Project of the Week

Actually, make that “Project of the Past Two Weeks”.

Tada! In case you’re wondering what it is, it’s a combo trellis for my garden (cucumbers and squash, specifically) and shade for our front door/window, which get quite toasty in the summer. I got the idea from here. Phil’s sister sent me that link last year and I found it tucked away in my “Projects” folder in Evernote. See, you just never know when you’re going to come back to something.

I started building the frame last Monday when Phil was out of town. Now while I enjoyed the freedom to do it completely MY way and not his super logical way, I did have to go back and undo things quite a few times. My biggest mistake, probably, was building half the frame indoors. Maybe.

At the time it made total sense to me. It kept me in the nice cool house. It was a bit warm outside, and I was being sun-cancer conscious and staying out of the harmful UV rays. But then I need to move it outside. All by myself. A big 7 foot by 8 foot frame. And no, I did not break anything. That was Phil’s first question when I told him my process.

Then I had to add on the other half. Many other “Oh crap, I should’ve done it that way” moments came to me during the rest of this. But I will save those for a conversation over wine.

Next step was painting a color that matched the house. It didn’t really turn out looking any different than the original wood color, but it does give a little bit more finished look to it. Then the rain/snow came last weekend and halted my progress. But Friday was beautiful outside so both Phil and I went to staple down the metal fencing wire mesh stuff. This was the whole point of this entire project – a trellis for my garden. The cucumbers and squash I plant are vining varieties and so will eventually climb and provide shade. Phil had the great idea of adding the shade cloth though. So back to Home Depot I went to get shade cloth. Then back another time to get those special fasteners for shade cloth that I thought I should get but decided I didn’t need them because we had a staple gun. (I was wrong, btw). And then back a 3rd time to get another pack because, again, I ignored that little voice of logic in my head that said, “Hmmm, maybe you should get two just in case”. Damn logic gets me every time.

Side note: We both, even in all Phil’s logical glory and super translucent skin, forgot to put on sunscreen. We totally fried. Now you see how genius it was of me to build the thing indoors.

Anyway, many more hours ensued between putting the entire thing into the ground, attaching the cloth, deciding to attach it up to the roof, perfecting it, etcetera, etcetera. Phil is still not done perfecting it, but I’m happy. I’m loving the shaded front porch and added privacy!

And here is a teaser for a very overdue garden post:

Red Creole Onions

By Jenny Cain

Spunky musician, artist, seamstress and horticulturalist. More about Jenny...