The Epi house

Took a few photos yesterday and thought you may like to see the Epi / fern house and where the new extension will be.
This was the start. The old dairy shed . Nice and solid with a concrete floor.
Jean

We built onto the shed and down to the upright post near centre of pic. The end was closed across because this was all there was going to be. This stage was about 12' long and 11' wide

The first bit was too small so we cut a doorway and built onto it. This next bit was about 15' long down to the pine posts you see. this was going to be the end.

Hubby said the shadehouses were so easy to build and the concrete out from the dairy still extended further , so we added the fernery on. This last bit is 24' long . The entrance door is on the left of the photo in the fernery.

Looking down the outside of the front . the back is filled in with timber for the first part, corrugated iron for the second bit and some recycled fibreglass sheets for the fern end. The roof and walls are all just shadecloth except for the first bit when I was ambitious and used Alsinite on the roof. It was too expensive to use more and not needed anyway.

This is the space where the last extension will go. (definitely the last bit )
It will be 12' x 15' . There is another old shed behind where I stood to take photo so I can't build on anymore.

How wonderful, Jean. I am so envious. Turkey proof! The outside would look good against our neighbour's landscaping. When you run out of space down there, come up here for a holiday..but bring your tools just in case!! LOL! Well done! Cheers, Kat

This message was edited Jan 5, 2009 6:39 PM

Wow Jean can I borrow your hubby? my darling just throws some shadecloth over something and calls it a shadehouse ...he is a workaholic and anything but that is squished in between the ever present customers ...my areas are purely practical and not pretty, they do the job though. Good for you it's beautiful! ...you never know perhaps one day my fella might retire and build me a greenhouse palace but until then I will be happy to watch yours.

Jean when you refer to Epi's I think of the orchid species, Epidendrum. (Crucifix orchid)

You sure do have a lot. What is your best flowering time?

Thank you for the comments. I am proud of the structure. by the time we got to the last bit we were experts at it. The first bit was up for quite a few months before the epis decided to grow madly and expand. The second bit was added on a few months later when hubby said it looked like the epis needed more room. When that was done, he looked at the end bit of bare cement and said we might as well continue to the end , so up went the fern end. Of course , this was a joint venture. He hammers because he can do it better (he says) while I do the measuring and holding up of timber while he nails. As you can see, it's all pretty full. Hubby always wonders where the plants come from to fill an empty shadehouse. Poor thing, he just doesn't understand gardeners.
I must mention that as he has been a radio ham for most of his adult life , he has collected a lot of 'stuff'. He also builds amplifiers etc for amateur radio work , so he has the small spare room full of radios etc. This is not including the very tall towers in the front and back plus the miles of wire radials over the ground which I come across when digging, Ooopps , was that a radial ?
He doesn't know much about gardening but sends my garden photos around the world to all his radio friends and boasts about his Jeannie and her garden.
Marleneann, my Epiphyllums flower around mid Oct through to Christmas. They are what people call Orchid cactus but Epiphyllums are cacti not orchids. The Epiphyllums include a variety of flower sizes and shapes. Others such as aporocacti, rhipsalis, zygocactus, are all in the large cacti family .
Go onto the net and type in epiphyllum. then drool over the flowers.
Jean.

Jean I have a few but most haven't flowered as yet.
One had a large white flower but it only lasted a day.
I have a poor quality picture I took of it at the time.
Do you know the name of it ?

This message was edited Jan 5, 2009 11:21 PM

Marleneann, I am still learning but I would say you have one of the night bloomers. they are generally lumped under the name Queen of the Night, but in reality there are different ones that bloom at night. As far as I know they are white flowers whereas the hybrids we see as day bloomers have flowers that last up to 4 or 5 days. They are the coloreds and also whites. .If you are really wanting to know , I would post on the epi forum as they are helpful there and know a lot more than I do. It does look a nice flower. can you describe or post photo of the plant itself or even some of the branches, as most night bloomers have different branches and growth habits to the other hybrids.
I see a collector in the making . They are just green plants for most of the year but when they flower, the wait is worthwhile.
This is Andromeda, one of my favorites.
Jean

Your shade house's look lovely Jean and I am green with envy. When do you start the next extension.lol.

Jean I'm quite envious of all your shade houses. I haven't got one but my son was talking of building one only tonight for me. I'll keep my fingers crossed. I showed him all of yours and told him about the epis and about how you acquired them and what sort of a stste they were in. He going home to Adelaide tomorrow but will be back again in a couple of weeks. He's on 4 weeks holidays from his work, so he comes up here and works for me. Lovely boy to his Mum. Talk soon. Colleen

Looking good Jean...your hubby must be a treasure...lucky you!!

The pine posts arrived and work will start as soon as hubby gets the urge. Once started, he is hard to stop unless it gets too hot. He was looking at the posts this morning and the day is a lot cooler, so things may move soon.
He is a treasure and one of his traits is that he washes the dishes. He likes doing it and am I going to say no ? Ha ha Jean.

He washes dishes too? ...you are a lucky woman indeed.
The greenhouses would do me ^_^

We have started !!!

wow jean. your shadehouses are amazing. i haven't got any... but after seeing these pictures have an urge to show hubby. the plan is to pull down the chook pen and put them in the unused stables. think i might design something for the area that the chook pen is now. would be brilliant soil though after chookies have been on there for a few years. decisions.

off to a funeral shortly. its coolish today and sprinkles of rain here and there. only 25degrees at the moment.

shelly

looking forward to seeing the new extension Jean! I will have to tell hubby that we have to keep up. LOL

Moving along. Have to wait for the bench timber now , before putting up the rest of the shadecloth.

Jean , it's looking good ----------Sammut

Construction is slowly moving along. Hubby is eager to get it finished for me but I am a bit like Chrissy, I have to go tie him down. He was in so much pain for the 2 weeks his back was bad, you would think he'd want to slow down.
Men !!!!!
The basic shelf frame is there now, just a couple of extra legs to be added. The bench tops will be all treated pine decking which is inexpensive and so easy to work with. .You can see a bit at the end where I have started nailing on. I am leaving the last shadecloth side open until it is all finished as I want to make sure we get all the sparrows out from the sheds along the back . They nest in them and I don't want the messy little B*****s among the epis.
I will post a pic later of the finished construction.
Jean.

Looking good sunset

FINISHED...... At last it is done. The new epi abode is already being tenanted quickly.
I will still tack a couple of trellis pieces to the outside for a nice tidy look later.
A couple of views of the inside before I started moviing epis around. I was amazed at the size of the stems on some of the plants as they had been hiding under each other for 12 months. I only broke one stem with all the moving. It took a lot of trips with the wheel barrow as the epis I moved were at the front of the house under a tree and had to go down to the end of the back area. Sometimes, only 1 plant per trip as they were so large.
Jean.

This is a view down one side . The banch on the right of pic is the wide centre bench with trellis down the middle tp tie epis on.
Looking down , you can now see into part of the original extension.

looking from the original epi house up to the corner of the new one where all my Bromeliads are . This will be designed properly when I finish with the epi moving. I want to put some of the broms on tree branches etc.

I need lots of suggestions for things to fill under the benches, As you can see , there is a lot of room.
I thought maybe some broms in pots along with anything anyone can suggest. Jean.

Some of the epis tied to the trellis. For KaperC and anyone else interested.

Jean it's beautiful! ... looks like your epi triffids are trying to climb out of there already ...you must be thrilled congratulations!

Jean, it's a real work of art! Somehow though, I don't think you're going to have much difficulty filling the benches. lol

Isn't it amazing how heavy Epis can become?! I used to have quite a few, but they've been a bit neglected for a few years, and their numbers have slowly dwindled.

Wow, Jean. I have thirty turkeys looking over my shoulder with their tongues lolling. I have given them your address but it may take them a few days to get there even though they were motivated. They may even hitch a ride for part or all of the way. Where there's a will, there's a way.

I am so impressed. The lattice looks good. Did you buy it at Bunnings? It would be good along the fence here with shadecloth..keep prying secateurs out of my airspace! I am glad your epies have such a lovely home. You are indeed the Epi Queen! You know you're not going to stop here! hahaha! Cheers, Kat

>It would be good along the fence here with shadecloth..keep prying secateurs out of my airspace!

*shock* You're kidding, Kat?! I honestly can't fathom the mentality of some people. If someone wanted a piece of something from your garden, surely they could ASK?! Most gardeners are only too happy to share bits from their garden. And truth be known, they'd probably end up leaving with ten times as much as they nicked anyway - serves them right! lol

Thank you all for the nice comments. I am proud of our building. We are getting expert at shadehouses now. Hubby said it is starting to look full already and maybe we should look at finding more space for another. I think he has building mania now.
That trellis is great for so many things. Our lovely local hardware man will cut it to size for me if I need it as it is too awkward to get the large pieces home.
We have no Bunnings etc near us. I could go to Hamilton to the hardeware there but we choose to go to the local man in Coleraine. One of the old time hardware stores where they know you and get things for you.
It is not expensive and we used a piece on the door, both for decorative looks and as a brace.
PussyKat. Your turkeys won't come down here. They are too busy trying to trip you up so they can get to your epis.
I am going back out now to finish rearranging the epis. I am getting surprises as I move some because the little small ones have been hidingunder the big branches and some of those 'small' ones are now over 2' long.
I just hope now that I get lots of flowers next season. Maybe I should put a picture of Kat's chewed ones and a turkey in there to show them what can happen if they don't flower nicely. Ha ha.
Jean.

Hello Gardengal.

It's our neighbour! He cuts things down or pulls them out as he likes flat grass and thinks my plants are weeds. Last year he took the side fence down and cut down a row of murrayas and trimmed the hibiscus to within an inch of its life so he could stand IN OUR PLACE and build his vege box right on the femceline..and ripped out anything he thought was weeds and trampled the broms...and he accused ME of being unneighbourly when I wouldn't allow him access to our backyard again so he could put something on our side of the fence to fasten his suncover to as he didn't want it on his side. I had just replanted from his excavations from building the fence so said no. We gave him access to over a metre width of land on the fenceline for over a year (we had to build a fence in our place to protect the girls...chooks) and he scraped the topsoil off in the end. We had to pay half but the fence was so he could attach a retaining wall and build his place up. The existing fence was good as we had built it a few years before. he continues to prune things back at the trunk and I want to replace the hedge and privacy. I put up bamboo screening on our side and he accused me of spoiling his landscaping. Still, he is a minor annoyance in the scheme of things and we have much to be grateful for.

Hi Jean, just beautiful. I can see you are going to be arranging and rearranging for the next week, month, year! A little tip about broms......they don't like water dripping from treated timber (or galvanised steel). I think it is the copper in it? They would therefore probably not do well under the benches. It turns the leaves brown where it touches, and if it drips into the centre of them, is usually the death of them. Touchy huh? Can you not hang Epi baskets under the benches? I have just re arranged my old fernery so the broms are on top, but most other plants in there are destined for the garden eventually, so they don't mind being underneath temporarily. I like ferns for under the benches and also imaptients for a bit of colour. Those new guinea imaptients are gorgeous, but I don't know if they suit your climate.
Kat, what an annoying man your neighbour is. My husband would have bopped him one! I wnet off at a neighbour last year for dropping a pile of sticks over our fence! Not a great drama, but I had to draw a line so he knew I won't stand for anything worse. Give an inch and some take a mile!
Happy gardening sunday
Sue

Very nice. I'm having epi envy... I only have a few, but here is one of my fav.

Sue, I did go off at him...politely at first..but he just didn't get it..that he was in the wrong... kept saying we had groundsel everywhere but there is none in here. He didn't have any idea what I had growing and had ripped everything out from our fenceline back to our house..about 2 + metres. I had to draw the line. He had invaded. Wish my hubby would have bopped him one instead of trying to be obliging and neighbourly.

Interesting thing about the copper though. He has built a CCR timber retaining wall and I had broms there. Would painting the side facing us do any good? I have built the soil back up but don't like to think what is leaching into it. Because I have now put up some bamboo screening, I have heliconias and gingers and broms there. The broms are about a metre from the wall. He came home when we were putting the screening up and yelled at us so there are still two lengths of bamboo to put up. He likes the view into our jungle from his gazebo, which is facing into here. He is always out there so I can't even garden there now. His vege box is right on my brom patch (was trampled) right up near our house and it is a metre high and CCR as well. Has a two+ metre high shade/ bug cover box over it..right at our window level. With his big yard, it was a strange place to build it. Not something I would have done.

So maybe I shouldn't put lattice there. Maybe the bamboo is best for the garden and plants. Otherwise, I could make a screen out of double thickness shadecloth. I had thought of building another wire screen with a creeper on it..but the snippers would cut off the main stem. This guy just needs a job. In his late 30s/ early 40s..has been here about 8 years..never worked,, paid cash for the house. has now married with babes so that sparked interest in "landscaping". Wears a backbrace sometimes but no trouble when no one is looking....maybe got a payout?

Kat, I read somewhere that you can seal the treated timber with 3 coats of paint. I seem to recall that it needed to be oil based paint, but am not positive about that. I'll see if I can find it again.

Ok, Kat. this is not where I originally got the info from - I have a suspicion that the site no longer exists. I did a bit of a Google search though and found this one. Scroll down to about 2/3 of the way down the page to find a section on treated timbers.

http://www.bromeliad.org.au/news/Ill1007.htm

And yes, it needs to be oil based paint.