Garden Shed Dog Kennel Patio Ideas

I have a project that I am seeking some ideas or comments on. I have a summary of the situation below and if you take the time to read through and give my any comments, I'd appreciate it!

I bought a house a couple of years ago. Many years ago, someone poured a smallish concrete slab and put up a mid-size chain-link dog kennel. Sometime after that, some previous owner fashioned some walls and a roof to the kennel to make it into a garden storage shed. In its day, it was probably an atttractive shed. Nice exterior and cedar shake roof, etc. By the time I bought this place, the shed had passed its heyday - peeling paint, a sagging roof, and the cedar shingles in rough shape. Too bad through the years it was not kept up. Good design, good construction, X years of neglect did it in though.

I bought this place in Zone 4 and put a nice garden area around the shed. I did do some minor fixups to the shed so it was not an eye-sore and it actually looked rather decent - but the minor fixups were band aids while I dediced what to do with it for real. Well, the garden area around it is booming with nice flowers and small shrubs. The birds love the area. So, I decided it would make a nice, smaller, garden retreat area - surrounded by flowers, shrubs, and birds with a couple of chairs or benches and a small table, etc. I started taking the shed down this weekend. I removed the walls, gate, and a bunch of the chain link so far in day 1. All is going well, but I have an upcoming decision to make I what to do with the old fence posts. I have no decided yet and am looking for comments or other ideas.

The chain link fence posts are set in the concrete slab and seeing how the previous owners did things, I would bet they are set in a 3ft x 3 xt footing under the slab. Removing them does not seem like an option because I do not want to remove and replace the slab. My ideas were to either just cut the posts off and leave it at that or leave them and do somethig with them. My thoughts were perhaps boxing them in nicely finished cedar and having hanging baskets, bird house, bird feeders, climbing vines, etc on these new cedar posts. I think I could make that attractive but I don't find any pre-designed things I can use to do this - so I'd be designing and building from scratch. I'm not sure if I want to put that much time in it. The more I would do, the more usuable space I cut into as well - this isn't too major though. So, I'm leaning towards just cutting the posts off - mainly because I don't think I can find the time to create a concealing system. I'm sure given the time, I could create something more attractive and perhaps adding some functions - such as adding electrical to the posts, low voltage lighting, etc as well as the bird houses etc. If something pre-design and pre-made was available I would probably go that way. By given the time investment, I think I am going to cut the posts off.

Anyone with ideas, thoughts, comments, or done this?

Reply to
Steve
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I don't know your layout but IMHO, a post set in concrete is a solid structural element that can provide you with a lot of options if you have a table saw and a nearby lumber yard. One option is to build an overhead horizontal trellis system. By using the existing posts, enclose them in

2xsomethings and shoot beams straight up 12 or 14 feet. Build a lattice network using 1x2s and 1x1s. I buy 1x10s and rip them into size because you end up with much straighter material and it's cheaper.

If you go up 12 feet your lattice can be up to 8 feet wide and as long as you have poles. Hang the lattice 10 feet in the air centered and attached to your posts. With the extra 2 feet of post height, use cables to support the edge of the trellis 2 feet out in either direction, so the cables are at a 45 degree angle, to hold the sides. A trellis hanging this high in the air won't affect light to other plants and it provides a goal for vines to climb to. Morning glories should have no problem climbing that high but there are other aggressive vines you can get at the plant store for variety.

Here are two pictures of the lattice structure I built this spring. I only had one wall to use, and thus could only build one mast to hold up the lattice. By using suspension you can build it out farther. I'm pretty sure those concrete posts you have will hold a 12' high mast but as always, consult your local structural engineer to be sure. :-)

View from the bottom:

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from above the lattice:
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This trellis isn't completely finished yet.

Reply to
Mark Anderson

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