vertical wall plantings.

Still Didn’t Crank Over

This bamboo screen will eventually support lace vine currently in pots as it climbs all over, eventually creating a wall of flowers, With no wind the petals and seeds should fall to the floor , I have already proved that the lace vine will overtake most anything in my previous planting of it in the greenhouse. 

    No, I didn’t mean the dump truck but apparently it has issues also, as I tried to start it last night and nearly melted the positive wire from the battery to the solenoid and will have to check and see if the engine is turning over manually by trying to turn the fan belt before reinstalling the battery. No big cause for worry yet. This is a truck that started on the coldest day of last year when nothing else would start; I have faith in the old Ford and will get it going no matter what I have to do to make it happen. This is part of what makes a farmer, and that is don’t sweat the little stuff, when it becomes something bigger then start to worry.

      I am currently working on a couple of extracurricular activities that have had my interest and I want to see fulfilled. One is working on vertical gardens where they take up less space and can be used to grow household plants and provide a visual block that has eye appeal to otherwise dismal looking areas. The other project is a wind powered generator on a simple basis to offset some of my current electrical needs and this will be supplemented by solar offering the advantage of a hybrid power arrangement with storage capabilities. I hope yto in some way supplement my power needs if not eventually eliminating any outside power needs for the farm and eve3ntually try to sell to the power company.

     First the reason for getting the dump truck moving is that I need to bring a bunch of topsoil from the top of the hill down to our yard area.  I plan on constructing berms and adding topsoil to areas needed and increase our yard plantings, this in order to create habitat and eliminate some of the yard mowing. My plan is to eliminate 50 percent of the space I mow currently by increasing the number of yard plantings which will result in a savings of gasoline and time to mow and maintain a homestead yard. These acres of mowing with a small mower are pointless and are a major gas guzzler.

 The vine you see here is the lace vine due to its white color though quite beautiful and has a pleasant aroma, Bees have no use for it as it yields insignificant nectar, It is also quite hardy covering and excluding all other vegetation, strangling plants to some degree and excluding light, while being nothing but pretty. I would advise not buying the vine unless you intend to watch it closely and keep it trimmed. 

One major problem with the vast expanses of grass is the weekly mowing’s, and more often as it grows heavily. Areas left unattended quickly look ragged requiring you to do the complete lawn as it is connected. Disconnecting these areas and making visual blocks or plantings increase the visual appeal, enhances wildlife habitat and breaks into areas, the lawn expanses where one may do one area one day, and leave the other to another day then mowing only as needed. This will make mowing the lawn less of a chore. But then you say there will be added expense when it comes to maintaining these islands of plantings.

    Not necessarily if you choose the right combination of plants. First some large trees, and then add some bushes at the base of these trees like forsythia , then an even lower planting of azalea and a small strip of perennial flowers would be nice. Also don’t square out the planting as there should be no corners instead bend your flower bed to meet the focal point of the yard. I know I need drawings and photo pics of what I am trying to represent to you, but hopefully I made it clear there are no corners in nature and if the look you want is something easy to care for and natural , then eliminate the corners , have patches of yard small enough to mow with a hand lawn mower if needed, or even a weed whacker is acceptable. The birds, bees and other natural foragers will be camping at your doorstep as you transform your yard into an environmentally acceptable alternative to mass green lawns.

      If you have an unsightly wall or other non-feature then maybe a vertical garden may be the way to go , allowing you to hide or focus one’s eye to another feature of your yard, or just to provide some easy to care for eye candy as you plant flowers or even vegetables in a vertical arrangement on a faux wall. Planting of pampas grass also breaks up the drudgery of a vast lawn and requires very little and is drought resistant in our part of the state of Ohio. For me, maintenance amounts to clipping with clippers, or using the weed eater to cut the old tall bleached grass leftover from the year before , using a leaf rake and piling the spent grass around the base of the pampas planting adds needed mulch to protect the roots and also retain moisture . This in turn increases the health of the pampas plantings.

      I have built a vertical wall in the greenhouse and plan on trailing the lace vine up over the trellis and creating a wall of green and white to separate the pool from the rest of the greenhouse. My recent quest into purchasing a bunch of the lace vine to sell at the greenhouse yielded information that the lace vine if introduced outside in the open environment has the potential to become a noxious weed and is not recommended for the state of Ohio with characteristics similar to Japanese knot weed.  I have seen infestations of this vine or bush that takes repeated doses of herbicides similar to Roundup, and you know how I feel about herbicides, to eventually kill the noxious intruder leaving the soil in a less than sterile condition. So I refuse to sell the lace vine, due to similar characteristics I have seen in it.  Instead I can provide you with information. You just search lace vine in your browser, doing this I am sure you will come up with a lot less reputable, or care less, and make a sale, companies more than glad to sell you the lace vine.

   Mine will be confined to the greenhouse and now I have them in large planters and seem to be doing fine. I will make extra time to try and train the vines to do what I want and be able to show you how easy it is to build a vertical blind. My success with bamboo has been limited to just buying the plants and watch them die , not sure what I am doing wrong , too much sun , not enough , it is hard to tell but I have found  use for the cane left behind and find they are fairly strong and offer flexibility to create items like vertical walls quite easily and should support the weight of the lace vine as it proceeds to cover the wall. Pockets will be created allowing me to intersperse hanging flower baskets adding a touch of varied color to the wall or creating an overall design. I am still in the creative portion and haven’t finished detailing the wall to achieve an overall theme. I do have pictures of this.

      The time spent converting your yard from labor intensive, and eco-unfriendly, to eco-friendly and natural will yield you much more satisfaction in years to come from financial standpoint to time saved while trying to maintain the green behemoth you have created, and reduced maintenance due to less mowing. . Add to that some straw bale vegetable plantings that will yield s you some savings from the vegetables raised. Tomorrow I will go into more detail about straw bale plantings, and work I am doing with a small windmill I plan on building or converting from its present use.

     In conclusion, you may wonder how, “Still Didn’t Crank Over,” has anything to do with my blog today and it is the fact that although I celebrated reaching the 30000 mark I was still a little bit shy but had confidence I can easily slide over that mark shortly. When I reach I will let you know without much more fanfare, but it hasn’t cranked over that mark yet.