A good time for projects

Haven’t done much in the garden itself the last couple of days because it is raining and cold. The rain is always welcome, the cold, not so much. I have taken this opportunity to work on some projects I have been trying to find time for. Such as reshaping chunks and strips of lumber into masterpieces I will call a tower trellis, a planter ladder, a mirror for the shed, water tower, and planter platforms. The 'masterpiece' claim might be pushing it a little but I am determined to turn it all into something useful.
This particular tower trellis is an idea I saw in Birds and Bloom magazine a few years ago. It looks simple enough, I found a note to myself telling me that I could do it so I must have had confidence in me at one point. I’m no master carpenter so I suspect the ‘short-cuts’ I will undoubtedly be forced to take to match my skill level will give the finished product some ‘character of uniqueness’ that I doubt will be found anywhere else. So, I am looking forward to seeing how the finished product will look. It will stand seven foot tall, according to the plans, and I think this should be tall enough for even the most aggressive cherry tomato vine. I’m growing ‘Super Sweet 100 hybrid’ again. Last year I grew it in one of those wire cage contraptions that you just push into the ground. It was no match for that vine. The cage repeatedly fell over and I would have to bend its legs into some indescribable geometric shape in hopes it would stand up strong enough to last to the end of the season. It didn’t really. I had to trim some of the top few feet of the vine off dooming countless future fruit to their deaths on the compost pile. But this year I’m banking on my great foresight and planning ability to get every last one of those deliciously sweet little tomatoes to either my table, the neighbors tables or my grandkids hungry mouths before they can get to the kitchen.

The planter ladder idea is one that I have seen in many places. I will use my five foot metal ladder as a template for the angles and make some legs for it, paint it and set it up on the back deck in full sun.

I will be able to use up some lumber than has been laying around in the wood shed and then I can paint it some bright color and set some of the containers I want to try growing this year.

I will need to make it a little wide than this standard sized ladder because the planters are 12"-14" long and maybe not quite so tall. It should look nice up on the deck in front the blank wall.

Mirror for the shed, an idea that has also offered itself from many different places. It just looks too easy to make to pay retail prices for it. I recently saw a blog from Melissa at Empress of Dirt use several mirrors throughout her garden, looks very nice, Melissa! I want to create a "window" on the side of one of my sheds complete with shutters that will have four panes of 12”x12” mirror squares that can be found at any home improvement center and a few strips of wood. The shutters will actually be the most time consuming part of building the thing. What could go wrong? I sound pretty confident, don’t I? Seriously, it’s got to be easier to make than that tower trellis. I can't seem to find a photo of one online but I saw it in Backyard Living magazine, Mar/Apr 2007 issue. The article covers a backyard makeover that took place in Seattle, Washington.

The water tower is just three tree branches tied together to form a teepee structure with a pvc pipe sticking up through the middle and a garden hose attached at the bottom and a sprinkler head attached at the top. Piece of cake, right?<\p>

The planter platforms will be made of 1”x1” strips of wood glued together in such a way as to form a ‘grid’ of four or five strips laid across two smaller pieces that will be the feet.

I’m feeling more and more confident all the time.
Maybe I should make the simple items first, sort of like confidence builders.