A Gardeners Forum Forums Members History Forum Life 2004 rustic looking plant climber

Renee I really loved the gnome door and am going to start on one tomorrow.One project that we made for my garden last year that I really love is reerod towers.I dont remember where I got the idea but it worked quite well although my husband was needed to do most of the work.We had reerod cut to lengths of 5 or 6 feet and then bent them around a 5 gallon bucket to shape them into a tall u shape.I had some very large square shaped pots filled with soil and I then pushed them down into the corners criss cross and did the same with another rod so that they criss crossed at the top middle.Then we just took a small peice of wire and secured them together at the top.
The fun thing about it is you can just leave them like that and plant morning glories or sweatpeas around each post.Or you can embelish them more,maybe wrap grapevines around each rod or twist wire into curly cues.I just hung little birdhouses under the top crossed section and let the flowers climb and do their magic.Its just that they are so sturdy,no wind can blow them down and they will last forever.
I have them around on my back deck and in my garden and it is nice to have all the different
heights going.Hope theres someone who can put this to use and I hope I explained it well enough.

i love that idea. it reminds me of a grape arbor that i saw the other day (apologies to mom54, it was at her house!). it was made with sturdy 4x4's and in parts of it, there were what looked like galvanised pipes (i didn't get too close, so i'm not sure, i was too busy running my mouth) cross wise like the rungs on monkey bars (going up the side). i was thinking, that would be a great way to make it sturdy enough to climb on top of to get the grapes off the top!

I don't know how I missed this post,
What a cute IDEA!!!!!

This is the look :rolleyes: I'll probly get from
my husband when I show him it,
but it's worth a try!!

Weezie

My mom has old bed headboard sthat are metal, she painted them green and has flowers "beds" Just in case some of you have those old frames laying around, head boards and foot boards.

Yes Renee I love that look, I'm always on the lookout for good ornate headboards. I've also seen them made into adorable benches too.A couple of years ago a friend gave me the side rails of an old crib that were painted red and blue.So I stood them up in my garden with the ends meeting at the top like a two sided teepee and I'v grown cucumbers on them. I like things in my garden to grow up since theres not alot of space.

I'm soo glad that someone said something about benches made from head boards. I have a great wooden head board sitting on my front porch just waiting for a chest that I'm going to make into the seat part of the bench. I'm going to attatch the backboard as the back of the bench and then put the whole thing on my porch where my lattice is. It'll be a way of me getting some extra storage on my front porch too, since the chest's lid will lift up.

Vermeire, Thats just what I saw and its always great to get that extra storage.I'm still trying to find one,I'm sure I will eventually.Last year I had two seatless old ladder back chairs that we added wiremesh and made into flower pots.I loved them too,big fan of recycling.