Will do. Our daughter plans to help me tomorrow pick up a cattle panel to make an arch for the garden. It entails renting a pick up truck because this thing is 16'X4'.... Way too big to put on top my car. I found a YouTube video that shows you how to load it into the back of a pickup truck, bending it into an arch. Wish us luck. I'm a little intimidated. I picture the thing boomeranging out of the truck on to us or on to another car. We plan to tie the thing down to within an inch of its life. (Pssss...I haven't told my husband. He's in Ohio helping a brother move. I'm sure he'd rather I wait. But I'm impatient) The digging around the strawberry bed and installing the hardware cloth may have to wait.
Weii Cayu, you know that everyone here will be sitting on the edge of their chairs waiting to hear how this adventure went and see your finished product...I know I am. I have questions and I am hopelessly curious about the whole thing and your techniques, and your plans. This is potentially a great addition to your garden. Bonne chance.
Cayuga, please do let us know before your husband comes home. If he is in southern Ohio, I will run down and try to stop him until you have your plan well in hand. Seriously, like Sjoerd, I'm wishing all goes well.
@Growingpains Chuckle! You know I tried today to post photos but the Stew website said they were too big. I used to have an app on my phone for shrinking photos but it was uninstalled & I can't remember which one it was... Maybe Lit Photo? I'll get on it growingpains.
Okay, here are the photos: We rented an 18 foot pickup truck to haul the 16 foot cattle panel to the community garden. First time I've ever driven a pickup truck & it was a lot easier than I expected it to be. Actually it was easier than my own manual shift car!! (But if truth be told, as I pulled out of the rental parking lot, my daughter asked me "are you anxious?" I was about to say "no" when I realized I actually was... Just a little bit. She knows me so well!!) (Too well!) Here's the cattle panel, wedged in the truck. It was easy! We didn't get walloped by a boomeranging cattle panel. Whacking the fence posts in with a two by four piece of wood. It seemed safer than using the hatchet I'd brought. Our only problem was that it kept getting impaled on the fence post & we had to yank it off. Giving it my all! Daughter giving it her all! More 'all' from me again TA-DA!!! DITTO! We even got the climbing rose planted on the left side of the arch. Won't it make a grand entrance to my plot? I already have telegraph peas planted on the left, a clematis to go in too, and I plan to plant pole beans on the right. On the ground in the middle of the arch I placed a big flat rock...stepping stone. I plan to plant thyme around it and lettuce closer to the inside of the arches. Hope you can follow what I just described. My daughter & I had so much fun! We kept laughing and laughing at ourselves. And the arch. The piece of wood we were using got so chewed up my daughter said it looked like a piece of salmon. It was funny st the time, but you probably had to be there. And then of course we traded many self congratulatory praises! A very good day.
What a great posting this is. It has all the elements of interest— anxiety, capability, physical exertion, accomplishment and of course self-congratulation. Then naturally posing with the defeated walloper. Perhaps a salmon dinner to celebrate. It was good to see your and other plots there. The soil looks good and I can see some winter mulch still protecting. The idea of the stone and thyme is a really good one, I think. You would brush it as you walk into and out of your allotment, creating a lovely fragrance. A very good day indeed. P.s. Thank you for the pics
Cayuga, what a lovely arch! You and your daughter did a great job of installing it. May I suggest that the next time you have to pound T-bars into the ground, you invest in a five pound short handled mallet. That's what I use, and it does a good job and doesn't look like a piece of salmon afterwards!
Thanks Sjoerd. It was a good day. And yes, the soil at the Garden is pretty good, especially the plots where gardeners have been improving it. @marlingardener yes, I know we needed a better implement! My friend in the neighboring plot arrived with her fence pounder and we finished the last post using it. Here it is: It goes over the post & you just yank it down. The post went in like cutting through butter.
C, I saw a "hack" just the otherday.. paint small berry sized stones red and put them in the patch before berries are ripe.. when the birds come to investigate and steal they get nothing and don't come back...
Oh Cayuga, you and daughter amused me as well. Creating some new piece of a garden can be quite entertaining. Love the photos too. Now I await your husband's reaction when he sees what you accomplished in his absence. U-Haul should pay you for advertising! Great job, Cayuga and daughter! Well done!
