After measuring the bed, I had my husband cut the one piece of conduit, then laid everything out on the garage floor to see if in fact it would work.  A few minutes later we headed down to the garden and quickly assembled the trellis.   He pounded the rebar, tightened the screws and I tied.  My peas are just starting to grow, so we’ll see how well it works.

My Trellis at the Community Garden:

Pennie’s Trellis

Materials: (Lowes in Easton):3 – 5’ lengths ½” EMT Conduit ($1.65 each – aisle 14); 2 – ½” EMT to EMT pull elbows ($2.71 each – aisle 14); 2 – rebar pins ½” x 4’ (2.98 each – aisle 53 );1 – trellis netting 5’ x 15’ ($4.97 – outside garden area)

Optional Materials: 1 – 4’ stake for bottom; 2 – tie down stakes/irrigation stakes or cut coat hangers

Tools: Hacksaw, Hammer, Screwdriver, Tape measure, Scissors, Use hacksaw to cut off 13 1/2″ conduit from one 5’ section – this will be the top.

Note – measure your bed to ensure that it is 48″ on the interior

How To: Attach elbows to top of other two 5’ sections – these will be the sides.

Unroll trellis and measure out 6’ length x 5’ width, thread one side conduit down 6’ length alternating the conduit in and out of the squares, measure over 4’ and thread the other side section. Attach top by threading through alternating squares. Cut netting to fit, allowing extra for tying.

Pound rebar inside the corners 2’, don’t mash down top of rebar or it will not slide inside the conduit. Slide the conduit over the rebar, square it up, push conduit into ground to stabilize and tighten screws on the elbows.

Tie off the squares of netting to top and sides or use wire ties.

Optional: Pennie added a stabilizing stake to the bottom, threading it through alternating squares and securing it to the ground with irrigation stakes.

Info from Square Foot Gardening – also on the web: http://hedgehoghill.blogspot.com/2013/02/square-foot-gardening-on-gulf-coast_27.html

Product Description

3 feet by 2 feet mat with trellis pattern in burgundy Made of 100 percent polyurethane, wellnessmats are guaranteed to: always lie flat, never delaminate or curl up at the edges, never compress or wear through Wellnessmats offer exceptional comfort and are resistant to punctures, tears, abrasions, stains, slips and wear; safe and non-toxic, pvc and bpa-free (so no noxious smells or off-gassing) 100 percent Made in the USA with industry-leading 7-year warranty Easy care: simply wipe clean with a damp cloth or sponge, use any common household cleaner or sweep clean of dirt and dust 3 feet by 2 feet mat with trellis pattern in burgundy Made of 100 percent polyurethane, wellnessmats are guaranteed to: always lie flat, never delaminate or curl up at the edges, never compress or wear through Wellnessmats offer exceptional comfort and are resistant to punctures, tears, abrasions, stains, slips and wear; safe and non-toxic, pvc and bpa-free (so no noxious smells or off-gassing) 100 percent Made in the USA with industry-leading 7-year warranty Easy care: simply wipe clean with a damp cloth or sponge, use any common household cleaner or sweep clean of dirt and dust

Product Feature

• 3 feet by 2 feet mat with trellis pattern in burgundy
• Made of 100 percent polyurethane, wellnessmats are guaranteed to: always lie flat, never delaminate or curl up at the edges, never compress or wear through
• Wellnessmats offer exceptional comfort and are resistant to punctures, tears, abrasions, stains, slips and wear; safe and non-toxic, pvc and bpa-free (so no noxious smells or off-gassing)
• 100 percent Made in the USA with industry-leading 7-year warranty
• Easy care: simply wipe clean with a damp cloth or sponge, use any common household cleaner or sweep clean of dirt and dust

Tag : @$WellnessMats 36-inch by 24-inch Motif Mat, Trellis, Burgundy, $WellnessMats 36-inch by 24-inch Motif Mat, Trellis, Burgundy,#WellnessMats 36-inch by 24-inch Motif Mat, Trellis, Burgundy, *%WellnessMats 36-inch by 24-inch Motif Mat, Trellis, Burgundy ]]> http://cheapcurtainsanddrapessets.wordpress.com/2013/04/23/save-price-trellis-linen-voile-curtain-panel-color-white/ Tue, 23 Apr 2013 11:27:04 +0000 fapnivf842 http://cheapcurtainsanddrapessets.wordpress.com/2013/04/23/save-price-trellis-linen-voile-curtain-panel-color-white/ http://waltonsheds.co.uk/2013/04/23/a-guide-to-vertical-vegetable-growing/ Tue, 23 Apr 2013 10:59:11 +0000 waltonsheds http://waltonsheds.co.uk/2013/04/23/a-guide-to-vertical-vegetable-growing/ Growing vegetables is a great way of learning new gardening skills and providing fresh, home grown food for your household! If you don’t have a lot of space in your garden growing vertically can be a great way of creating more growing space in your home! Vertical growing may look complicated but it’s easy to achieve and requires minimal DIY knowledge. If you’re garden does not get a lot of sun vertical growing can be the perfect way of taking advantage of the wall in your garden which gets the most sun.

Growing vertically can also add to the overall look of your garden. Plain brick walls or old garden buildings can be transformed with a flowers or vegetables. There are many varieties of plants which naturally grow vertically so once planted they should make their own way up a trellis or wall.

Trellis Fence Panels are perfect for vertical growing.

An easy way of introducing vertical growing to your garden is to use Trellis Fence Panels; trellis panels have a unique design and look. A trellis panel has a strong timber framework which holds an intricate lattice like timber interior. The lattice timber provides the perfect framework for vertical plants; simply install the fence panel and get growing!

Installing a trellis fence panel is easy! You can install a row of trellis or just one panel to use for growing. Simple install your fence posts and attach the panels with fence clips. To grow on a trellis panel you will need to plant at the bottom of your panel; if you don’t have a lawn you can simply buy a slim trough for the bottom of your panel; place the trough at the base of the panel and thread plants through the lattice gently as it grows!

Trellis fence panels are also perfect for hiding parts of your garden; one area often in need of hiding is a bin area. Simply install a trellis fence panel in front of the section of your garden you want to hide and grow a thick vertical plant like ivy or honeysuckle. Honeysuckle is ideal for this job because it will also give off a sweet scent masking the scent of bins!

Hanging small plants pots from a vertical framework can also be a great way of using the space in your garden effectively. To create a hanging vertical grower you will need to create a wooden framework; you can create your own or use a recycled wooden pallet as a frame. Once you have a frame you can attach a strong, metal mesh. This mesh will be used to hand small pots!

Honeysuckle is easy to grow vertically!

Attach the hanging framework to your wall using metal brackets. You need to ensure the frame is hung securely as the weight of the pots and water can be heavy! Once the frame is attached to the walls you can then start hanging pots! You can buy plants pots with hooks already attached or you can buy a pack of hooks from local DIY stores and attach them to small plastic pots.

There are many different types of vertical growing vegetable plants; runner beans are a classic vegetable which grows vertically naturally. Simply thread the plants through your trellis or framework as it grows. There are many different tomato species which thrive when grown vertically and will produce a bountiful crop. So if you’re running out of space in your garden make use of your vertical growing space!

If you’re looking for Trellis Fence panels or growing accessories take a look at the vast range at Walton’s Garden Buildings. 

Lest you think that only smooth interior walls or whitewashed exterior ones can provide the surface for mural magic…let me set you straight.

What is a mural ?  Related to the French word “mur”, meaning “wall”, the term “mural” is derived from the Latin mūrālis, which means “of a wall”, derived from the Latin mūrus, or…WALL!  And…there are so many kinds of walls…

Some sport a trellis, such as the wall I was to paint for my client, Maureen.

This was her view through her kitchen window, in a neighborhood that is often permeated in dense fog.

Well, picturesque though it might be…the trellis had to go.

Underneath, the corrugated texture of the wooden siding posed another painting challenge.

Maureen’s contractor and landscaper, Greg Spry of  Spryscapes had designed a bench for the deck, so the mural needed to work with it.

The deck opened out directly from the living/dining area, which informed the mural’s color palette.

I also took inspiration from the colors, textures and patterns of pillows, textiles, artwork, and other details inside,

as well as from Maureen’s business card.

She loves flowers and plants, and with that fog,  they can be challenging to grow and maintain on the deck.

Taking a cue from the wall’s trellis “history”, I designed a composition of curving vines, punctuated by big splashes of brightly colored blossoms, and made it to-scale.

On a rare lovely, sunny day, I set up a little outdoor studio right on the deck , and set to work.

The essentials: mockup, palette, and rags.  Oh yes…the paints are out there too.

I began with a rough chalk outline on the wall, closely following the design depicted in the mockup.

I laid in the underpainting for the leaves , “vines”, and and stems, over which the other colors would go, in a cool green hue.  I had cut stencils (incredibly useful!) in varied sizes for the leaves, and adhered them to the side wall with blue painters tape in-between color applications.

Next came the underpainting of the flower blossoms in a brilliant yellow.

All the paints used are artist’s  acrylic designed for mural painting, which I bought at the Precita Eyes Muralists Community Art Store in San Francisco.

Next, I laid in the other colors, and added details, complexity and depth with layers of color that shifted in value from dark to light and back again.

I used sets of strongly contrasting complementary colors to add energy, intensity, “pop” and vigor to the design.

I disregarded the edges of the strips of siding, and its corrugated texture, and painted right over it and into its texture, applying layers of slightly watered down paint to the painted surface to fill each area, and give the sense of unbroken blossoms of color dancing across the wall.

Maureen’s painter had base painted the wall in a neutral color, which made the technicalities of my task easier, as his efforts helped to unify the surface.

The idea was to create a rhythm, and feeling of movement, color and pattern across the wall.

The colors would change with the light, but always add a

sense of whimsy, magic and joi de vivre to the deck and to the home,and to animate it,

all the way to the end.

(Of course the painting is varnished to protect it from those foggy elements.)

  Now Maureen has a magical, motion-filled garden to look at when she raises her eyes from the kitchen sink, and looks out the window to  the deck. These are flowers that don’t require watering!

Here’s to the bon vivant, Maureen, Cheers!

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The mommy duck that has taken up residence in the side yard now has 10 eggs.  The Gardening Stud, Youngest Son and I paid a visit to Bird House and Habitat and got her some seed.  She’s spending more time on the nest so 10 eggs might be all we get.  If she’s incubating we have about a month to find a kiddie pool for when they hatch.  The goal is that once they hatch we give them a week or so, then relocate them to a place closer to water.

I’ve got a few projects in varying states of completion:

• Bean Beds-Oldest Son built and hung the bean trellises this week all along the back fence.  Need to clear away some sod then the beans get direct sown to ground.

• Strawberry bed- I have cut the pallets and whitewashed them, need to screw them together and put my logo on one of the slats.  Have more sod to clear away from the area around the peach tree where the raised strawberry bed will go, then mulch in the whole bed.

Pallets after 1 coat of whitewash

• Shelves for front porch-still in the design process.
• Rain chain for front yard-designed in my head, need to procure some materials.
• New Deck Project-The Gardening Stud  tore the deck apart last week.  It was one of those moments when I come home from work and the kids say, “Wait until you see what dad did!”  We had one rotting support under the deck that needed to be replaced so he tore into it to replace the support.  But while we’ve got it apart to fix that, we might as well improve it, right?  So this falls into the half-done-until-we-figure-out-what-the-heck-we’re-going-to-do catagory.

Not much going on with indoor projects this weekend:

• The Garden Stud and Oldest Child made feta cheese.  It needs 4 or 5 days to age but preliminary test results had smile factor-maximum.  I see gyros in my future…maybe Friday.
• Burlap wreath-have wreath form and coffee sacks from TV Coffee.  I think I’m going to turn this into an indoor/outdoor project so I can sit in the sun, cut up the sacks, and try to make something beautiful for my front porch.  Then I need to find some cool embellishments.

I’ll make complete posts of projects as I finish them.  One last happy picture for you.  I hope you had a wonderful weekend!

First, an update on the pea seedlings that I planted in garden bed number two on March 30th and showed sprouting on April 11th.  You can see the base of the trellis and some landscape fabric that the trellis is sitting on in the background.  More peas have been coming up, but only about half as many as I am hoping will sprout, which would be half the number I actually planted.

We planted beets, carrots, chard, lettuce, onion seeds, and onion bulbs  in garden bed number one on April 7th.  A few beet and lettuce seeds have germinated.  Here you can see a tiny beet seedling.

A few of the onion bulbs have shoots coming up as well.  In addition to planting seeds and bulbs, I transplanted four chard plants into bed number one on the same day.  I noticed that one of the chard plants looks like something has been chewing on it — probably a rabbit — so I put wire mesh cages around the chard plants to protect them.

The chard plant in the foreground (which doesn’t have a cage around it yet in the photo) is the one that has been eaten.  The cages are simply pushed into the soil; they stay in place pretty well.  The tops of the cages are rolled to make them a little less sharp.

Here is my current garden setup.

This planter is just an ordinary one, not a grow box, and I only recently planted some peanuts in it. We also just bought these trellis’ with solar lights to “brighten” things up a bit.

From furthest to closest: In the back I have my onion box — the shallots I planted in it are doing fantastic! In the middle is my pepper box; it has jalapenos, yellow bell, purple peppers, and Chinese 5 color. And the closest box has carrots; I just planted those last week, so I hope they’ll sprout for me. We’ve never had luck with carrots in the past. Oh, and that little bundle of green in the foreground is a peppermint plant which I have since put in the ground!

Furthest to closest: In the back I have a planter full of potatoes that is doing fantastically well! We have gophers here, so last year our potato crop was quite small, but I have high hopes for this year’s crop! In the middle planter I have two types of tomato plants grown from seed, they are still young. In the closest planter I have various types of cucumbers; two have already sprouted!  *You may be wondering why I have weights on the planters. The answer is that it has been quite windy here lately! I wanted to weigh down the patch for any of my plants that weren’t large enough to keep it in place.

Furthest to closest: In the back, I have another planter full of potatoes! In the middle, another tomato box. Closest, I have a planter of broccoli and cauliflower. The plant in the foreground is an artichoke; I recently planted several around my backyard!

On the left is some garlic I planted a while back, and on the right are some strawberries I decided to have a go at.

Here is a round squash plant I grew in this pot. I also have a grow box full of herbs, but only the dill and basil have really come up so far.

This weekend I was so excited to find a three pack of these lavender plants at Costco for only $9.99! I really hope they stay alive!

I also enjoy finding half off sales at Rite Aid — this solar light sculpture is gorgeous!

Another cheery solar light addition! It changes colors!

I’ve been finding lovely little lady bugs here and there. We have lots of tasty aphids for them to nom on.

We also got these awesome compost containers. I am anxious to begin composting.

My husband has his own garden, which is much bigger than mine, outside the yard. His garden is full of corn, potatoes, beans, peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, and watermelons. Last year we had a great corn and bean crop!

With the combination of them both, our two gardens are unstoppable! We continue to find more to add to them as well.

I have been very busy working away in my backyard. We are now preparing for chickens! This week we will be heading out to pick up some adorable baby chicks to add to our backyard! God Bless!

Tedra

1st Sundays at the Garden will feature an educational garden talk or project followed by a get-to-know-your-fellow-gardener appetizer potluck!t would be great to bring a dish to share so that we can snack while we learn!

Join us for our first 1st Sunday on May 5th at 1pm. This event will feature a willow-branch trellis building workshop! RUGN’s very own board member Nancy Carlson will share her trellis-building knowledge with us!

Growing veggies vertically is a great space saver making trellises are a great addition to a small garden space! Information about which veggies grow best on these structures will also be provided!

I make this assumption based on the number of pea related calendar posts there have been. For instance we have planted peas, trimmed pea branches, sowed peas (none of which I have been able to do since planting since my peas don’t seem to want to grow), and today’s calendar post says:

“Install pea branches and other trellises”.

I think it is supposed to look like this:

Pretty cool, but I don’t have pea stems let alone branches. I also don’t have a place to build a trellis out of other branches as my neighbors are already complaining about the pile of wood on the side of the house from when I built stage props last month.

So that being said, no pea trellis and not many branches around my place sadly. But I gave it my all.

I went for something smaller like this one from Greenwalks:

Given that I only had four branches to work with, I came out with this:

It can’t be considered a fail if you tried, right?

Halfway There

on APRIL 15, 2013

Hello, everyone. Today marks the halfway point of NaPoWriMo. I hope your writing is going well!

Our featured link for the day is the Adademy of American Poets’ portal on poetic schools and movements. Don’t know your Russian Acmeists from your Imagists or Metaphysicals? This page will help you sort it all out.

Our featured participant’s blog is Lips and daggers, where Libby Loucks is working on a series of 14-word poems — often she posts four or five a day! It’s sort of like NaPoWriMo Plus.

And now our (again — totally optional) prompt! Today, I challenge you to write a pantun. Not a pantoum— though they are related. The pantun is a traditional Malay form, a style of which was later adapted into French and then English as the pantoum. A pantun consists of rhymed quatrains (abab), with 8-12 syllables per line. The first two lines of each quatrain aren’t meant to have a formal, logical link to the second two lines, although the two halves of each quatrain are supposed to have an imaginative or imagistic connection. Here’s an example:

I planted sweet-basil in mid-field.
Grown, it swarmed with ants,
I loved but am not loved,
I am all confused and helpless.*

The associative leap from the first couplet to the second allows for a great deal of surprise and also helps give the poems are very mysterious and lyrical quality. Try your hand at just one quatrain, or a bunch of them, and see how you do!

* It’s been pointed out that the example doesn’t rhyme, and its syllable count is suspect. All I can say is that it is a translation from a poem in Malay. A transliteration of the original is below–

Tanam selasih di tengah padang,
Sudah bertangkai diurung semut,
Kita kasih orang tak sayang,
Halai-balai tempurung hanyut.

As you can see, in the original, the abab rhyme is present, and the syllable count is right. Our translator appears to have been more concerned with substance than style! At any rate, I apologize for any confusion.

POEM FIFTEEN

2013.4.15

Art:  John William Waterhouse

1849-1917

I planted sweet roses along the trellis.

Overgrown, they hang heavy with bees.

I sought but am not sought, jealous.

I am lost as night birds sing, on my knees.

Copyright 2013

C.J. Prince

There was our first attempt at holding back peas with small bamboo stakes (4 foot) driven into the ground vertically, and horizontal bamboo poles woven through the vertical poles like a basket. The peas brought those down by season end, and we had a mess on our hands where the peas outgrew the 4 foot poles.

We bought bigger bamboo poles, ran a top pole across the span, lashed it all together with twine, then ran our twine grids, and the peas and beans managed to wreck that too before the season was out, and once again, we had a mess on our hands.

We used the tripod style trellis, but didn’t really like how it worked.

We’ve used the one you can see in the header photo that the pole beans grew up on – we liked it, it worked really well, but it took up a lot of space, and was really difficult to set up initially.

So as we started laying down the plans for this year’s garden, we started seriously thinking – how can we do this differently? What can we do that will provide us with a strong enough trellis that won’t get battered in the wind, that is tall enough and strong enough to allow the peas to grow up it. Not to mention, something versatile enough design-wise to grow peas, beans, our vining heirloom tomatoes, cucumbers, melons, etc.. The answer came to us in Mel Bartholomew’s Square Foot Gardening book.

Metal frames – he advocates steel pipe, but I decided ultimately on galvanized electrical conduit.

Thing 2 and I made a trip to the neighborhood Home Depot, and picked up the supplies we needed. Typically we like to scrounge up our parts and try to do it on the cheap, but unfortunately, the peas we’re supporting needed the support now. No time to scrounge.

Perusing the electrical conduit aisle, we found the lengths of 1/2 inch conduit that we needed (10 feet) for $1.95 each – not terrible. The connectors to give us our 90 degree connection though, those were outrageous. $4.45 a piece and we needed 6. BLECH! They were the only 90 degree connectors they had… we picked up the ones we needed to take care of the length for now until we come up with a better system (already got it figured out – and will detail later)

We picked up lengths of 1/2 x 3 foot rebar, and we were off.

We came home and made the cuts to the conduit that we needed to – the top bar to make it equal to 4 feet with the connectors needed to be 45″, so we cut three of those.

Then we trimmed down the pieces we already cut to 6 feet high, leaving us with about 3 inches of waste. Not too shabby.

We continued this process so that we had enough to do a 12 foot run (3 trellises)

Began to connect the 90 degree connectors to the top bar (notice the two additional garbage cans for potatoes!)

Once the top bars were all together, all that was left to do was connect the vertical posts on both sides of the top bar, drive the rebar into the ground on 4 foot intervals, sliding the vertical posts over the rebar anchors, and then lash the whole thing together with twine.

Here the poles are up and sitting on the rebar over the center of the peas, really sturdy – I was pretty impressed by that.

Once the twine was on them, they were very sturdy, and it should work great for the peas this year.

Here’s the problem.

At $2.78 cents each for the rebar pieces, $1.95 each for the lengths of conduit (took 2), and a whopping $4.45 a pop for the elbows (2 per trellis)… the grand total for a 4 foot length of this frame was $18.36. Even if you had access to lengths of 1/2 inch rebar, you’re still talking $15.00 a pop, which is pretty pricey for a trellis.

So, while these are nice – and I really like how they came out. I’ve already decided based entirely on cost, what I’m going to do for the rest of them in the garden is take 2 10 foot pieces of conduit, bend the last two feet into a 90 and pick up a butt connector for $1.78, that will connect the two together. (Total expense for the remainder of our trellises with that design is $11.78 -$5.56 if I can get 2-3 foot chunks 1/2 inch rebar free – and we get the added bonus of a near 8 foot trellis.) Quite a bit better price overall too – for an exceptionally sturdy trellis which can be removed each season and stored. Might look into putting some sort of nylon grid system on it that will last better season after season than the twine, but we’ll see.

What about you – what kinds of trellises have you used in the past? What has worked well for you?

Finally, after nearly a week of rainy weather, we found a day to get out and get the ball rolling on spring garden preparations. We planted some leftover seeds from last year including White Lisbon Bunching onions, Chantenay and Danvers carrots, as well as some more Black Seeded Simpson lettuce. The ten day forecast looks pretty good with some warmer days and warmer nights so hopefully we can get some spring crops going before May arrives. I also took my chain link fence compost bin down, and repurposed it as a trellis for early peas and whatever else we may need to grow vertically.

Tools I used:

• -Cutting Edge Stencil: Allover Stencil “Marrakech Trellis”
• -Martha Stewart Living Interior Precious Metals Paint in Silver Leaf
• -Foam paint roller & foam brush (for touch ups)
• -Paint roller tray
• -painters tape
• -cardboard (for wiping excess paint)
• -ladder
• -husband! (I couldn’t have done it alone)

Tips:

These tips are mostly given to you by Cutting Edge in their extensive directions, but I didn’t necessarily pay attention–you should learn from my mistakes!

• -Start somewhere inconspicuous first. I started at the top of my ceiling (photo below) and it wasn’t the best work because I was still getting used to the stencil process.

• -Make sure to have cardboard to roll excess paint on. You want the roller to look dry when you start, too much paint= blotchy mess.
• -Have help. There is no way I could have done this alone. My stencil was huge, and it was hard enough for me to be up on a ladder, let alone try to get the stencil straight and tape it down.

• -Buy Cutting Edge’s clip on level tool. I didn’t, and I regret it. Plus I think my ceiling is a little uneven, so it wasn’t the best leveling guide.

• -If things get uneven or don’t match up, don’t freak out! I did a few times, but I winged it and it managed to come together beautifully.

• -Go from ceiling to floor, then move over and start again. Don’t try to stencil across the whole ceiling then go down from there.

• -Have wet wipes handy. The paint will wipe right off with mistakes then you can just fix that spot. I did a few times!

I definitely recommend Cutting Edge Stencils, for stenciling. I absolutely love the results I got, and they are very detailed in their instructions! Check out my room before & after!

Here is a larger view of the wall: