waterspouts (tall, vertical branches) off of your trees is that these can be used to make great trellises for peas and beans. The photo above is a bean "tee pee" style trellis I built in about an hour in my yard. I will use it for pea or beans this season. For right now, it is curing in my garage. It will probably just last the season, but it is a nice alternative to actually buying something! You can take more time to make it more attractive, but it will look pretty good once it is covered in vines. I have also used these for annual flowering vines and that looks pretty too! I tied the branches off with black twine- waxed twine (the kind used for bamboo fencing) would probably last longer. For peas, you can also push three long, vertical branches into the ground and tie the three together at the top to make a triangular trellis, then push other, smaller sticks around the base (this might not be sturdy enough for vigorous beans vines).

Happy gardening!