Port Potager

Last summer we (okay, this was really mostly Kirk's project, but I helped a little) built the grape trellis with some posts and bamboo . But we only built enough to support the vines at the time, and put off finishing the arbor that we had planned. Well, this past weekend we finally finished it up!  Again, this was mostly Kirk's project for the build. I collaborated on a few design questions, and I took some photos. The new addition is easily visible right now, but by this time next year that bright new wood should be greyed down to match the existing posts. The major design idea here was that the arbor would create a doorway from the garden to the lawn.  One aspect of the arbor that still isn't finished: We are also planning to install a small bench on either side of the side of the arbor, beneath the (eventually) shady roof and over the empty section of bed between the posts and the brick path.  The visual doorway created by the arbor als...

The grape trellis is finally finished, and the vines have been trained and pruned. Things are finally taking shape: We're training the vines in a pretty classic style to have a central leader with arms trailing out along the trellis on either side (known as a 6-arm kniffin). You can see here that this vine only just reaches to the top of the second rung this year, but in the future it should have three arms on each side fanning out from the center. (You can also see that we attached a new rain gauge to one of the posts — it has gotten a workout recently!) The posts of the trellis are 4x4 pressure treated (sorry, but cedar was like five times as expensive, and we like to pay the mortgage regularly) posts. They are 8-foot posts, three feet of which are sunk into the ground. Kirk dug a 40 inch hole and backfilled it with six inches of stone for a base, leaving five foot posts. Then he repeated that step eleven more times. That’s lots of digging, and I didn't hel...