Calif_Sue said:Another recycling post.
We found some old clay chimney pipes at a salvage yard before we bought this house. I had seen them used in landscape projects in magazines, and landscapes shows and images online, so I have been keeping my eye out for some.
Here they are added into a new retaining wall the first year.
and a few months later, sedum and a purple bacopa filled in nicely.
It got switched out to 3 different sedums the next year, 2012. They are perfect for when the clay pipes get hot in the summer.
Then another ATP member saw those shots and asked if I wanted some more clay pipes. They had been on an old Victorian home in San Francisco and she didn't think they would ever use them. Sure, we'll take them! They stayed stashed against the fence for 2 years. Last year, my brother-in-law was visiting and he's a work horse so he dug up these large rocks from an old retaining border and created this curved wall, incorporating those clay pipes at both ends. He also added a rusty fire pot we found on an old abandoned homestead. Once we filled it in with soil, we added a row of 5 eating grapes. The clay pipes were be planted with sempervivum and sedum to spill over the sides like my other pipes.
Here is hubby adding the grapes and stakes.
I have iris, blue lithodora (Glandora prostrata) and sedum planted around the grapes and need to add some spillers for over the rocks and a ground cover to prevent weeds from developing.
The grapes are getting large enough now that we will add a second wire along the top of the stakes to train them along, we want it to look look a mini vineyard.
