I spent some of this arvo creating one of those really useful little art works that repays your efforts in kind. What is it?… you say… and I answers… I planted meself a bean tub!
At the front of the house we have a circular concrete sewer access manhole cover thing… which isn’t particularly aesthetically appealing set, as it is, in the middle of a grass verge.
Over the years I’ve wondered how to cover it yet not arouse the ire of the local council who take exception to people hiding them (as they do) by burying them etc. The guy at the end of the street painted his green… which works for him… but in eventually I decided to place a half barrel on ours and fill it with something useful.
So off I go to the hardware store and picked up half a wine barrel… which smelled good enough to chew actually… but I resisted manfully. I also picked up 6×2 metre plastic covered poles… well this is Australia… why would we be able to *buy* bamboo… I mean it grows wild everywhere so who’d want it? Me of course… gawd… 😦
I also bought 100 litres of compost, some lobelia, parsley… and french beans. Trouble is that as I sit here typing I *cannot* remember if these will spiral up the poles or just sit there hunched over laden with beans – I think maybe I should look then up in the gardening book before it gets embarrassing 🙂
Still. I drilled holes all round the base, filled it with the compost (including a load of cow manure) then stuck the poles in, tied them off at the top as a wigwam structure and planted it out.
If the beans etc *do* grow it will look really attractive. I love those bright red flowers… and they’ll be set off by the emerald green of the parsley and purple lobelia… and of course the fresh beans will be an added bonus!
Of course, any beans we get will have cost a fortune. The entire set up must have cost $100… but I console myself with knowing it’ll be pretty through the summer *and* it’ll be there for use year after year. Who knows… eventually the cost of the beans might drop to less than we pay in the shops 🙂
Now we wait… well now we go check the beans are the right one and *then* we wait!! 😀
The Eclectic Interweb 