On my list of 19,674 things to do, "build trellis for side of garage before March" is on the top 20. My requirements may or may not point to a certain kind of wood:
1) No treated lumber 2) No preservatives (applied by me) allowed, unless it's a food-safe substance 3) Don't care if it rots in one or two or five years - I'll make another. 4) Don't care what color it weathers to. A clematis plant will completely cover it anyway. 5) 8 feet highCedar? Redwood? Other suggestions?
"Doug Kanter" wrote in news:DiLld.4223$ snipped-for-privacy@news01.roc.ny:
Yes. Yes. Cypress if you can get it. What's local to you?
I'm in California. My mother's family comes from Mendocino County. I build outdoors with redwood, for sentimental reasons. I have fond memories of driving up CA Highway 1, in a '56 Buick, passing the redwood fences, festooned with mossy abalone shells, on the way to visit the grandparents.
We have a picture of my great grandfather, with a mule, a saw and a redwood log as thick as he was tall.
Headed up that way again this week, for other reasons.
Patriarch
"patriarch snipped-for-privacy@nospam.comcastDOTnet" "Doug Kanter" wrote in
I have to vote for iether the Cypress or Cedar.
In that case, #2 pine from the big box store
Otherwise, cypress
PT? The synthetic stuff?
As far as staining, not permitted in this particular part of the garden. This one flowering plant will be surrounded by edibles. No chemicals of any kind near them, no matter WHAT the label says, or how theoretically unlikely they are to leach out of the wood.
I'd use cedar, but mainly because that's what's readily available here.
Not sure of your design, but I've had good luck buying 8' cedar 2x2's and ripping them into 4 equal strips and then using the strips to make the trellis. It's usually cheaper than buying any other form of cedar and for some reason, 2x2's are usually a better quality than like-graded 2x4's. This size strip (just under 3/4" square) is easily bent if you want it to be, but is strong enough to hold itself straight as well.
Side note. When I "hang" a trellis off the house I barely set it in the dirt about 6" away from the foundation, and use block up top on the building to attach it 6" away from the siding. This way, when it comes time to paint the house, I can remove the blocks, "hinge" the trellis down and out of the way and do what I need to do. This also tends to keep the plant away form the house (which is good for the house) and allows airflow behind the plant (which is good for the house AND the plant).
Good luck Rob
stain with the same dirt from that part of the garden. take a handful, sift it to remove the too big stuff and the twigs and worms and mix with linseed oil.
she can't complain about that now, can she?
Given that you don't care how long it lasts and apparently don't care how pretty it is, does the type of wood matter. Why not buy the cheapest stuff you can find? Better yet don't use wood at all, use wire fencing.
Regardign #3, if you are so concerned about the environment (an inference made by me), wouldn't it be wiser to add a preservative so another tree doens't have to be killed for your trellis replacment in
5 years?Cedar is cheapest. I'd reconsider the preservative thing and use Penafin.
Red Wood is prettier (IMO) and last longer. Again, I'd use a preservative.
Do you use sun screen?
Cedar or Redwood are good choices. Teak, cypress and white oak are other good choices for outdoor wood. The composite wood is another choice. You can use wood sold as fence pickets.
Use Red Cedar or Redwood. Either will work just great. If you want to save money and don't care about rot, then use Doug Fir.
Philski
Hi Doug,
SWMBO and I are avid gardeners - both flowers (she) and veggies (me). I have raised beds of 2 x 12 PT for almost 15 years (and, yes, trellis's made from same).
Built all this before the warnings.
Except for the purple tomatoes and pink eggplants, everything seems normal (or maybe it's just me).
(I probably would not use the same today.)
Lou
She? It's ME that won't use chemicals around the garden. :-)
OK. I'm awake now. PT - pressure treated. :-) Not an option.
By the way, give the marketing droids at Burpee another year and there WILL be purple tomatoes and pink eggplants!
Good attachment ideas. I'm not sure what I'm gonna do yet. In my last garden, the vines were up against a wooden garage. Now, I have a garage with aluminum siding. I'll probably put a few stainless steel screw eyes through the siding and use wire ties to hold up the trellis.
If more of a concern about what sort of crap leaches into what I eat. Industrial chemicals have not, can not and never will be tested for safety.
I've had purple tomatoes. The white eggplant did have a pinkish end on it too. You'd be amazed at what is available.
I just saw a garden yesterday that had iron pipes pounded into the ground and the trellis attached to the pipes. After reading your post I wondered if gardeners had the same concerns as you do. If you don't want to attach the trellis to the house a "W" shaped trellis might be free-standing.
Josie
You might enjoy a book called "The Botany of Desire". It's got a section about a potato from Monsanto which has had genes from Bt (bacillus thuringensis) spliced into it so it'll resist some major potato pest. Bt is normally pretty harmless, but the book presents some potentially spooky thoughts about what might happen when this enormously useful biological control is overused.
Most vegetable gardeners I meet share on motive, to some extent: The desire to have a certain amount of food without wondering what weird stuff it was treated with.
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