Zach Helps Plant Seeds Around Homemade Arbor
I know Arbor Day was created to encourage people to plant trees, but I took a little creative license with the holiday-which is celebrated the third week of May in Maine-and decided to build a sapling arbor for the Children’s Garden. I’d never built one before and found the project so easy, I now plan to construct one for my home garden as well. Collecting the building materials was as simple as walking the line where woods meets yard. It was easy to find 4, 8-10′ pliable hardwood saplings, along with the some smaller saplings.
I’m sure the arbor cogniscenti use nothing but saplings and maybe a few well placed nails to create their masterpieces, (see photo to the left that I pulled off the internet) but I’m a novice, so I grabbed a ball of twine for fortification. It’s also a defensive measure, knowing the arbor will soon have dozens of children playing, running and “oops!” knocking into it.
What An Arbor Could Look Like If I Knew What I Was Doing. (This photo is from Backyard Living)
We created two archways bending the saplings toward one other and and buried them about 18″ in the ground. We strung the rope between the two arches creating a loose web in which to weave the remaining smaller saplings. You can tell from the photo that it looks a bit sparce, but I know gardeners can envision what it will look like when covered with flowering vines. Beautiful!
After germinating some pink and blue morning glories seeds overnight, I planted about two dozen at the base this afternoon. Easy, easy, easy!
Spinach Sprouts In Just Add Water Bed
Now, to update you on the Just Add Water project, I planted a second crop of lettuce, spinach, and a first of radishes and chard this weekend. I was a bit dissapointed by my pea germination. It’s a bit spotty, so I did a little excavation. NO PEAS to be found in the bare spots. I suspect heavy rains unearthed some of my first pea planting and the birds made off with an easy supper. I’m now germinating a few more shell and snap peas I guess this will count as a “second planting.” If these don’t take, I’ll call it good with the small crop I have, because I want to use the space for carrots come mid-July. The trellises are in place for the climbing cukes and tomatoes. I’ll put in the bean and squash seeds along with tomato and cuke seedlings right after Memorial Day weekend.
