Let's See Your ARBORS and TRELLISES! Part 2

pirl, pic of one w/ brass bells, pls. sounds interesting.

cedar18, This time of year is really hard for me. Today is a beautiful day sun is shining new plants emerging but still too cold to do much. I've been waiting for it to get a bit warmer outside it was in the low 30's when I got up and just now hit the 40's. Hoping for just a bit more warmth before I go down to the garden and clean up another section. Looks like I'll be painting this afternoon instead. I have been setting my flats of Pansies out side all day and moving them into the garage at night. Just about ready to plant them. My perennials are just starting to show some signs of new growth but it will be another month or more before I can do much with them. None of the hostas are up yet. The crocus are beautiful, the daffs are just coming on, a few almost ready to bloom but a lot of them aren't there yet. Tulip tips showing but not even close to flowering. My annuals won't go out till Mother's Day, which is when I plant my window and deck boxes. The house is filling up with seedlings, getting time to get out my stored bulbs and the Co-op plants will be coming soon, too. All I want to do is run out into the yard and start digging. You must have gone thru all this just a month or two ago. LOL
First spring project will be the big arbor over the driveway for my Wisteria. Should get it started in about 2 weeks.

Beautiful Holly

Thanks ge1836, I have a lot of smaller groups of crocus scattered around the yard but even some of those aren't all up yet. How are yours doing? BTW just taking a break from painting, can't complain though I really need to get this laundry room finished. I have been without a washer since before Christmas. When the old one went bust I decided to fix up the laundry room before I got a new one. It's been very slow going. I'd really like it get it done now before we start any big outside projects, like the Arbor. LOL

Its too cold to be outside gardening anyway.

Wind chill of 29 here. Indoors is good today!

Y'all make me glad I live here. I know the cold isn't over yet, but I did get some bulbs planted, and thought of Polly since they were Dutch iris. It is still in the 70's has been for a couple of weeks, and things are about to get ahead of me. All the fruit trees are in bloom, and it smells so good outside.
I love spring, too.

Done painting, I am slow and working over head has done me in. LOL I have a gallon of paint almost finished so I asked Ric to finish up for me. He's a sweetie, I get to do as much as I want and then call for help. I was outside it's up to almost 50 and so very nice as long as you stay in the sun. Ric was getting a spot prepared for the peas a bit earlier and I took a break to watch him work and enjoy the sun.

Beautiful here yes, but so is your trellis! How is that made? It looks like real leaded glass 'lead' seams and with the beautiful colored glass insert.

We must be about a month ahead of you. Our last frost is April 15. And we plant pansies in the fall here, early Oct if possible. They don't do a lot in the winter, but the earliest spring days (or spring-like) get them going. They are beautiful now and the early butterflies are enjoying them. Pansies then poop out (technical term) by the end of May when it's getting hot. So really we pull them out when planting summer annuals in the spring. It's hard to do then cause the pansies look great, but experience shows they don't hold up in the heat. And if you wait, it's harder to get your summer annuals established. The trials of gardening any/everywhere! :)

Tell us more about your trellises.

cedar, That whole lamppost bed was put in new last year to replace an old and rather unsightly one. It's had been in the planing stages for quite awhile. There are 3 trellises that I grow clematis on. Plus the wood trellis on the lamppost. They were inexpensive metal trellises that I picked up at Joann's on clearance. I knew they were too light weight and small for my needs so Ric built wood frames for them to make them taller and more sturdy. Then we added the blue glass. This link will take you to a thread showing the whole bed start to finish.
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/839411/

I had to take a large Buddleia out last year as it's roots penetrated into my pond and caused it to leak. When I took it out, it left a huge void in the corner of my garden and I didn't want to plant another large tree/bush because of the roots.

I decided to get an arbor/trellis and plant a climbing rose on it, etc. I planted a Cl.Graham Thomas rose and it is doing very well, in fact it already has some buds on it today.

My problem was still there, as inside the trellis, you could still see a void and the block wall....it really needed something else in there. Well, Jasperdale came last week to pick me up for our DG RU and I asked him for some ideas and he gave me something to think about.

A couple of months ago I saw a great idea on Paul James TV show and always thought I would love to do it if I could come up with some old bricks. Wellllllllll, it just so happens that my neighbor next door was cleaning out his side yard this past weekend and he had a whole bunch of used bricks stacked up from an old patio he had. I asked him about them and he said I could use some for my project. I started working on it today. :-)

So, here is the before pic of the arbor. See how naked it is inside.

Donna

Here is what I worked on today. It's not finished yet, but it's a start.

You just stager the bricks and lay them on top of each other then top it off with a nice flat paver or stone and place a nice pot on top. I also used some of his broken pieces and created an edging in the front, so the dymondia won't encroah under it. I also used a few more to create a stepping area to get to the pots.

I will paint it with buttermilk when I'm finished to give it an aged look.
Now I have to buy some beautiful pots and figure out what to plant in them to give it some pizzazz. lol

That's a great idea, Donna, and I love your turtle.

Thanks Zuzu.

I just created a thread on the Calif. forum with pictures of how I did this. It will be updated as I finish it.

Forgot the link.
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/966660/

Donna

This message was edited Mar 23, 2009 6:45 PM

HollyAnnS, Nice trellises, And really like the way everything looks, Love the walkway!
So cal, Your doing a great job, Creative, It looks nice!

SoCal, That looks great. It will really showcase your plants. I'll be checking out that link. I love the turtle, too. I have a few of them but nothing that big.

Here is Cl. Rose "Colette" on an arbor with purple ivy geranium. This rose was slow to start and is in it's 3 rd year. Once it grows a little more, I'll let the geranium continue to climb so they integrate better. I wanted the rose to get more established first. By next year it will have completed it's "downward climb".

Positively breathtaking, JD.

How lovely, JD!

jasperdale, love your arbor. Did you make it? Is it saplings/stems all the way down or does it attach to something else?

Same arbor, different angle.

And I love your critters climbing on it.

Close up of a Colette bloom.

It's got kitties climbing it too! LOL What a fun arbor!

I used to have Colette years ago, not sure why I got rid of it, probably when I lost interest in roses and got more into daylilies, that was before Zuzu and coming to DG.

Cedar: The arbor is just a plain steel no frills arbor. The "saplings" are/is just a grape vine wreath I found in the dumpster. I unravelled it and attached it to the arbor so there'd be something there until everything grew. I also put it on there because I kept walking into it at night!!! It also gives the geranium something to hook on to as it grows.

So, technically, it's "cheating" I guess...

Polly: The critters are wire candle holders shaped like cats which hold a tea light. I stuffed them with mossm spray painted them white, and added them for whimsy. I don't use them as candles holders, though.
(obviously ! LOL )

Sue: tell me about "getting in to daylilies" ! LOL

Very inventive, JD. I really like them. I may copy something like those for my trellis.

JD, inventive indeed. I'll be looking to "sincerely flatter" you by imitating you, to paraphrase the famous quote. Great ideas. :)

That's why we're here, right? To share ideas and come up with new things.
I like to do "different" things...and am always changing the garden to fit whatever my recent obsession is...numerous as they are at times !

I love it Mike. I never would have known that there is steel under the vines. You did a fabulous job!

I like the "critters" too.

Thanks ! :)

You're welcome!

So beautiful, JD - the arbor, the rose and your ingenuity in creating the arbor!

That's really beautiful, Mike.

Oh Mike that is a beautiful rose! It is so full of petals and the color is awesome. I also love your creativeness and your kitties. :-)
I bet your garden has changed alot since I've been there too.

Beautiful arbor and rose! And neat critters!

Glad you all like it ! There's a lot you can do with common ivy geraniums. They still produce color when the rose is dormant and you basically don't have to do anything to them but water them.

I did another one with orange geranium and purple trumpet vine (campsis) but the trumpet vine isn't blooming yet...the geranium is, though.

I tried sweet peas with rose climbers a few times, but when the sweet peas are done, it's a colossal mess to extract them w/o ruining the rose. Nice when they're blooming, but a real chore afterward.

Kathleen: You should post that photo of your Lady Banks here...it's an excellent picture.

You mean this one? There were a few good photos taken that day. This one was taken by our friend Ron. I like the view from inside, too! Can't see the trellis anymore. :-)

Yep ! That's the one.

I never did peer through it though to see how you have it supported. It's so thick and lush it looks like it's self supporting.

I can't wait to see how your white one does when it reaches the same size.