June 20, 2022
Me and my pipe planters! I’ve three new pipe planters in my entrance backyard, which I put in final fall (pre-home portray) however by no means bought round to sharing, because of all of the New England-down-to-Virginia journey posts I slathered on the weblog. (My fellow heat-wave victims, click on the hyperlink and comply with the hyperlinks on the backside of every publish to take pleasure in images from a a lot cooler place and time.)
Anyway, higher late than by no means! Right this moment I’ll share in regards to the strategy of getting these great rusty pipes arrange in my backyard, and why.
Common readers know I like a rusty pipe or two or three. I began with the tall metal pipe that holds a Mexican grass tree (Dasylirion longissimum) and added a brief pipe with a ‘Frazzle Dazzle’ dyckia, plus two rusty tractor rims planted with a whale’s tongue agave and a purple yucca. Bulletproof for warmth however not for Snowpocalypse, alas. I misplaced the grass tree and have since changed it, and a part of the dyckia. Nonetheless, the pipes look good it doesn’t matter what Mom Nature throws at them, and so they elevate dry-loving vegetation for drainage and show.
I take advantage of culvert pipe remnants within the again backyard. I like the best way they showcase dry-loving vegetation that may in any other case get misplaced or soggy if planted within the floor, like this trio of squid agaves (A. bracteosa).
All that is to say, pipe planters and I am going approach again. I bought the bug once more final fall once I visited two new-to-me Austin gardens. John Ignacio’s entrance backyard, pictured above, makes use of reduce items of sq. metal pipe planted with blue tornado sotol (Dasylirion berlandieri) to display the road. So eye-catching, particularly with these strappy, powder-blue leaves.
I noticed extra square-pipe goodness in Coleson Bruce’s entrance backyard (which he and John labored on collectively). A double line of pipe items, reduce fastidiously to Coleson’s specs, show sotol and opuntia to display a busy intersection and make a putting view from inside the backyard.
I visited John’s and Coleson’s gardens in October. By November I used to be scrolling via Craigslist and Fb Market day by day, in search of metal pipe items. Metal is costly, particularly thick items, however I quickly discovered an inventory in San Antonio for cheap metal pipe that could possibly be become people who smoke (like this). It’s not the thickest gauge, however I made a decision it will do effective for planting and hopefully not rust via anytime quickly. And my helpful Outback was capable of maintain three 4-to-5-ft pipes for the journey again to Austin.
I needed them for the front-garden’s deep hellstrip mattress, the place the vegetation felt sort of two-dimensional, particularly from winter via midsummer, when a ‘Vertigo’ grass would lastly attain some peak. I’m challenged by voracious deer and dry shade, and I are inclined to depend on grassy texture and herbal-scented foliage — regardless of the deer received’t eat and that may dwell in dry shade with out further watering. However every part appeared to high out at 2 to three ft aside from a possumhaw holly on the nook. I wanted a focus with some peak, however not proper in entrance of the home. On the bend within the path, I stood the three pipes to experiment with placement.
As a result of the pipes could be considered from all sides, it was troublesome to determine how far aside to triangulate them, and the way tall every pipe needs to be. John was variety sufficient to return by and provides his opinion, and I requested my designer good friend Diana too. And a pleasant neighbor. Mainly anybody who walked or drove by. I needed staggered heights and deliberate to bury them at completely different depths to get that look. However the shortest one would have to be buried a number of ft, and so when my good friend Lori provided to chop one for me, I jumped at her provide.
Once I was glad with the format, I used masking tape to mark how deep each needs to be buried (for stability), and the place to make the reduce on the shortest one.
I drove over to Lori’s home with the pipe, and just like the badass she is, she whipped out her welder’s masks and gloves, donned a jacket and bandana to guard towards sparks, and used her angle grinder to begin chopping.
And chopping and chopping and chopping. It took longer than we’d each anticipated, however she prevailed. I gave her one of many reduce items and money for a brand new grinder blade and headed house with my custom-cut pipe. (Thanks, Lori!)
And right here they’re, all planted up. Simple, proper? No. In my youthful days I’d have finished the set up myself, however I’m older and wiser now. I employed a helper to dig out the holes and assist me place the pipes, stage them, and fill them with soil. I used decomposed granite to stage them: tamping a number of inches of DG in every gap after which putting the pipes, checking them with a stage, and including extra tamped DG till every pipe stood straight and stage.
I dumped fist-sized rocks (bought together with the DG, plus others dug out of the bottom) into the taller pipes to take up a few of the house after which crammed them with soil. Truly, I took a soil shortcut that I quickly regretted. I used straight decomposed granite to fill the pipes, considering the ‘Shiny Edge’ yuccas I deliberate to plant could be effective with that gritty medium. Usually I take advantage of a mix of half potting combine and half DG for my xeric planters, however not this time. My helper was there, I didn’t have potting soil, and I had loads of DG — so I went for it. I planted the yuccas excessive, understanding soil in a tall container compacts fairly a bit over time, after which I top-dressed them with pea gravel. Stunning!
The straight DG was a mistake. It compacted densely, I feel, and the yuccas quickly confirmed indicators of battle. Their leaves grew skinny over the winter, and lots of leaves died and needed to be eliminated. I’ve no pics of this stage as a result of it was too miserable. By spring the yuccas had been shadows of themselves, and I contemplated pulling them out and changing with new vegetation.
However once I priced new yuccas at nurseries throughout Austin, they had been being offered at $50 every — and people weren’t even very huge. Everyone knows plant costs have soared this yr, however I simply couldn’t do it.
I got here house as an alternative with FoxFarm Ocean Forest potting soil from Barton Springs Nursery, on the advice of a younger salesperson to whom I instructed my story of woe. I adopted directions to unfold an inch of these items atop the potting soil, after first scraping off the pea gravel mulch, which I changed afterward.
And a go to to Backyard Seventeen, the place I used to be nonetheless sharing my yucca sob story, satisfied me to strive MicroLife Liquid Organics Cactus & Succulent fertilizer. I stirred it into water as directed and fertilized the yuccas with it, in addition to my different small succulent containers whereas I used to be at it.
A month later new development was sprouting from the roots, and by two months the yuccas had been nearly full dimension once more. These are nonetheless pictures from final fall — once I was planning to weblog about them, however then bought sidetracked. Right this moment they aren’t fairly this full, however they need to be quickly. I’ve typically pooh-poohed fertilizers, considering vegetation that like lean soil don’t actually need it, however now I’m offered. Apparently you’ll be able to have soil that’s too lean. Particularly if you happen to don’t plant in soil however in straight DG.
Hey, I make the errors so that you don’t need to!
I’m having fun with my new pipe planters once more, and the deer have solely eaten half of one of many yuccas (they discover new development tasty, however established yuccas are often effective), so I name {that a} win!
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