Wednesday 21 May 2014

I've been trying...

To find a way to stop crushing my floppy flowers where they encroach on the paving.

These flowers are in the left hand bed, next to the pavement where we need to walk to visit area's of our back garden. We could of course cut across the gravel but for the second year running, a very nervous Gold Finch has chosen to nest in our back archway. Daring to walk through that sends her off the nest and last year, her eggs didn't hatch (not surprising really is it). Just checked and through the foliage, I can see a little head hair of a baby finch. Hooray!

We need to keep the path as clear as possible, look as nice as can be without the flowers looking as though they are in straight jackets! Oh yes, and as cheap as can be, nearly forgot that.

We had some chunks of wood, a little leftover black garden fence paint and some newly bought in 10' bamboo canes. As the base of these canes are quite wide, we realised the thinner ends could push into them, stabilizing the fence a little more. You can see what I mean in the picture below, to the right of the black wood:

DB duly sawed, trimmed, made holes in, then painted the wooden bits. Working together to hold various bits as stable as possible, we manhandled the joined canes through the holes then hammered the uprights into place:
There you have it, one rather inventive and useful fence for the price of 3 canes which came to £1.47.
Some lower leaves still spill out but the flower stems are held in place behind the fence.



16 comments:

  1. Great idea. I have a similar problem with some gladioli that are in a narrow bed along the pathside. Last year I used bamboo sticks and string but it wasn't that successful as the gladioli really were too tall and heavy so just pushed the sticks and string over so I'm going to try this method instead!
    KJ x

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    1. I have the same problem with peonies but have special metal things for those. This was the only sized wood we had in but I suspect a 1" square wooden pole would work. If that is too narrow to drill and hoe and fit a cane, the canes could be drilled through and screwed to the baton.

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  2. well done nice job with the fence.

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    1. Thank you. Seems to be working for the moment, tall poppies just about staying upright.

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  3. well done that's brilliant!

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  4. Good idea. We don't have floppy flowers, but the potted tomatoes will start sprawling soon enough. Time to put my thinking cap on.

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    1. Thank you, hope your thinking cap works.

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  5. Nice job, it looks very neat x

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    1. Thank you. Hopefully the taller plants will still be upright as they flower. Lower ones seem fine.

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  6. Nifty and thrifty. I love it!

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  7. Necessity is the mother of invention after all ;) Great idea!
    Rose H
    xx

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    1. Thank you and yes you are correct. Most things get invented when they need doing.

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  8. A job well done by the looks of it. Brilliant idea.
    Patricia x

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    1. Thank you. Just checked this morning after a heavy night of rain. Everything is still upright and held back.

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