Garden Blogger's Design Workshop: Trellises and Screens

Garden Blogger's Design Workshop is a monthly event hosted by the cool kids over at Gardening Gone Wild.  They pick the design topic and we show our stuff.

August is all about Trellises and Screens and even though I don't have a bunch of them, I do have a couple to show off. 

 

 

When I started gardening last year, I was amazed at the high price of basic (some very ugly) trellises.  I paid about $13 dollars each for these cheapy ones that I hung on the back of my garage.  This is the view I see from my kitchen window and since it's such an important part of my garden, I knew I wanted something to support vines growing up my garage. 

After paying what I considered too much for those proper trellises, I decided to start looking for materials to make my own trellis.  That's when I found this old window that had been thrown in the alley for the trash man to pick up.  I removed all the glass and now it's the backdrop for my not-yet-blooming Sweet Autumn Clematis. 

 

I've learned that you can use just about anything as a trellis, like the rail to the porch which I covered with Cardinal Vine.  I planted this from seed and it has gone bananas! 

I don't own any screens yet but I have a feeling after I catch up on all the awesome design entries I'll be looking for one of those next. 

Be sure to stop over at Gardening Gone Wild to check out all the other great entries for this month's Garden Blogger's Design Workshop.  It's a free easy way to get garden design ideas!

Technorati Tags: garden blogger's design workshop,trellis,window trellis,cardinal vine

Bearded Iris

Irises make me think of my mother. She's always loved them. This image is what I had in mind when I rescued this old raggedy window from the trash last year. I also meant for it to be a trellis for the Sweet Autumn Clematis that you can see growing at the bottom of it but the SAC is not really cooperating.
These Iris were one of the few plantings that were here when we bought this house but they had become so crowded that they didn't look so great. So, following David's detailed instructions, I divided them last year and they look much happier! Thanks again, David!

Trash

This is the window I took from the alley. In Chicago the alley is where the trash goes. That was very different for me when I moved here since we put the trash on the curb and basically had no alleys where I lived in the South. People also put junk they need to dispose of there like this old window and several times per day a junk truck drives by to nab anything of value. I often wonder if these junk people are like hookers with their own territory or if they go to different locations all the time in hopes of finding better crap but I've never taken the time to notice if it's the same people who pick up junk from our alley. The closest encounter I had with one of these people was over at Mr. and Mrs. Woodchip's house very early morning when I was out there picking up a load. It was actually a junk lady. When I saw the junk truck coming down the alley I wondered if I was about to get cussed out for taking stuff from their turf but she just smiled, said hello and moved along.

I didn't find this window trolling through alleys for junk. It was thrown out by the people right behind us and I saw it one afternoon pulling into my garage. After seeing how much trellises cost I've been keeping an eye out for cheap ones and the first thing I thought when I saw this old window was CHEAP TRELLIS.

I took the glass out, sanded it a little and painted it lime green. This picture doesn't really show just how lime the green window is but I love it! I thought the color would look nice against the other shades of green in front of it and against a couple of peoples' advice I planted a Sweet Autumn Clematis at the foot of it. In my defense, I read that I could cut the SAC down to around 6-12 inches above ground in the Spring to keep it more manageable. So, that's the plan.

Hand pollination

I found and pollinated 4 girl watermelon blooms. I really don't think I did this right since I think I read that they should close again after they are pollinated and I did not notice them doing that. I tied a ribbon on each one so that I could keep watch on them. I sure hope this works. The 2 cantaloupe plants also have blooms all over but I can't really tell which is the girl and which is the boy with these so they are on their own.

I also used a drill today for the first time ever. I hung my trellises on the back of the garage. I love this drill and I'll be looking for other ways to use it. These things have been leaning up against the garage for a month because I thought it would be so difficult to mount them. It was easy! Who needs handymen!

The hedge roses are growing!

The pink Simplicity Hedge Roses are getting leafs! I'm pretty excited! This is the best looking one out of 26 and at least 1 of them looks pretty hopeless. It has no new growth whatsoever. I'm still hoping it will come to life over the next few days. As you can see by the ground beneath the rose, I need mulch - really bad. Gardening is expensive. I mean compared to some things it's not, but it's hard to rationalize ordering a couple hundred dollars worth of stuff that's gonna stay outside. I've been working hard on digging up grass. It's really what I should be doing right now. It's nice outside, the sun is not shining on the area in question, and I'm pretty bored. On the weekends I garden for a couple of hours in the morning. At some point I start feeling like I'm so covered with dirt and bugs that I can't stand it anymore. Then I throw down the shovel and haul ass into the shower. I hate feeling dirty which makes the fact that I've suddenly become obsessed with gardening even more hilarious. Right now I'm thinking "I should really dig up some more grass or get rid of the piles of grass I dug up earlier but I don't want to get all dirty again."

Springhillnursery finally sent me an email that they shipped my 2 Clematis. I'm already disappointed with them because I feel like I ordered these things soooooo long ago. The 4 trellises I bought are still leaning against the back of the garage. My goal for the weekend was to remove all grass from the new beds and hang the trellises. I don't see how it's gonna happen unless some actual garden fairies show up in the middle of the night.