Building a Vertical Garden Arbor with Gutters (Part 2)

It's time to show you the construction phase of the vertical garden arbor that I'm building for Lowe's Creative Ideas! In the previous post I listed the materials and dug the holes for the project so if you're just now finding this project you may want to start with part 1 of this gutter garden project!

Working on the Gutters

The main feature of this project is the gutter planters.  Originally I planned on three 4' long pieces of gutter to make three shelf planter areas but found that the distance between them wasn't as far apart as I wanted them.  I could have extended it lower or added a fourth section (and I may do that later) but I decided to go with two pieces to allow the fence to tie in nicely (if I ever get around to doing that part!)

The hardest part of installing the gutters was cuttings them.  A set of metal snips are crucial for this!  With these all I needed to do was to cut the two sides (front and back) of the gutter along my mark.  Then I bent the gutter along the third side (bottom) and cut.

Next I painted the gutters with a Rustoleum hammered copper spray paint. I like the copper look without having to pay a fortune on copper gutters!  After the gutters dried I drilled holes in the back side of the gutters about a quarter of an inch above the bottom of the gutter. Being a container that will be in full sun most of the day the gutters will dry out quick and I needed to try to maintain a small reservoir of moisture in the gutters.

While the paint on the gutters was drying I worked on constructing the actual structure!

Building the Arbor

Precision measuring is always important when working on a project.  Spending the time to accurately cut and measure lumber makes the assembly part so much faster and a whole lot less frustrating! I'm sure you've heard the saying "Measure twice, cut once" right? So I began with making my measurements on the cross pieces of the arbor.

I used one 12' long 2'x6' for the cross pieces and cut it into two pieces.  Lumber typically comes a little longer than what it says to allow room for cutting. After cutting the lumber evenly I had two 6' and 1/4" pieces.  Then I figured the decorative corner measurement to cut off of each board.  I tried several pencil sketches on the board before settling on one I liked.  Here it's up the the taste of the builder on what to do for it. I opted for a simple single cut but if you have a jigsaw handy you can make all kinds of patterns for the corner cut.

Next came some precision measuring!  I measured the center of the 6' boards then measured 2' from center and made a mark on the left and right sides.  This gave me four feet in between my marks where the gutter space would be. Then I checked the measurement of my 4"x4" which is usually 3 1/2". Then I made another mark 3 1/2" on either side of the right and left marks to create a center line for my posts.  This gave me an outline for where the posts would line up.

Then I made marks for the holes where the bolts would go.  I set them about 1 1/2" from each edge along the center line.  I drilled the holes very carefully making sure that I drilled straight holes. Any deviation would make assembly tough!  Once I drilled the 4 holes on each board I lined up my 4"x4" posts to the cross piece and clamped them together.  Since I already had starter holes in the cross pieces I used that as a guide to evenly drill my holes through the 4"x4".  It worked great!  Once I had 2 holes drilled in each 4"x4" I moved all the pieces to the location before assembly!

Assembly of the Vertical Gutter Garden Arbor

This was the fun part, actually seeing the project come together! I simply lined up the posts with the holes and put a cross piece on the ground underneath the 4"x4"s.  Then I slid the bolts through the holes and lined it all up.  Once I had the second cross piece on the opposite sides of the posts I added a washer and a nut to each one then tightened down.

Next I needed to add drainage gravel to the holes.   This keeps the water form pooling at the base of the wood and improves its longevity.  Then I stood the arbor up in the holes and adjusted the amount of gravel to make the arbor level.

Then I added the gutters to the project.  They are spaced about 16" apart and held up with the "L" brackets.  I used some self tapping metal screws I had on hand to attach the gutter and brackets together and a couple deck screws to attack the bracket to the posts.



I checked the vertical garden to make sure it was straight and level then I braced it and mixed the concrete.  Follow the instructions on mixing concrete on the package but what you generally want is peanut butter consistency! Add a little water at a time then mix so you don't do too much!

The next step is planting! We'll save that for tomorrow's post!

   

Remember

Building a Vertical Garden Arbor with Gutters! (Part 1)

Recently the folks at Lowe's Creative Ideas asked me if I could put together a once a month project using products I found at Lowe's that fit a specific theme.  Of course since I enjoy doing these types of projects around the garden I jumped at the chance!  This month they wanted a project centered around the theme:"Pots and Plants".  The idea behind "Pots and Plants" is to create an older or non-traditional object into a planter for an outdoor space somewhere in my garden. I decided to put together a garden arbor that would serve as a fence panel section around our vegetable garden that used gutters as the planter.  I've seen various renderings of gutter gardens before and thought that this would be a pretty interesting idea to incorporate into our fence!

I planned out the project and dropped into our local Spring Hill, TN Lowe's Home Improvement store to gather the materials with a gift card that they provided.  My wife kept a tally of the material costs as we went through the store and gathered up supplies.

Here's what we bought:
2 - 4"x 4" x 8' Pressure treated Posts 1 - 2"x 6" x 12' Pressure Treated Lumber 4 - 3/8" 8" Carriage Bolts 4 - 3/8" Washers and Nuts 1 - 10' Aluminum Gutter 4 - Gutter end pieces 4 - "L" Brackets 1 Can of Hammered Copper Spray Paint 1 - 80 lb. bag of cement

We actually bought 2 of the gutters with the intent of making three shelves of gutter planters between the posts but found the spacing to be a better fit for 2 - 4' gutter pieces.  Everything we purchased for this 4' 6" wide fence panel including the plants was kept under $100.  I didn't include the plants we purchased but I'll go over them in another post!

The First Step

For the first step on this project I measured and dug two post holes set 4' apart.  I dug down over 18 inches deep which I was extremely lucky to be able to do with only my shovel.  I was afraid I would need a digging iron to break through the soil but since the ground was soft, a little damp, and had a decent organic content a shovel was all I needed!

Once I had the holes dug it was time for part 2: Construction!  You'll see that in a post very soon!

5 Plants I Really Like!

Fads come and go and garden fads do the same thing.  What I like today might be different in 10 years, 5 years, or even 1 year!  But for this Friday Five post I thought I'd tell you a little about the plants I really like right now.  While this list contains some specific plants it also contains a types of plants (some of which may only be loosely related.)

1. 
   Heucheras are the "in" plant of today or at least I think so!  They are an American native plant that thrives in dry shade areas.  Heucheras are perennial plants that need occasional dividing every 3-4 years.  They grow outward and eventually leave an open center section that can be covered back up with soil and encourages to grow back.  I prefer dividing them in the spring time by digging the plant up and separating the rooted sections into individual plants with pruners.  They don't divide as easily as daylilies or hostas might but can be successfully propagated through division.  There are many neat varieties to try and more are being made every year.  I added 'Paris' and ' Georgia Peach' to our corner shade garden this year.  We also have 'Mocha', 'Katelyn', 'Southern Comfort', 'Dale's Strain', 'Palace Purple', 'Mystic Angel' and a few others. 
2. 
   Switchgrasses are the awesome alternative to miscanthus which has become invasive in many states.  Switchgrasses are native grasses that provide nesting locations for ground nesting birds and other wildlife but they also make a fantastic ornamental grass!  'Northwind' is a good upright bluish colored switchgrass as is 'Heavy Metal'.  I'm a big fan of 'Shenandoah' for its fall color. 
3. Hostas have been a garden favorite of many gardeners for many years and continue to be one of my favorites!  I've been hosta challenged over the years with a garden that has little shade and hosta predators like deer and rabbits.  The shade situation is better now but there's no getting rid of the deer and rabbits.  Creatively interplanting hostas with heucheras has helped as the deer and rabbits are not terribly fond of huecheras.  Hellebores aren't something deer or rabbits eat either and make good companion plants for hostas.
4. Native Plants are becoming increasingly popular these days for good reason.  Native plants do better in our climate since they have adapted to live here over the centuries.  They are capable of growing in our challenging soils and take the heat and humidity better than many exotics.  I'm trying to add more and more native plants to our garden as I go which I think makes my job as a gardener a whole lot easier!  This year I added a red buckeye to the garden near the shed.  It's a small tree/shrub that gets beautiful red tubular flowers that attract hummingbirds.

5. 

   'Shasta' Doublefile Viburnum

   Viburnums have always been a favorite shrub of mine.  Flowers in the spring, followed by berries in the late summer, and some pretty neat fall colors make viburnums a great choice in any garden.  Some can get quite large and once they get started are very strong performers.  My newest viburnum is 'Onondaga' which I just planted a couple weeks ago.  I can't wait to see how it does in our garden.  The lacecap type flowers are very similar to many hydrangeas.

Now it's your turn! What five plants are your favorites?  

Write a post on it if you feel so inclined! 

More Friday Fives await you if you follow this link!

Pokeweed for Weedy Wednesday

It's been a few weeks since I last mentioned a notable weed but I can tell you that doesn't mean the weeds haven't been growing!  Ragweed and Johnson Grass are coming up in force with the warm weather and so is the weed I'm about to talk about today - pokeweed!  Pokeweed (Phytolacca americana) is a very prolific weed in wild areas of the landscape and it won't take you long to realize why.

Pokeweed grows tall. I've seen it exceed 6 feet tall in some places.  It produces bunches of berries that the mockingbirds love.  It is because of the mockingbirds that the berries are so prevalent in our garden.  We have a family of mockingbirds devour the berries and drop them off in various areas of their territory AKA our yard and garden!  A word of advice - DO NOT park underneath power lines when pokeweed berries are on the plants - unless you want a purple car.

Pokeweed Flower Buds

Pokeweed is one of many types of poisonous plants and should not be eaten.  Birds are immune to the poisonous berries but all parts of the plant are poisonous.  People have processed the leaves through boiling water multiple times to make what is known as poke sallet (poke salad) but it is a dangerous meal and should not be eaten!

If you have small children (as I do) I highly recommend removing pokeweed from any area where children have access.  The dangling bunches of berries could easily be mistaken by children as something yummy to eat when it couldn't be further from the truth!

Husker's Red Penstemon in the Garden

One of the neatest perennials in our garden is 'Husker's Red' penstemon (Penstemon digitalis).  'Husker's Red' has reddish foliage that adds color to the garden during the growing season but it also blooms prolifically for several weeks in the spring.  Ours are just now starting to fade so I thought I would take a picture to share with you.  The bees love the bell like flowers that cover the plant!

'Husker's Red' was named a Perennial Plant Association Plant of the Year back in 1996 for good reason. It's easy to care for and very attractive in the garden.  Our penstemon is in several locations easily accessible to deer and rabbits and haven't had any issues with the hungry animals. This penstemon grows between 2-3 feet tall and has a nice mounding habit.  It doesn't spread very much but you can help that along very easily with the propagation technique below!

Propagating Husker's Red Penstemon

You can propagate 'Husker's Red' simply by gently pulling the stalk away from the mound and replanting.  If there is resistance water the penstemon and they should pull away very easily. The group of plants you see in the above  picture started as 4-5 small sprigs that were removed from another location in the yard.  I spaced them at about 8 inches apart and let them merge together around a bird feeder in the front garden.  I wrote a post about this propagation technique for 'Husker's Red' Penstemon two years ago if you would like more information on propagating this penstemon.

Do you have 'Husker's Red' Penstemon in your garden?

5 Ways to Save Money on the Garden!

We're always looking for ways to save money and with today's economy what it is it's not just wise, it's crucial for gardeners to save a buck when they can! 

Gaillardia from a Discount Rack

There are several ways gardeners can save money on their garden that are really easy to do and don't require anything really crazy.  Today's Friday Five post offers up 5 tips to help you save money on your garden.  Don't forget to share your favorite ways to save money on gardening in the comments below!

 5 Ways to Save Money on the Garden! 

1. Let's start with an important one that I mention often - compost!  Compost is composed of a humongous number of living organisms that bring life to the soil.  They break down big stuff and make it into small stuff that plants can use.  What is that stuff?  Nutrients and elements that range from nitrogen to small tiny micronutrients important for plant health.  And don't forget what compost does for water retention and regulation!  Compost is easy to make, just set a pile of compostable materials in an inconspicuous location and continue to add organic matter!  Keep out stuff that draws vermin like meats and dairy while balancing green and brown materials as evenly as you can.  Turn as often as you can to speed up the process.  Of course I don't do that nearly as often as I should!  It works even then! (Just slower.)
2. Visit plant swaps!  There's one this weekend at Henry Horton State Park that I used to go to until my daughters joined dance class and have had recitals every year scheduled on the same day. Plant swaps are a great opportunity to unload your extras and bring home something new.  Every swap is a little different so check out the rules first and see what you can and can't bring.  Swaps are a great way to deck out a barren landscape.  Often there are plants people don't want to bring home that no one wants - maybe you do though!  Be careful because many of the plants could be invasive or aggressive in your garden.
3. The discount racks are another way to garden cheap.  I visit them regularly to bring home new varieties I can nurse back to help.  Often they aren't in bad shape at all but just need to be cleared out for new stock.  Last week I brought home two 'Guacamole' hostas from the rack for $2 each.  I divided one into three plants and planted the other.  Which ends up being $1 per hosta!  Pretty cool!  This brings up number 4...
4. Propagate!  Division, cuttings, and seeds are all really great ways to save money.  If you have friends with a plant you like ask to get a division of it next time they divide it or get cuttings or seed form it if appropriate.  Making cuttings of plants you want to plant enmass is a great way to save on a new garden bed.  
5. 
   Save your water!  Saving water is an awesome way to save money and be environmentally friendly at the same time.  Rain barrels probably come to mind first and their great but sometimes saving water is more about using your water efficiently!  Water deeply when you water and water less often.  Plants generally don't want to be soggy (unless they do ;)) and will grow better if they stretch out their roots to find the water deeper in the soil. Mulching around your plants is also great to retain moisture in the soil.

How do you like to save money in the garden?

For more Friday Five Posts Check out this List!

Sowing Shade Garden Seeds

Last week I put together a couple flats of shade garden plants that I'm attempting to grow from seed.  I've had pretty good success before with my heucheras and thought I would give a few other shade plants a try!  A couple years ago I intended (but never got around to) to begin sowing shade garden plants and began saving seeds for coleus, hostas, and heucheras.  I saved the seed in baby food jars (we have plenty of them around) in the refrigerator.  I even labeled the jars with the year I gathered them so I know that they were harvested in 2010. Seeds stored in the refrigerator can remain viable for several years so my odds are good at getting some sort of germination!

I sowed four types of seeds: coleus, hosta, heuchera, and hellebore. My hellebores (Lenten Rose) surprised me the other day with a ton of seeds. I researched and read where they like a period of warm weather followed by cold weather and may need stratification to germinate.  I also read where seeds sown fresh may germinate.  Being hasty I decided I'd chance some of the seeds by sowing them fresh.  So far none have germinated but I'll let you know when or if they do.

The coleus seeds I saved had a reddish colored leaf that I bought each year and planted in our shade garden.  I haven't been able to find the same variety this year so I'm hoping that what I get from the seed I collected comes fairly true to type.  They should look like the picture on the right when grown but could vary quite a bit. If I had found just one coleus like it I could have easily propagated more though cuttings which probably would have been much faster but unfortunately I couldn't find what I wanted so I'll just improvise.  Improvisation is always fun!

I've grown heuchera from seed before and it's pretty easy.  I usually just sprinkle the very tiny seeds on the soil surface and water. Don't cover with soil. Then you wait.  Keep them watered and wait some more.  They could take a couple weeks to germinate.  If they don't you wait some more!  Heucheras don't come true to type (usually) but I really don't want them to.  I'd would love to see the neatest heuchera ever developed grown in my backyard - wouldn't you? ;)  There's no germination yet so I'm waiting and checking daily in anticipation!

The hostas have germinated.  Or maybe I should say the hosta has germinated!  So far I only have one but they couple take a couple weeks to all germinate and there's no guarantee that I'll get more than one hosta from this batch.  I'm planning on saving seed this year as long as the deer don't eat my hosta flowers!  I may even try to hybridize a couple.  I've been wondering what a cross between a 'Sum and Substance' hosta and a 'Ginkgo Craig' hosta would look like!  Hosta offspring vary greatly in their appearance.  We'll see what grows if the flowers develop (and aren't eaten)!

Have you grown any of these plants from seed before?