Tag: diy

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Christine's garden Do it yourself Gardening Home page features

My DIY trellises

Unbound with somewhere to go (grow)

My first winter as a gardener and I’m learning all the time. So what have I learnt about winter? I’ve learnt that its a time to take stock of hardscaping projects and getting these done. As many plants die back or hibernate it seems to me one now has the space, time and because it is not so hot one also has more enthusiasm for diy. So whilst this is not quite as strenuous or ambitious as building your own raised bed garden, here is my diy project which finally got off the ground this week.

And anotherI have a number of Trachelospermum jasminoides ‘Star Jasmine’ (known as Confederate Jasmine in the Northern Hemisphere) that were planted by the landscaper last year. I never quite understood the objective of this planting as it is against the wall (good) but the plants are tightly wound around a stake (not good). When I say tightly wound, I mean really tightly – the way they are sold at the nurseries (see photo on the left). The plants had “nowhere to go” and as a result they were going nowhere – no light getting into the plant and they have just been “sitting” there, not flowering, not growing much either – just these weird plantings of “a stick with stems and leaves wrapped around them”.

I realised that the solution would be a trellis so that I could unwind the plants from the stakes and “set them free” to do their thing. Actually, it was a blog post by Jess of the blog “Children of the Corm” that really inspired me to get my ‘a into g’ and get this done. (See her post here). Although her post is actually about her now famous statue, I just love her Star Jasmine that is the background to her lovely statue and I love how it grows there – perhaps when mine looks like that one day I might get a lovely statue for that area too.

So here are the photos of before and after.

Before and during …

[one_half]Tightly bound and going nowherePlants tightly bound and going nowhere[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Nails drilled into wallNails drilled into walls[/one_half_last]

[one_half]Fishing line wound around the nailsFishing line wound around the nails[/one_half]

[one_half_last]A close view of the “trellisClose up view of the lines[/one_half_last]

The line we used was fishing line chosen because it is transparent and very strong. From a distance (a few feet) you don’t notice the nails either. Once the plants have grown a bit I think we won’t see any nails.

And After …

I have now unwound the plants from their stakes and guided them onto the new “trellises”. It was a bit like unravelling balls of wool that had become all tangled up. I managed not to break any stems in the process but it took a lot of care – at one stage I thought it would be much easier to just cut them all but then I would have little to train onto the new supports so I persevered and did the untangling with lots of love and care.

[one_half]Unbound with somewhere to go (grow)Unbound with somewhere to go (grow)[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Same plants, different viewUnbound with somewhere to go (grow)[/one_half_last]

[one_half]From the side …Detail view[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Close up viewDetail view[/one_half_last]

You like? I do, I think it will look better given some time. How long do you think it will take for them to fill out? I do hope it will be soon.

Full view

Happy Gardening
xxx

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Barbie's garden Do it yourself Gardening Home page features

Building my raised bed garden

I finally had a burst of energy this week and a bee in my bonnet to get my back garden started. It looks like we will not start with the backyard fencing until next year, so my interest turned to the designing of my back garden raised bed area. I had all my measurements  and my wooden slat sizes sketched out and I went to the Pole Yard to buy my 16 slats and the 76 x 76 wood for the legs. Grabbing my bright orange overall – yes, I have my own one – I got straight to work!! I have to say here that it was the inspiring Tanya Visser from The Gardener Magazine DVD series that got me motivated to build this on my own. Thanks Tanya!! Girl Power!!

I started with one raised bed to get the feel of size and effort! It took me nearly three hours to assemble and place it in the garden! I will be building another two. Well, the photos speak for themselves and all I can say is that I did it all by myself – with a bit of coaching from my hubby!

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Whew! Ok, so I have now finished the one side. I still need to make another side and then combine the two sides together. This is where I need to get my hubby involved (well, he is taking the photo’s of me too, by the way!). It is quite a big box at 1.5m x 1.5m. Check how big it is!

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The legs were a bit too long, so I chopped them down by half so I did not have to dig such big holes – whew! The ground is not quite level so I had to make sure the sides were all horizontal. The chickens love it when I bring out the shovel! They had a ball. I was finished!

But a job well done! I know that I can cope and that my vision of building 2 more is not so daunting!

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Now, for the next stage of building the soil that needs to go into these raised beds. My soil is very clayey, so I have to create my own rich, composted soil. I have been researching Sheet Mulching so I will be sharing with you my next task of creating this lovely soil from scratch. But that will be the next blog post.

Happy gardening
xxx

Categories
Christine's garden Do it yourself Gardening Miscellaneous

Time out with The Gardener on DVD

The Gardener DVD

The Gardener DVDToday my eagerly awaited purchase of the DVD Series of the popular show, ‘The Gardener’, arrived in the mail! ‘The Gardener’ is South Africa’s favourite’s gardening magazine whose live-wire editor is inimitable Tanya Visser (see photo below). Tanya presents a weekly Television Series on the South African Home Channel called (you guessed it!), ‘The Gardener’.

Each week Tanya presents a topical gardening subject ranging from laying your own lawn, pruning roses to complete garden make-overs. She presents some beautiful gardens around South Africa with a brilliant variety of design styles and plant selections to inspire anyone to get stuck into their own garden. Each show offers practical gardening tips (essential viewing for a gardening-newbie like myself) as well as DIY projects, practical demonstrations from experts and a whole lot more.

So far I’ve watched the first disc on ‘Maintenance’ (see below). I’ve learnt how to maintain edging around beds and paving, how to care for and prune roses correctly from South Africa’s best known rose expert, Ludwig Tascher and I’ve learnt the ins and outs of looking after my lawn.  I picked up some valuable tips on correct usage of my automated irrigation system and finally, I’ve seen how to lay instant lawn.

Once I’ve watched the next disc I will hopefully know how to control weeds in lawn, fertilizing and feeding lawn and dealing with shady areas as well as preparing soil, planting filler plants in dead or thin areas and feeding plants and then, once again they cover roses. This time its looking after roses – preventing pests and controlling weeds.

There are three discs that cover Garden Makeovers, two discs dedicated to Watter Features, two discs on Container Gardening and three discs that cover Growing. The three maintenance discs cover various aspects of maintaining and improving your garden and finally, the last two discs are all about Going Green.

I’m enjoying watching the DVDs and I HIGHLY recommend these DVDs for South Africans that missed the show on television and are passionate about their gardens and need help learning how to do things correctly. All in all there are 19 discs available – I did not order the “Cement” DVDs because I don’t think I’m quite ready for messing around with cement at this stage. So I have 16 discs to watch and learn from.

For anyone interested in the Magazine or the DVDs of the series, visit the website at: http://www.thegardener.co.za/

If I’m a bit scarce on the blog for the next few days … its because I’m watching the DVDs!

NOTE: We are in no way affiliated with this magazine, I paid the standard price for the DVDs and they have no idea that I planned to mention this on my blog (I doubt they even know our blog exists!).

Happy gardening
xxx