Happy Monday! Today is my day off, which means I can trade in my blowdryer for some power tools of a little bit. And today it’s time to build a Rose Trellis for the two Cloud 10 Climbing Roses in our back yard.
We have a huge amount of exposed foundation on our house, so these roses promise to take up some of that visual space. I planted them in Spring, but since I never got around to building a rose trellis they look pretty pathetic. In fact, one of my favorite friends in the whole world came over this weekend and she asked me why my rose bushes looked like someone stomped on them. She’s right- they did! So it is time to build.
This was a good chance to use the leftover 1″X6″X10′ cedar planks from our front steps. Mr. Heatherland did all the cutting and I did the assembling. I didn’t wan’t it to look like a regular garden rose trellis, or a rose lattice. We built something simple and different.
Cut it
(8 planks makes two trellises)
52 slats: 1X2X18″, three planks ripped in thirds first, then cut to 18″
6 posts: 1X3X72″, three planks ripped in half first, then cut to 72″
2 posts: 1X6X72″, two planks cut to 72″
Assembly
This is basically just building ladders for the climbing roses to climb. The slat at the very bottom of this picture is just temporary, it’s keeping the posts square while I work my way down. There will be 18″ left free at the base so it can go into the ground.
When you have finished 13 slats, the first “ladder” is done. Now screw it to the full-size plank post to start the other side.
The only trick was making sure it stayed perfectly square the whole time, so I kept it tight against the garage wall while working.
I used 2″ grip-rite deck screws, and a 2X4 scrap piece to space my slats. It doesn’t have to be perfect since the roses will eventually cover the whole thing, but it’s good to get it looking balanced.
Once it’s done it’s ready to be buried, and I needed Mr. Heatherland’s help again. This is a two person job.
He used a post hole digger to get 16″ of the post bottoms into the ground while I leveled it and made sure it was plumb.
Now these little climbing roses have something to climb on! I only wish I would have gotten this done months ago- better late than never. Luckily they are fast growers.