Putting the weeds to work for Us

[Buster's Uncle]

So five days later, May 9th, I'd continued to train vines onto the trellis, and added opposing lantern/birdhouse/planter hooks we'd had lying around -the original idea was an arch, remember- and filled in space at the top with a sort of dreamcatcher of string. 

It doesn't look like I'd fallen into spending hours a day on this project, but I was well on my way to that at this point.  I kept wishing we'd started this at least a month earlier, as I was spending a lot of time unwinding vines that had wrapped together on the great mass of vine off to the right so I could arrange them onto the frame.

It would have done fine in time on its own, but I wanted it to get a really good start NOW.  You can see the milk jugs - I was using pinhole drip irrigation for watering.  While working with the vines, I was always muttering "Don't be a rice-puller".

Bottom left, you can see where we transplanted in a little potted ivy M had on hand - a different species that doesn't strike me as a climber, but it helped cover the bottom front and glam up the thing by that much.

The last shot was taken at sunset and doesn't look all that great, but for once, you can see the vines, not the trees behind them, and tell what you're looking at.  I'd finally gotten a good start towards covering the right frame...

[Dio]

So five days later, May 9th, I'd continued to train vines onto the trellis, and added opposing lantern/birdhouse/planter hooks we'd had lying around -the original idea was an arch, remember- and filled in space at the top with a sort of dreamcatcher of string. 

It doesn't look like I'd fallen into spending hours a day on this project, but I was well on my way to that at this point.  I kept wishing we'd started this at least a month earlier, as I was spending a lot of time unwinding vines that had wrapped together on the great mass of vine off to the right so I could arrange them onto the frame.

It would have done fine in time on its own, but I wanted it to get a really good start NOW.  You can see the milk jugs - I was using pinhole drip irrigation for watering.  While working with the vines, I was always muttering "Don't be a rice-puller".

Bottom left, you can see where we transplanted in a little potted ivy M had on hand - a different species that doesn't strike me as a climber, but it helped cover the bottom front and glam up the thing by that much.

The last shot was taken at sunset and doesn't look all that great, but for once, you can see the vines, not the trees behind them, and tell what you're looking at.  I'd finally gotten a good start towards covering the right frame...

Just be aware that ivy can get out of control and is very difficult to remove once it is planted. Especially vines that reproduce/grow through offshoots or sprouting rhizomes. We have a neighbor with ivy growing over a chainlink fence and the ivy never seems to stay on there property even though it has to grow under a concrete block wall to get onto our property.

[Buster's Uncle]

Oh, that's a fact, all right.  To the left, out of frame in the neighbors' yards, it's been allowed to get out of control - doesn't quite choke out the trees, but there's a lot of it, and some of the stems are almost as big around as your wrists.  Carolina Moonseed has heck's own runner roots.  Too late for us to make it much worse.


The first attachment below was taken on May 13th, four days after the last set, at dusk.  The next two were taken early the next day; in the last, rather unbeautiful, from-behind shot, on the fence side, you can see the row of little trellises that Mylochka began with two years ago, and a bit of the big one she added a year later.

It may strike you that progress is not impressive, but remember that we're only two weeks along, so vine growth hasn't been a big part of it yet.  This ain't kudzu.  Almost every bit of new vine you see had to be trained - which isn't a big deal, but the careful untangling it took to make individual vines available was quite time-intensive.

Finally, some vine-age has reached the top of one of the frames.

Those lovely heart-shaped leaves act as a sort of barbs to hook onto things, and it's tricky to unwind without hurting the vine or stripping leaves.  Something about making this project work in the shortest possible time was really getting to me by this point.  You start seeing the hose in all the pics now; I knew that only so much was going to happen the first year, but I wanted that sucker to get a really good start.

Note the overgrowth against the wall of the house in the last picture; that's vines of the same species.  You will see more of them later...

[Geo]

Ah, we see a bit more of the garden.

[Unorthodox]

is that a sunroom? 

[Buster's Uncle]

Enclosed back porch, yes, but screened, not glassed.

[Unorthodox]

Yeah, old man Zito (farmer I worked for way back when) had the same thing.  (he called it a sunroom, don't know of a proper name)  Always was fond of that kind of room.  Many days sitting there after a hard day...

Though I was always curious how in the heck he dealt with it in the winter, with only those screens...course snow's not a problem there in Texas. 

[Buster's Uncle]

Less than most places.  But the time I met Spaced Cowboy for poker, it was snowing on the drive back - in late April - and it layed 1 1/2'.  I was glad to make it home alive with Texan drivers on the road.

[Geo]

Enclosed back porch, yes, but screened, not glassed.

So no desert temperatures during Summer.

[Buster's Uncle]

No - absolutely desert temperatures during summer - during the day; some of that desert cold at night might be refreshing.

[Geo]

Screened porches retain the heat better then glassed ones? what material is it made of?
I thought you meant something that lets the air goes through, not panes of some translucent material.

[Buster's Uncle]

Yes, and the 105 degrees Fahrenheit summers are typically very still, so the porch is useless in the summer.

[Unorthodox]

Probably not "useless" in the summer.  100+ degrees is not uncommon here either, but a little shade, such as that provided by such a room, can really cool things off.  Especially if you get the roof shaded by trees as well, as it appears to be in the pic above.  Though, no idea what time of day the pic was taken.  What can hurt on those summer days is the breeze is sometimes your enemy. 

[Buster's Uncle]

Not here.  We don't get siroccos or santa annas, or anything like that. 

Interestingly, as dry as summers get here, I've sat on Buster's porch when they lived in the Mojave at 114 degrees in the shade and felt pretty comfortable - evaporation at work, no doubt.  Here, you stop bothering to wipe away the sweat at somewhere around 105 degrees, and just let it drip, there's so much of it.  Dry is relative.

[Buster's Uncle]

The first attachment, IvyGate13, was taken late the next morning, at 11:06 a.m., according to the timestamp.

The next two were taken about five hours later, after I'd spent hours digging up the vines growing against the house, (along about 20 feet of wall; those runner roots don't play) and transplanting to the left gate.  Naturally, I got pretty serious about watering at that point; wanted the transplants to take.

For stuff that doesn't climb walls, there was a lot of it, and some pretty long vines.  Untangling everything took hours, (a non-trivial percentage of which was not optional, as there were some little 1' wire frames entangled) on top of time spent being really thorough getting everything along that stretch.  (Naturally, when I looked in that area the other day, a little had grown back.  Go figure.)

With the additional vines to work with, I could let the transplants cover the front, and string the native vines up the closer inside side.  I'd only begun that rearrangement at this point.