Garden Log (what I did):
1. Strung up top horizontal wire on House Finch Hideaway trellis habitat.
2. Watered front garden, played frog, and surveyed kale bed.
You, the Habitat Gardener (reflections):
Siting cord (yellow) used to level wire position. Note this temporary cord is a little high on the left. Solution: loosen up left endpost, tighten down right endpost.
1. A few hours of glorious sunshine and time to work the garden today. My goal was to string up one of the horizontal wires of the trellis. The horizontal wires will bear the heavy weight of fruit vines and jasmine flower vines. My first assignment was to assess the bulk of wood each post had at the height I want the top trellis wire to be stretched, which is 7 feet off the ground, or about a foot higher than the back fence height. All four posts look bulky enough to take the bolts I intend to use to keep the cross wire from sliding down. I’m using bolts and not simple fence staples because I feel the bolts are more macho, they will not ever pull out like a staple might, AND they were free; thanx again, Tony, for thinking of me when cleaning out your garage.
As explained in my last post regarding House Finch Hideaway (House Finch Hideaway — Installed Posts), the posts have been left loose in their postholes. In other words, the posts can wiggle and waggle (especially if Pa is strumming his ukulele) in their holes while the end post and cross wires are being tightened. Backfill to secure the posts will come in due time.
Using Gripple tool to tighten endpost wire.
End post wires were doubled from the earth anchor eye to the post. Also, each pass of the wire around the post was wrapped twice to distribute tension. The end posts will bear enormous weight/tension from the combined weight of the two inner posts, all the cross wires and all the vines and fruit on those wires. That’s a lot of weight!
I left some slack in the end post wires because the slack can always be taken up, whereas too tight means cutting wire, installing a patch wire, and then reconnecting the Gripple lock.
I guessed the height of the top cross wire on each end post, drilled bolt holes (2 bolts for each end post), and strung a very visble yellow cord to mimic the top wire. Almost level, with the left end just a hair higher. Cool!, level can be reached by pulling down on the right end post — a perfect example why leaving some slack in the end post wires was the patient, wize way to go.
Left Endpost horizontal wire under bolt. Bad.
In comparison to an end post wire, the top cross wire has much less weight to bear — it has to deal only with the weight of the one wire itself and only the vines/fruit on that wire. Therefore, the top cross wire will be a simple loop from one end post to and around the other end post. A Gripple lock gathers and holds the two ends of the loop together.
Top cross wire above supporting bolt. Good.
But not so fast young man! Not so easy for me to string up the top cross wire. The 13 gauge vinyard wire did not want to bend around the endposts. Rather, it wanted to spring away from the post, slipping under the bolts meant to support it. Frustrating to repeatedly lose the wire’s top (above the bolt) position till I had an attitude adjustment. Those are long bolts — back them out till the wire is tightened between the posts and then screw them back in. Wala!, all was not lost. The extra long bolts did catch and hold the wire and the top cross wire was installed.
2. This is an exciting time of the year for me. Frogs have started to show up, in the auditory sense, in our neighborhood. How sweet it will be to have a frog or two or three croaking in our garden. Ribbit, ribbit, ribbit — a beautiful way to drift off to sleep. So I took a tour of our front garden today as if I was a visiting frog. “Yes, I could live here.”
Kale Forest from a frog's viewpoint
The kale bed struck me as quite beautiful from ground level, from the level of a hopping frog stopping by to live a few months in our garden. Those kale stalks and leaves look like a small forest. And that’s Mount Hood rising behind them. Yes, my neighbors are patient with me.
Kale in Rock Ledge Veggie Bed.
Rock Ledge Veggie Bed.
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And then, this evening, my daughter and I heard a frog’s ribbit loud and clear from up against the house, not too far away from Rock Ledge Veggie Bed. How cool is that?! Perhaps my watering the front garden attracted it. Either way, I’ll take such instant gratification.
Ribbit.
………………………………………………………………..Tony