Gardening as therapy.

Major milestone today - received my first garden catalogue. It's from Wayside, with a beautiful cover of a mixed foliage border with a lovely lemon yellow to pale green ornamental grass, a frothy leaved evergreen, what appear to be pure white hydrangeas tucked in behind a lovely garden bench.... and more beautiful plants to tempt any gardener.

The format has changed slightly; photos of the plants are larger and there are a number of full sized pages just of one plant. I need to order another catalogue as many of these full sized pages are going to become covers for my gardening notebooks.

Who else has received their catalogues for 2016?

The irises will probobly not bloom until feburary. That is normal time in my zone.

Thats amazing, i think gardening is best therapy.

Someday...someday....maybe....I'll take up metal working and create some wrought iron fences like the lovely designed ones I saw in New Orleans back in the 1970's.

Send, you've just given me an idea for the porch railing that I think I'm going to have to replace. The short railings will make great decorations in the garden, but I'll have to find a way first to ensure that none of the old paint (old enough to have lead) can't flake off into the soil.

A junkyard may have many configurations of old metal. I would prefer wrought iron.

Garden, my favorite! Having only sweet peas in a round fish-bowl type arrangement, so many that no greens are necessary. Remember growing these as a child.

My daylilies and the lunaria sprouted a few weeks ago before our short cold snap. I suspect they'll sprout again or continue growing as we're expecting a very mild holiday week. Even if they are harmed by what usually is a bitter January, they're perennials and very, very abundant so I know I'll still have some come Spring.

I would love to see irises this early - what a treat!

The idea of recycling furniture for outdoor use is a great suggestion. I have 2 mattresses that I was going to put out for trash pickup but now I'm going to take a good look at the springs to see if they can be made into trellises.

Did either of you add a frame to the mattress springs to keep them more stable? I would think that, like chicken wire, they would tend to flop without some kind of framing.

I'm thinking sweet peas would look nice on those kinds of trellises as well, and of course my favorite morning glories.

Has anyone ever grown the Japanese morning glories?

We used the back of a broken futon for porch rails, painting it with opague grey outdoor stain, lasting for 8 years! We could have turned it opposite and made a trellis.

Sharyn, I love Jasmine! This summer we had to cut off the prolific blooms because it made us sleepy!

Send, I have a jasmine plant in my backyard, I used the metal bottom of my kids crib for the trellis. The part that supported the mattress. Lots of great ideas for trellis!

Sharyn, That's really something for winter encouragement, something growing!

Just saw t.v. show with the old metal grates on screen doors removed and used as trellises for butterfly plants to climb. They were attached to a fence, looked nice.

My irises are coming up!!!' Yay!!' We are getting g a lot of rain here in the valley and snow in the Sierra's. The reality of it all will become clear if we continue getting rain and snow after the New Year.

Anyone receive the 2016 gardening catalogues yet?

Garden, they make wire clips to attached wire fencing to one side of the posts. You buy the wire fencing in rolls, attach the beginning of the roll to the first post and just keep rolling it along and attaching it to the posts. You could also use plastic zip ties. If the fence is not use to keep critters contained you could use cheap chicken wire type stuff or buy aluminum electric fence wire, run as many strands as you need for your plants to climb on. You could probably place your posts about 8 to 12 ft apart depending on what you are planting. If you use lots of t posts get a driver. Just a pipe with handles that slides over the post. Much easier than a sledge hammer.

SendMe, that's a good idea. The pots would keep the plant somewhat rootbound, or act like a large bonsai pot. I might even add casters and put it on patio stones so I can move it around.

Windy, the fence would be roughly 250' long, if I decide to only fence in 2 sides.

I never thought about the T posts; I have them for laundry lines, and they're quite sturdy. I'm trying to picture how fencing would be strung - would it wrap around the posts, or just be run in front of or behind the posts? If fencing is anchored to the posts, how is that done?

Willie, my father had us help dig holes with the old post hole digger decades ago. I wasn't very fond of it then and would be less so now. I like the idea though of using the T posts for strength, then using the vines for more extensive cover.

I envision "T's" with hanging morning glory vines - they could also follow wires or even heavy string from one post to the next. With the portable pots for larger shrubs, or even more posts, I could just move then with me when I go, but they'd also serve as landscaping variety since they'd hold bushes that I don't want to grow too large.

And if the posts aren't anchored in cement, I can take them with me with I leave.

Thanks for the good suggestions. As many times as I've passed the T posts in my yard, I never even considered them.

Sorry, I haven't been checking here. I find the most difficult part of putting up a fence is digging the post holes, you either need to rent an auger or know a farmer who has one and is willing to do you a favour. And the hand held ones at the rental places are not a one person do-it-yourself project. While simple round cedar fence posts are fairly inexpensive and may be more visually appealing, Windy's suggestion of using metal T posts is more practical. Perhaps if you used the metal posts for structural strength you could then compromise by using the vines etc as the cross pieces or weave them through wire fencing to make it more visually appealing in the off seasons. I brought a few 5" sections of woven wire fencing with me when I moved to town, I wish I would have had room for the whole roll, it is wonderfully useful!

Garden, I don't how long you need this fence to be but a relatively cheap and easy way is to use metal T posts abs wire fencing. The post are 4 to 6 feet tall and can be easily driven into the ground. The wire fencing comes in rolls and there are a few different gauges. I use lots of the stuff for pastures and string elevtical fence on it, but I also use it for a dog run in the back yard and planted some ivy which is now beginning to climb up and hid the fence. You can get the stuff at tractor supply or any farm store.

Welcome to the forum, David. Perhaps you could tell us a bit about your gardening efforts. Do you grow veggies, flowers, herbs?

Garden Artist, here is the take it with you method: Create a 'fence' with those huge nursery boxes they grow trees in, plant anything to make it private. The boxes can be purchased empty.

Sorry to be so long in thanking you for comments and suggestions.

SendMe,

As to intent and background: My yard is long and narrow close to the end of the block; there are 5 neighbors on the N side, 2 on the E side, and one, an abandoned house, on the S side. It's part of the N side and the S side that I want to block off, and create privacy fences through trellises. I've priced actual fences, and it's a bit more than I want to spend for a place I want to leave in a few years. When my father's gone, I have no reason whatsoever to stay in this area.

I do have honeysuckle, and some of the older vines are thick enough to be used in a trellis, but I don't think they're stand alone vines or have the strength support that would be needed for that, but they could provide lovely, fragrant covers.

I do understand that most bamboos are invasive, but as I recall from a previous discussion on another forum, there is one variety that's not. That's an excellent suggestion.

I would check with the Michigan DNR to make sure the variety isn't invasive, but frankly I don't think they do anything about nonnative invasive if they're not on public property. One of the neighbors has a black locust which is very invasive and nothing's been done about it, even by the city.


CWillie,

Sturdiness is one of my concerns. I have visions of peacefully hoeing one warm sunny day and suddenly having a whole trellis collapse on me.

What I probably would do is plant morning glories, my favorite vining crop, as well as beans and peas and possibly some other annual viners. I might even run strings down to the ground to channel some of the weight off the verticals.

Using scrap wood was my intention as I don't want to put a lot of money into a place where I don't plan to stay.

I was thinking of wood trunks of at least 2 -3" in diameter for the verticals, and even just string from one vertical to another but preferably other branches trimmed from the many vigorous and unwanted trees in the area. I was thinking of weaving the horizontals into the verticals in a wattle style.

When you plant yours, do you support the trunks in any way, such as staking them to posts in the ground, or planting them in cement? I want to avoid the latter, as I really don't want to go to the trouble of creating fence posts along the long property border.

The use of metal is something I've considered, but thought generally in terms of PVC b/c it's white and wouldn't be as visible as something darker. However, I've read that there's a powder type dust used as a finisher that can be toxic, so I'd need to do more research on that.

I think you could make something that would last a season or two, but if you want to grow perennial climbers or even heavy annuals I would opt for something more sturdy. I'm cheap, so I have made trellises and garden supports out of all kinds of scrap lumber and metal, but they have always just been short term solutions.

Instead of a flat wall of trellis, I imagine a small square or rectangle shape arbor to grow the vines up on two-three sides, sitting under that shade in the summer, avoiding bees.

We have an over abundance of bamboo. I never do it, but have alwats thought weaving that would make a great trellis. Btw, bamboo is prohibited locally, or something, this must be granfathered in. We tried to cut it down, take out roots, but it came right back. It makes a good privacy screen along the back yard, but also a fire hazard.

Garden Artist, I can see you are looking for natural support trellis' for your vines. We do not have that luxury here, and I plan to make the vines (cape honeysuckle and jasmine) live there forever. Looking around, all vines up trellises have fallen over or had to be cut down entirely. Building strong supports, adding vinyl lattice. May not be the most natural earthy way to go, but it is looking cute/country cottage-style so far. I like white or taupe lattices.

Glad, yes, "up close and personal" is the only way to garden. Some gardeners I know even garden barefooted.


On another subject: has anyone made trellises from vines in their yard? I'm thinking of a combination of grapevines and honeysuckle vines, but wonder if they're strong enough.

The older, thicker vines might be, or could be if wrapped together in a doubling effect. Or what I might do is use tree limbs for the vertical posts and vines for the horizontals, which don't have to be as strong.

Any suggestions?

GA, my favorite gardening clothes are my favorite cut off blue jeans. That is what they are made for aren't they? Scooting around in the dirt... I knew I kept cutting off jeans for a reason. Up close and personal with my gardens. Reclamation in the spring.

I thought dibbles were used to push into the soil, extract a ball or circle of soil large enough to insert a bulb, drop the bulb in, then release the soil back on top of it. If it's 3' tall, would that work for you? Somehow the idea of scooting along getting your clothes filled with dirt doesn't seem like such a great way of planting!

The handle is probably 3/4" and about three feet long, then the blade another foot. Best way to garden IMHO is sit in the dirt and scoot along on your back side. That is what I usually do, I am too high from ground, so a long way to bend over for me which is really hard on my back.

Glad, that looks like a really good one with a thick post, high enough that you don't have to bend over, as planting bulbs can be pretty rough on the back.

The dibble.