The Bike Trellis

Kevin was struck by genius.  We would add interest to a blank wall facing our property by building a trellis made from repurposed bike rims.  We knew we wanted to plant conchord grapes, which obviously we would want to trellis.  We put out a call for rims.  Several friends began cleaning out their garages and sheds for us & I think a few might have trash picked!  Then we hit the motherload-- I called Joe Bonaparte at the Collingswood Bike Share.  Space is a premium for the bike share.  Joe was happy to off-load two trunks full of rims.  Gleefully, I struck a deal to offer the bike share volunteers yoga in exchange for their bounty.  

Laz was instrumental as we de-tired the rims.  We found a local spot to recycle the rubber.

We used wire to attach the rims.  It was labor-intensive & time-consuming, but when you have a feline muse all things are possible.

The trickiest part was trellis transport.  We mistakenly built the trellis laying flat, as shown.  It made it easier to attach each rim, but then we had to somehow carry this heavy contraption to the conchord bed.

Luckily, we have a heroic neighbor who heard us alternately laughing and cursing.  With him, we had three adults to carry three poles, carefully, to the already dug holes in the conchord bed.  Kevin quickly concreted the copper poles into the garden bed.

We leaned our climbing grape vines against the rims.

They're already grabbing hold.

Haulin'

Some of what catches a ride in Rooted wheel barrows.

 These bike rims were generously donated by the Collingswood Bike Share.  Stay posted as they magically transform into a trellis for conchord grape vines!

A boy in his barrow.  Chilling for lunch.  Digging in dirt elicits deep thoughts.

To all you lushes out there...

We need your help.

And your empty wine bottles.

You get the idea.  The post is one of our clotheslines.  I've planted this raised bed with sweet peas that we're hoping to train up the post.

We're beginning to run out of felled logs to frame out raised beds.  For several beds, especially those with undulating edges, we're using buried wine bottles to hold in the soil.  In the area surrounding this bed we're hoping to plant something nice & soil-amending, maybe vetch, maybe clover because the neighboring grape vines are said to like it.

The first time we saw buried wine bottles was at Aaculaax, during a trip to Guatemala.  If you want to see the inspiration in person, check out the yoga retreat I'm leading there next year!

We had collected crates of empty wine bottles from family vacations.  We used them all.  Do you have wine bottles you would donate?  Contact me to coordinate pick-up.  Blue bottles are best!

Food Forest. It's happening.

Kevin & I are slowly transforming our suburban home into a small farm.  Or, we're working towards sustainability, both in terms of sound environmental stewardship & being rewarded with food from our land.  Our home & property are fixer upper's so there have been long periods of preparation.  We look forward to having the space more self-sufficient.  Maybe that's a pipe dream.  Maybe we look forward to just maintenance work.

We called in some friends & spent a cool, sunny day installing some delicious new fruit trees, bushes, & vines!  In the space between our clothes-lines & our neighbor's garage, we built raised beds for conchord grapes & a fig tree.  The garage will give some nice wind barrier for the fig.  We plan to construct a trellis out of bicycle rims about a foot from the neighbor's garage.  That will give the conchords something to climb.  For fun, I planted sweet peas at the base of the clothesline posts.  My hope is to train them up the posts.  We'll see if it works!

Our backyard is full of roots & rocks.  We've been sheet mulching the yard even while we plant food in raised beds.  The raised beds allow us to grow vegetables to keep us encouraged!  It would be years before the soil was sufficiently root free & healthy enough to give us much of a food yield.  This way we can slowly support the soil while getting the quicker rewards of raised bed gardening.

After clearing the weeds we added some weed barrier.  Cardboard works great!  It's water permeable & will break down within a season or two.  This first growing season, when weed prevention is crucial, it will function just fine!

We added composted soil on top, planted the conchords & fig, & ran soaker hoses to give the new guys a long drink.

We went through the same process across the yard along our neighbor's fence.  We're calling this area "blueberry hill."  After prepping and building beds we planted 10 new blueberry bushes & transplanted two existing bushes that were struggling in a shady area of the yard.

 Lots of sun & drainage on blueberry hill!  Perfect.

At the far end we planted a persimmmon tree.  When it reaches full size at 15-20 ft it's shade radius shouldn't interfere with the blueberries getting lots of sunshine.

 A close-up of one of our new arrivals.  We planted a variety of blueberries for nice cross pollination.

We also planted two hugelkultur beds of raspberries & blackberries.  There was much debate about where to create the berry bramble.  We worked with what we have & created two thickets in front of four new fruit trees.  We planted two varieties of apple tree that cross-pollinate well, a black cherry, and peach tree.

Lots of fun talk of what to plant next & where.  Kevin made home-made pizza for the workers.  We happily soaked in sun before getting back to work!

Stay posted as these new additions take root.