Secure a Garden Pot to a Metal Post

When our garden gate arch was constructed, I thought of having plants in garden pots on top of the concrete posts. The metal posts of the arch would help stabilize the garden pots.

Actually, we used to have a hodgepodge of tiny pots, plastic and ceramic, on top of the concrete post before. But because of their small size, and since there wasn't anything to tie them down, they were vulnerable to tipping and falling.

Not a few strong winds have toppled these small pots. A few times, someone passing through the gate with an errant open umbrella would do the same thing. These have resulted in broken pots and uprooted plants.

Techniques for Continuous Flowering in Maiden's Jealousy

When I planted the Maiden's Jealousy vine beside a concrete post with a simple homemade wire trellis, I was quite hopeful to see flushes of blooms like those I see from a neighbor's front fence. The Maiden's Jealousy vine, also known as Showers of Gold (Tristellateia australasiae), seem to bloom year-round with beautiful clusters of yellow flowers that.

The vines were started from cuttings from the neighbors' and I was frustrated that for more than 2 years, the vines have not yielded a single bloom. This is despite the woody stems and branches as well as the lush foliage and vigorous growth. The vigorous growth necessitated frequent pruning because the post trellis wasn't very wide nor tall.

Install a Faucet for a Rainwater Barrel

With our rainwater barrel now fully supported with the fabricated rain barrel platform, we will now be able to have a faucet or a spigot installed. The raised platform for the rainwater barrel is 14 inches high, is all-metal and heavily welded. It's adequate to carry the load of a fully filled rain water barrel.

Fortunately, the workers who worked on the platform, as well as the garden pergola and garden gate arch, even volunteered to finish the job of installing the rain barrel faucet. They had boring tools like a power drill and sealant, they said. I knew I could make it DIY, but who couldn't refuse free labor? All they asked me was to buy a faucet kit that had locking nuts for mounting in a container.

Raised Platform for a Rain Water Barrel

With several metal scraps that remained from the construction of our garden gate arch and the garden pergola, I had to think of what else there is to do with the scrap. There were tubular pipes and round steel bars. Sell the whole lot to scrap buyers? Or just store it away somewhere? It's metal and will hardly deteriorate anyway.

The foreman and the workers did a fine job on the two projects that I wanted something usable that can be fabricated from the scrap metal. They were still working at my neighbor's house and so I had time to think. They had tools to work on the metal scrap like the high-speed cutter and welding machine, plus there was still some excess cement and sand remaining. It would be a waste not to seize the opportunity.

New Garden Pergola or Arbor

Now that we have the construction of the new garden gate arch out of the way, we gave the foreman the go ahead and build a garden pergola adjacent to the front of the house. The idea for the garden pergola came when we realized we were running out of spaces in our wall-mounted rods for hanging baskets.

But that's not the only reason.

Our wall-mounted hanging rods, which is part of our garden nursery, is at the back of the house. The back of the house faces the east and it isn't as sunny as we'd like it. There is a neighbor's tree behind us that gives unnecessary shade for our backyard and back garden. So the back garden only gets filtered sunlight until around 10 am. Then it gets direct sunlight until 12 noon. Past that time, the house starts to shade the back garden as the sun moves to the west or the front of our house.

New Garden Gate Arch

For a long while, I've been contemplating a garden arch that will grace our front fence. There are 5 posts at the front fence, and I even thought of a series of arches from one end of the fence up to the other end. The reasons for not pushing with this elaborate plan are varied but the most compelling one is that it will block our view of passersby and houses across the street.

Having thick vines climbing on several arches above our existing grill fence will also mean a little less sunlight for our front lawn and garden. Our front lawn and garden isn't very spacious and we need all the sunlight we can get for the plants in the garden to grow and flower. We mostly have ornamental flowering plants and so the need for plenty of sunlight