Jack of all trades, master of none. That’s me. I like to dabble in different pursuits, gardening being one and woodworking being another. For the last two years these two hobbies have intersected. Here are some of the garden structures I either made on my own or contributed to as a collaborator..
Last year I constructed five obelisks for our clematises to climb up. Four are in the cottage garden and one is at the end of the espaliered pear tree. I also built, with the help of my grandson Aidan, a sandwich board for the snow peas to climb up. Another climbing structure is a bean tower that is in the veg garden now.
I was fortunate to work with a master craftsmen, my next door neighbor Rick, in constructing two garden gates for the fence around the greenhouse garden. I built the fence first and then Rick and I styled the gates after gates I had seen at National Trust land on the Gower Peninsula of Wales, UK. The compost bins and leaf mold bin were straight out of my imagination. They seem to have worked as I had planned. That doesn’t happen very often! This year I have continued to build garden structures that will enhance the plants I have grown in the greenhouse.
The white pine boards that came from our trees three years ago provided the wood to create these two driveway planters. These boxes house dragon wing begonia and trailing vinca plants. the plants may not look like much right now (I started the begonias in February!) but in a month or so they will fill out the planter and start spilling over the sides. I treated the wood with spar varnish to help repel the water.
This is an additional cold frame to one I constructed last year (not pictured). I found the plexiglass, thrown away in the woods as trash. I brought it home and with wood left over from our old garage, I have a large, free cold frame. Now with two cold frames I only need one or two more!
Last year we had black plastic pots on our deck with nice ornamental plants growing in them. The ugly pots detracted from the look however so this year I used old siding boards from our old shed to create a surround for the pots. This is a better look I think.
I got carried away when I ordered seeds last December. I grew a great many different kinds of flowering annual plants in the greenhouse. One way to display them was to create flower boxes. There are three 5’ by 1’ by 1’ boxes perched at the ends of the raised beds in the greenhouse garden. I used an exterior grade stain, Thompsons Water Seal and Flex Seal (as seen on TV) to protect the pine (once again from our harvested trees) from water damage. There is an eclectic array of annual flowers transplanted into these boxes. There are geraniums, dwarf zinnias, snapdragons, white alyssum, New Guinea impatiens, African daisies, red salvia, tri-color amaranth, and trailing verbena. I probably planted them a little bit too close to one another. I will have to be vigilant with the water and supply a dilute fertilizer every couple of weeks. I have lots of other annual, biennial and perennial flowering plants still to plant into the gardens so that will be a blog post for the future. I hope you enjoyed the garden tour. Stay safe.
New Hampshire Gardening 
I liked the tour of your garden and how you added wood to accent your many gardening projects. Impressive.
When we were preparing to have solar panels installed on our garage roof three years ago, it became apparent that we needed to have six, 90 foot white pine trees taken down to allow the sun to shine on the collectors. Not wanting to have the trees go to waste I had them cut into dimensional lumber at a sawmill just a few miles up the street. The lumber has been air drying for years now. I’m glad that I am finding ways to make use for it it our gardens. I wonder what I will build next year?