New Yard Decoration

[sheepdog 10]

I'm always adding things to my landscape around here, but this one turned out rather pretty. And it only took me about 2 months! Much better than the driveway entrance I've been working one since last year, which I also managed to finally finish this summer.

The new one is a trellis I built for a Wisteria plant I put out last year at the base of a big oak tree. Finally found a pretty way to display some of the hundreds of pounds of rocks I am always dragging home much to my husbands dismay from vacation every year.

 

One of the reasons this one took as long is because I wanted concrete bases for the legs of the cedar trellis to stand on to keep them off the wet ground so they wouldn't rot as quickly. I wanted to decorate the forms with colored stone. I had made a stepping stone in the past from an old dogs water dish, but I wanted 2 stones a little smaller than the stepping stone I had made, so tried to use a different size water dish. I greased it up good, but after the concrete set up I found it impossible to get it out of the form. I ended up breaking it all to pieces. So I had to rethink the whole process. I'm one of those people who have to wool things around in my brain for several days until a workable solutions suddenly pops into my head just like turning on a light switch. I ended up taking a 2 gallon bucket to the table saw. A scary job, since I already have one finger a bit shorter than it should be from that very same table saw. I cut out the bottom and then cut a 2 inch high circle of plastic out of the rest of the bucket. Then put the ring on the ground where I wanted the base and mixed and poured the concrete right into it on the ground. I had already layed out my stones on a large piece of paper in the design I wanted, so after I poured the concrete it was just a matter of quickly placing the stones on it. After it set up several days I did end up having to cut threw it, but was able to duct tape it back together to do the second base.

 

Notching and getting the cedar post all carefully marked wasn't too bad of a job. But I had one more disaster before the finished project emerged. I had purched several cute plastic birds several years before, and had been carefully storing them in one of my desk drawers in the kennel all this time. When I was trying to set them on the trellis to decide where and how to space them apart, I dropped one onto the concrete base and busted it all to pieces. Really ticked me off. 3 birds would of looked much cooler than just 2. And getting the birds to stay where I wanted them was another challenge that I had to work out. Ended up splitting a short section of cedar and putting it on the outside of the main log, which I had cut a notch in for the bird to set flat on. Trying to screw the split cedar pieces on was a pain, they kept splitting. I ended up using lots of carpenters glue and hoping for the best. Glued the birds down too.

 

Anyway, it's finally done and I think it looks pretty dog gone good if I do say to myself!

 

 

[yordan 10]

Great job! And using cedar wood was a nice idea.

I tried something with bamboo sticks, did not survive to two winters.

Just telle me, did you see live birds entering the bird's house?

[sheepdog 10]

No, don't have any live birds yet, but it's pretty late in the season now for them to be trying to hatch out another clutch of eggs.

I don't have any real bamboo, but do grow a lot of cane, which is similar, just a lot smaller around. Does get real tall though, 15-20 ft. I have several big patches of it. I have found all kinds of cool uses for the canes, this year tomato stakes, and was going to put up a rail of them along my flower bed to help keep them upright, but I'm running out of time for that now so probably won't get that done. I also lash them together to make shades for some of the dog pens, and the harbor I did try to build that a storm took down and we just haven't gotten around to putting back up yet. It's really fun stuff to play around with.