Garden trellis & beds over the years (gardening in general)

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Chris Pyle
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Garden trellis & beds over the years (gardening in general)

Thu Feb 16, 2017 4:01 pm

Chris,

I was wondering how your garden beds are holding up? Same with the trellises? It's been about 3 years since you completed the build. I'm building our raised beds this next weekend(month) and I wanted to see how yours are holding up. Any issues with the unglued mortises on the beds? Trellises standing tall and proud?

Have you made plans for your spring planting? My eyes get far too big this time of year.
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Chris Hall
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Re: Garden trellis & beds over the years (gardening in gener

Fri Feb 17, 2017 11:48 am

Greatly appreciate the question.

Everything is holding up just fine thanks.

details:

The black locust, being green material and partly flat sawn has bucked bowed and moved a fair bit, checked and cracked as well, but the joinery is keeping things together and it shows no sign of rot despite being in direct contact with the soil.

The square trellis out of jatoba is also showing signs of rather more wood movement than i was expecting, given that it was dry to start. Sun bleached. Also, paint did not stick well to the jatoba end grain

Pyramidal trellis out of Spanish cedar looks as good as when it was put in, zero degrade save for some general sun bleaching.

Of the woods i have placed outdoors over the past 5 years, I am most impressed with Honduran Mahogany. While it sun bleaches, and a couple of panels in direct sun did shrink somewhat, zero end grain checking on any piece. It's the king of outdoor woods as far as i am concerned.

Can post pics if of interest.

It would be interesting to experiment with properly dry Black Locust, however that is unavailable in the marketplace.
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Re: Garden trellis & beds over the years (gardening in gener

Fri Feb 17, 2017 3:36 pm

Would love to see photos.
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Chris Hall
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Re: Garden trellis & beds over the years (gardening in gener

Fri Feb 17, 2017 6:31 pm

Will oblige in the near future.
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Chris Pyle
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Re: Garden trellis & beds over the years (gardening in gener

Tue Feb 21, 2017 6:46 pm

Thanks Chris,

There is a local lumber yard that stocks some KD black locust but I wasn't able to make it in time (they have very limited hours). 1st and 3rd Saturday from 9-11. I'm planning to get over there when they open first Saturday of March.
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Chris Hall
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Re: Garden trellis & beds over the years (gardening in gener

Tue Feb 21, 2017 7:00 pm

One issue with locust to keep in mind is that a great number of the trees grow in a leaning position, and thus the saw logs have a lot of stress in them. When re-sawn, the wood will move a lot and that continues through drying. That's likely the reason why drying places won't touch locust generally.

That said, there are straight growing locust trees, and the wood from those tree should be a lot better. A Black locust specialist near me has, or had, a pile of straight grown logs, and those would be the sort of thing to use in my opinion for anything beyond rough fencing.
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Chris Hall
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Re: Garden trellis & beds over the years (gardening in gener

Wed Feb 22, 2017 11:59 am

Pic ya want, pics ya get.

The Jatoba square trellis - various corners:
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Some views of the pyramidal trellis, which has a mahogany frame and Spanish cedar cross pieces:
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The black locust planting bed frames are buried in snow right now, but here's a look at one corner which is fairly representative:
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Chris Hall
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Re: Garden trellis & beds over the years (gardening in gener

Wed Feb 22, 2017 12:05 pm

And some shots of the mahogany lantern in the front yard, a location always in full sun. It's been standing there now for 4 years:
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There is a cracked piece on one of the frame members under the roof, but i think this may have been mechanical injury from one of the kids in the neighborhood, not from movement otherwise:
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Not a crack, not a check. It's remarkable really.

These two thinner boards on the roof, always in direct sun, are the most shrunken, but again, no splitting or checking:
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Real mahogany is surely the king of woods. I have the highest respect for it. Easy to work, super stable and durable,, and useable indoors or out. If I were to make this lantern again (and i'm planning a second one), I'd sheathe the roof in copper and it then ought to last a very long time indeed.
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Brian
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Re: Garden trellis & beds over the years (gardening in gener

Wed Feb 22, 2017 1:16 pm

Chris, thanks for the update on these outdoor pieces. Very cool to see how things look after years outside and that they're holding up very well.

The mahogany is impressive, and I'm very glad to see that considering my current project.

What paint did you use on the end grain?
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Chris Hall
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Re: Garden trellis & beds over the years (gardening in gener

Wed Feb 22, 2017 1:32 pm

I think it was simply an acrylic latex. It's interesting to see that the mahogany holds the paint, but the Jatoba does not.

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