I'm looking forward to seeing it -- and you & Ric of course, and everybody else! :-)
Spring Projects - Show Us Yours!
Critter, I'll let you know how much "water noise" as soon as I get it hooked up :) Some of their fountains make too much noise for me - I'm going for more of a "dribbling" sound! LOL
Dribbling, plinking, trickling... would all be fine. I've seen some that seemed to make no noise at all, though, and for me that defeats part of the purpose. Is there enough water on the gravel for butterflies or even birds to get a sip? It does look like the sort of fountain that might appeal to my engineer DH
Tinkering Tom here. :) Planted the clematis last spring. Now need the arbor. Set the frame yesterday and added a few sticks of wood today. Tri-purpose: hide some neighbor, eye candy for the patio and of course an arbor for the clematis. It was a sleeper last summer. Should be a creeper this summer and next year it could leap to make eighteen feet and cover the whole arbor. All materials from the local mountain and sawmill. Building for under fifty bucks in material. That is better than the big box store!
Doc, That is looking real nice. I put in a few new clematis fall of 07, was happy to see them come up last spring and they didn't do much put did put out a flower or two. This year they are coming up like gang busters.
Josh got a load of tongue and groove from some place up your way. It was cheaper to buy it and pay them to bring it down here, than it was at our local HD or Lowe's. In the end he didn't even have to pay the delivery charge as a friend that lives up there brought it down for gas money.
We have a lot of one and two man mills.....mostly Dutch owned that can make just about anything that ever was made. I refer to them as Slant Eyed Dutch. Show them a picture or a sample piece of wood and they will dublicate it. In my case the wood is green wood. If I miss a nail I get sap in my face. They call it kill dried....killed yesterday, dried on the truck trip to the mill. :))
I know all about saw mill wood. LOL
We have a local saw mill only 1/2 mile away our old chicken coop and the first barn was made out of saw mill green oak boards. Cheapest thing we could get our hands on, if we it would probably still be standing if we hadn't taken it down to built a bigger barn.
Our canoe shed and workshop is 20' X 12' with double end and a side door. Later we added another eight feet on the other end for the riding lawn mower. It was all made from green hemlock using the board and batt pattern that mimics most mountain barns and outbuildings in our area.
This arbor adds eight more feet for eye candy using an arbor for the Clematis. Our shed line including the arbor is all rough sawn green wood now 36'. The laruel in the pix runs 30' or more feet along the Southeast to Southwest patio edge to our house. In so doing we have most of the close neighbors line of site blocked.
The brick in the patio are over a hundred years old. The five accent stones are blue slate
two and a half inches thick that weighed a ton. They were fun moving in and setting first.
This is a mind's eye painting with hardscape and plants in progress.
CLEMATIS ARBOR in process. Another nice day. We got another step finished. Someone keep this nice weather on schedule and we will finish in a day or two. The clematis is begining to leaf out in its second year. This project is just in time.
Wonderful! I've got some clematis due to "leap" this year, and they're still trellis-less. Uh oh. LOL
nice patio doc. Unfortunately for your work schedule, we have an inch or two of rain forecast--down here anyway.
Rain yes......mixed snow early this AM. Just enough to mention about a forty degree temperature swing since yesterday. Expecting a few days of this storm which is the North side of the coastal weather mass. Our soil temperature is hanging there around forty degrees. Nothing much happens in less than fifty degree soil temperature. We are getting there but slowly. WE are about three weeks behind the Eastern Shore weather patterns and soil temperature warm up.
I'm not getting very far with my spring projects. We were to pick up RRties today and the weather is just not cooperating. It's going to be a busy week and the ground will have to dry out before we can get in to get them out.
antennae up--where do you get RR ties? We were just discussing using several under thedeck.
Yellow Pages...........Industral Salvage would find them in our phone book.
Ric, Acquired tons of them years ago, not sure where all he got them but some of them went to a friends house. They were putting in new rail lines in the area. The friend isn't going to use them now so we have been reclaiming them as needed. I love them, there are some issues about the arsenic used to treat them, that's why the friend isn't using them. His wife didn't want them used for the raised veggie garden he was planing so they never used them. They will be fine for my patio though.
Thanks- we'll see what we can find! I think I saw some sort of dumped one time we were wandering around some odd industrial area just for fun--that's my kind of fun.
CLEMATIS ARBOR FINISHED.
Finished just in time! The clematis is really looking like it might climb up a few feet this year. This is the second year for one classed up to 18 feet. One arm will tie onto the new arbor now while four others are about a foot short of being tied up but looking like new growth wanting to reach out and touch the arbor in a short. I guess this is not to bad for only the second year of growing.
This message was edited May 3, 2009 6:33 PM
It's looking really good, Doc!!
Nice looking job, Doc. Amazing how a little change can make a big difference, now you will have someting lovelt to look at and privacy from your neighbors.
Nice Arbor Doc. I like that design cut at the top. That is the design that I had decided to use on our arbor. Everywhere we went I would take pictures of the cut design on the arbors I would see. Then saved them all so I could look and see what I liked best.That one, or very similar was used on an arbor at the Rawlings Conservatory. I was so hoping to get ours up before the wisteria flowers but that didn't happen. See how the boards on this one were slotted not just set up on top of the support boards. I will have to think if I want to do that, as well. I'm going to do the board cutting and staining and Ric is going to put it together.
We have a smaller arbor manufactured in Portland, Oregon that had this top rafter artistic touch. I liked it and designed it into my structure.
I have not yet desided if I need a weather vane or a turn of the century doc made reproducton whirligig on the post sticking up on the back right corner of the arbor. It will likely be a whirligig because scale will be difficult to find in an old rusty turn of the century weather vane which would also be more likely to be stolen.
How I missed this thread I'll never know....
Deb-looks great!
Doc- great arbor and I love that patio.
Thanks jen :) Haven't had much time to read OR post lately but figured I'd take advantage of a few free minutes this morning!
doc, LOVE the arbor! Holly, I did the same thing when I was looking for a design for a pergola for the front entry - stopped and took pictures of any I had seen in my travels plus saved photos from any website I visited. Funny thing is after all that research the trees grew enough to provide the shade I needed and we nixed the pergola plan! At least if we ever decide to build one on the property I have plenty of design ideas :)
My projects have come to a dead halt :( I keep hoping I'll have a few spare hours, heck even minutes would be great, to get some planting done or dig the hole for the little pond by the new rock steps but the weather is NOT cooperating! Whenever I found the time it was either too darned hot or raining :( I had also hoped to get the copper arbor finished - last year's project :( - but it's been too wet to glue the joints. I might just have to rig up a tarp over it and crawl under with my glue or just bite the bullet and pay a friend to solder it! The Primulas I wanted to plant along the edge of the path by the new arbor are blooming and absolutely beautiful but there's no time to get them planted :( I also received some bare root Astilbes that NEED to be planted and the Lily bulbs I received last month are still sitting in the box! The Hostas I planted around the new "rock sculpture" are all up and looking good but some of those that were originally planted there and I thought were MIA are coming up as well and spoiling the whole "theme"!
I have high hopes every weekend when we're driving home from a show but by the time we actually get home I'm too pooped! Long range forecast looks good with the rain clearing out of here by Sunday and cool temperatures next week so maybe I'll have enough energy to at least get a few things planted and then tackle the foot high weeds in the gardens :( We've been "collecting" some fantastic plants from other vendors at our shows and I've also got to spend some time planting my containers. There just aren't enough hours in the day - now if I could just hook up a few floodlights I could be out there NOW! LOL I'll keep you posted and take photos as soon as I have a chance to make some progress :)
RCN, I know you are busy but it is so nice to hear from you. My projects aren't going great either. LOL We didn't get the arbor done so now it will have to wait till next month. The enlargement on the Gazebo which I really wanted done for the swap isn't done either and I have all these plants to put in the corner beds so they are sitting around not planted. In fact I have a lot of things sitting around not planted. I know we really need this rain, but come on give a girl a chance to do a little planting. I have been going out and doing some weeding in the rain but I come back as a total muddy mess.
I hear you all! I'm chomping at the bit, too.
Deb, I can't imagine you have ANY time at all - with the shows and travel. It is good to see your post though.
Holly, I empathize with your desire to get things finished before the shindig, but don't over do it. You want to be able to enjoy it.
Doc, I love the arbor. What a beautiful addition to the shed.
Oh Jan, Don't worry, I have a "It is what it is" casual attitude. What gets done does and what doesn't, will be there for another day. Everything at my house is a project in progress, both inside and out. The most important thing is getting everyone together for fun, food and plants.
Amen to that! Enjoy
Not much time to post these days but just wanted to let you know the "project" is progressing, albeit slowly! I should be weeding the gardens - some of them are over 18" tall - but I'm having too much fun planting along the rock steps, the weeding can wait! I was all set with the few hours I had Tuesday morning to fill the pond and hook up the dragonfly fountain but I can't find the darned thing??? I know it was on the front deck over the winter but when we dismantled the mess where the large vase was we moved it and now I can't remember where we put it! Hopefully I'll be able to find it before our Open House and get the pond and fountain started. No time to take pictures in the last few weeks but I should have some soon! Hope everyone is enjoying the pleasant cool temperatures - what a joy to garden without the heat we usually have by this time every year :)
WHEN THEY TEAR DOWN THE CITY IT'S TIME TO BUILD UP THE COUNTRY
The brick in our patio are brick out of a building built in or about 1885. The local industial scavenger recovered them. Our cost was ten cents a brick picked up at his treasure outlet not to far away. There are aproximately four thousand brick. We paid for four thousand, We were instructed to load a baker's dozen.
Under the patio is an extensive French Drain designed by me to dry up a wet basement. It worked! Others said it could not be done. One contractor laughed out loud and put a fat roasting chicken bet in the game. That was one of the best chickens I ever ate in his company. LOL
My son, grandson, wife and I laid those bricks two years ago. The blue slate accents are locally mined. The walls of course are modern cement landscaping block.
Glad you all like the glimpse of the patio showing. It is aproximately 18' X 36'. Room to play with a dosen to stay......easily.
Doc and co. well done on the patio!
I am making a small seating area under some trees. The bench currently sits in a dirt path. My son's friend does some minor landscaping, and allowed me to take about 45 square feet of leftover slate, to save him a trip to the dump. That I am laying around the bench, and in gaps adding pieces of broken granite scrap that we find mixed in with construction rubble that they use on temporary driveways in construction. Also a few pieces of marble scrap in there. And some flat quartz river stones. I think it'll be pretty cool. I have somewhat of a sand bed already from our own construction, which is helping the leveling part of it.
Sounds nice. Can't wait to see finished project pics.
You bet............that mini patio will have some character. Waiting for the show and tell. LOL
Here's the general idea. I already had this bench we had made with leftovers from the deck, placed on a short path between some maples in the corner of the yard. The path was mulch until we got leftover sand and drainage stone, then we laid that, but found out that drainage stones just don't pack in, they were sort of annoying to walk on. So when I'm really braindead I can start picking them all out.
Better look at stones. I need to sift some sand from the stone/ sand mix I dug out to level the area better, to fill between the new stones. Then I wouldn't mind if I get moss eventually. I do have local moss I can do the blender/ milk thing with. And I suppose I could later add more slates if they are available, or other materials. HEY I just remembered my neighbor had some xtra....
Nice Sally, That is going to be a really nice spot when you are done. What about a couple of potted plants on either side of the bench?
It going to look great!
I liked the fact you mixed it all up with materials that were free or inexpensive. Aside from that it really is a good looking spot in progress. Keep us posted as it grows into your artistic production.
Thanks! It is more intersting to me than "go to a store and buy what they have" Hope I run into my neighbor who may have more slate scrap
Sally, I love the floor. Much more interesting than pavers. I hate the cookie cutter approach.