The Living House -- A Really Different Way to Grow Roses
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- Carol Wallace
- Cottage_Garden
- Deb_TT
- Deb_TT
- Carol Wallace
- Deb_TT
- Deb_TT
- Carol Wallace
- Carol Wallace
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» Carol Wallace - OK -- so a bed of roses may be a bit far out. But I'll bet we've
OK -- so a bed of roses may be a bit far out. But I'll bet we've all used plants in some unusual way. What have you done in your garden that people think is a bit unusual? (In my own neighborhood people think our garden is unusual because it contains something other than pansies, petunias and impatiens -- although I believe hostas are allowed, and chrysanthemums in the fall. But when they see how nice other, less usual things look in the garden, they're slowly coming around Even trying out new plants themselves. .) Carol (virtually gardening)-- posted by Carol Wallace
» Cottage_Garden - Hi Carol! I'll bite! Every house we've bought (except the firs
Hi Carol! I'll bite! Every house we've bought (except the first one) I have dug up the front yard and planted flowers. Explosions of color. All season long. At first the neighbors wonder. Then they get curious. Then they get to like it. Then they bring me stuff for the compost pile. Then they send me notes after we move away: "Every time I see your flowers blooming I think of you." I've even had past owners come back and comment -- some gardeners, some NOT, and the very first gardeners I just sensed from the plants they had left me -- that was at the first house, nearly twenty years ago.And about the first house? Well, we did the usual thing and planted veggies out back and zinnias along the garage. (They turned out great --we "improved" gorgeous Illinois soil -- there's a reason it's called the breadbasket of the world! It was basically idiot-proof for beginners' annuals and veggies!)
Then the long-departed gardeners' souls reared up and in that very first house we inherited a long run of gorgeous landmark peonies and a huge lilac and hollyhocks and raspberries in the alley and grapes on the back fence and wonderful huge shade trees along the west and southwest sides of the house ...the second year some tulips bloomed all by themselves and I was TOTALLY hooked.
You can bet I dug up the front yard at the next place! HUGE GRIN!
Barbara Martin
Eco-Gardens Editor
-- posted by Cottage_Garden
» Deb_TT - A Shopping Mall was getting rid of their stage, so I asked what
A Shopping Mall was getting rid of their stage, so I asked what they were going to do with the black metal grid work. The grid work became mine and it sat in my garage for two years. My husband asked many times about getting rid of it. I continually said I will find a use for it.The grid is three sided about 6 inches wide and the sections are four feet long. You can put them together to make any length you want with little fasteners that snap into place to lock the sections together. I dubbed it my erector set. First place it went up was right behind the house that was a long expanse of empty wall. Clematis climbed it and fuchsia baskets hung from it. Another section went into the arbor garden, named that after the erector set went in and clematis started growing on it.
Now it is in the new garden I made it into one big arbor. The clematis are small so it looks out of scale right now and tomato plants are utilizing it this year. Once the clematis vines take it over and the shrubs around it mature, it will be quite a focal point.
I am always trying to find creative ways to utilize material in the garden that is not made for that material. I've only just begun to do creative weird things in the new garden!
Debra Teachout-Teashon
Contributing Editor
Pacific Northwest Gardening
-- posted by Deb_TT
» Deb_TT - Carol, A chair is needed! How about a chair made out of picket f
Carol, A chair is needed! How about a chair made out of picket fencing for the back. You could pick up an old kitchen chair put the pickets on the back rest. In the seat make a low planter box or depending on the chair put something underneath the seat to hold the soil in place, and plant a low ground cover, such as Chamomile nobile or wooley thyme. Or as I have seen somewhere, grass. You could even put a little sign on the grass to : Please sit on the grass! Mow it using scissors!A bed of roses, neat!
Debra Teachout-Teashon
Contributing Editor
Pacific Northwest Gardening
-- posted by Deb_TT
» Carol Wallace - Debbie, I did include a chair -- although it probably won't be
Debbie, I did include a chair -- although it probably won't be too comfortable to sit on when it grows. The Arborsmith site that I included features trees pleached into unusual shapes. One is an armchair. But I do like your idea better. A turf seat! Use creeping thyme and it's edible.Your erector set sounds cool! I was collecting pieces of wrought iron railing that people discarded, thinking to use them as trellises, but my husband gave them away. (He'd kill me if I gave any of his "treasures" away.But he had a friend who needed it. . .)
Wow, Barbara! If I had moved into a house with landmark peonies and lilacs and hollyhocks I'd have been hooked much faster. Our house came with a few neat old shrubs, and a lot of huge trees, and thousands of orange daylilies. And an acre or two of jewelweed. And blackberries gone wild everywhere -- middle of the lawn, driveway. . .
I'll tell you what I would love to do that is unusual. I saw a picture in a book of a living gazebo. It was made from apple trees planted in a circle, with their tops tied together to form the roof. Eventually the tied branches graft themselves to each other.
Carol (virtually gardening)
-- posted by Carol Wallace
» Deb_TT - Carole, the living gazebo sounds great! I wonder how long it too
Carole, the living gazebo sounds great! I wonder how long it took to get that way! These were standard size trees? I guess for a real quick gazebo a fast growing tree, or how about ones that have beautiful flowers? Hmmmm I think I might try it!Oh this is an exciting idea. Let's see two spring flowering trees, two summer flower ones, and two autumn flowering ones and two winter ones. Think it could work?
Well let me calm down now. It probably would be better if they were all the same tree so they would graft together. Do you know the dimensions? Where did you see that picture?
Debra Teachout-Teashon
Contributing Editor
Pacific Northwest Gardening
-- posted by Deb_TT
» Deb_TT - I don't think I asked enough questions on my last post! :) De
I don't think I asked enough questions on my last post!
Debra Teachout-Teashon
Contributing Editor
Pacific Northwest Gardening
-- posted by Deb_TT
» Carol Wallace - Not too many questions,Debbie -- but they did requite that I loc
Not too many questions,Debbie -- but they did requite that I locate the book somewhere amid the debris in my library to find the answers. I finally did!The book is called "Sunflower Houses" by Sharon Lovejoy. Unfortunately, she doesn't give any dimensions. She just says that the person cultivated a circle and planted 8 trees around the perimeter. The apple trees were then pruned and tied or wired together to form an arching canopy. The creator even had side branches wired together to form arches.
As I understand this it is a form of pleaching, where the branches are either grafted to each other or will self-graft eventually. Apple trees are good pleaching trees, as are cherries. But I think it's best to use all the same kind. What you could do to get seasonal flowering is to grow vines up the trunks of the trees. The way they are pruned in the picture, all branches that might have hung outward have been pruned away, so that only the high branches that arch to the sides and center remain -- which means the outer circle has several trees that would get sun.
I sure wish I could scan in the picture to show you without violating copyright law. It is also a pretty good illustration of the idea behind my house of roses. Carol (virtually gardening)
-- posted by Carol Wallace
» Carol Wallace - Speaking of pleached trees -- here is one of the most phenomenal
Speaking of pleached trees -- here is one of the most phenomenal pleaching jobs I've ever seen. Carol (virtually gardening)-- posted by Carol Wallace
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