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 So, I had taken down my daughter’s swing set last summer since part of it was starting to become bent and a couple of the chains (albeit could have been replaced) had broken (we don’t know how). The legs of the set were sitting on the side of our house for some time, and I had been looking to finally get a chance to throw them away. However, with my family’s new venture at Inventive Roots, I wanted to try to utilize them, and some of the used wood that was left at my house by my sister. I normally use raised gardens for much of the vegetables, and small plants that I am nursing and waiting to mature, however, with space, and not wanting to have more chicken wire all over the place, I decided to go vertical. The process was pretty easy, just took some time to put together in between my normal day job, and being a stay at home/working dad. Using the poles as shelves, and building up the wood to be able to support the poles would be my best advantage to accomplish this. I can simply hang baskets (I used pond baskets because of the areation possibilities (which I normally like to use for my tree seedlings), and I would also be able to remove poles, or slide out the baskets easy when I want to change, or add/subtract more plants out. Picture process below (click to enlarge):
 1. building the ‘shelves to hold the poles’ |
 2. testing the shelves out with the poles, but still without footings so the rack won’t fall over. |
 3. Added footings, not the greatest looking but I can hide with plants. |
 4. Staining, and being very clean in her work |
 5. Still more staining, She wanted to use a roller, and promptly dripped water seal everywhere. |
 6. Stained, Emilia wanted to be in the picture |
 7. and voila, added the hanging pond baskets, as well as a planter below with some pansies to help catch any dirt that may drip. Also stuck my a few of my wisteria/flowering cherry trees on the footings, a bamboo plant, as well as my platform full of other plants/pre bonsai next to it. The top row consists of assorted lettuce, cilantro and parsley. The second row is all seeds that my daughter had planted, which consist of sweet basil, green onions, and jalapenos. |
 Another view, will probably add another row of plants later, I do have a few more herbs to put up. The Flowering cherry tree, closest, is about to bloom, I am looking forward to the Japanese Wisteria (White), and Chinese Wisteria (blue) to be growing soon as well. |
 Another view, and had added the third row with some peas that can climb upwards. |
 She had to get one more photo in with Emilia. Pretty nice what you can accomplish with previously used materials, and still make it look somewhat nice. It keeps the dogs and other animals out of the plants (hopefully), and relieves us from having to use lots of ugly chicken wire for protection. |
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