I finished my moss pole today. I used Lee Anne's idea plus Sandyb/Weedwhacker's idea and put a watering pole in the center. Here's my photo tutorial using plastic mesh, rubber coated wire I upcycled from an old garden project, and some other things I had on hand.
I used the space between the deck boards to drill the holes into the pvc pipe. Oh, and my foot. It held the pipe square and drilling was a breeze!
Shoe Goo. Find it for $4 in the Walmart Shoe department. It is lousy when used on shoes but I uses it for everything else. It dries into a soft rubber feel. Here, I squished it into the pvc pipe to act as a stopper so that the water will come out of the holes instead of going directly to the bottom of the pot. I used a chopstick I found in my kitchen drawer to tamp it down the best I could.
Shoe Goo doesn't come out of the tube easily. I guess you could use a caulking gun and caulk? Anyway. I squished it into the pipe
I marked the lowest holes with a chopstick thinking I could get the Shoe Goo all the way down that far before it dried. I couldn't The plug ended up being somewhere between the bottom of the pole and half way to the first hole..
Next I secured the pipe by slipping the chopsticks into the top and bottom holes. I used a twist tie to secure it to the mesh to keep it in the center of the pole.
I used Spanish Moss. I had it soaking for about 30 minutes until it was soft and malleable. I stuffed it into the plastic mesh. The holes were about 1" square and that made it easy to push the wet moss around to where it needed to be.
Next I cut the mesh and flared it out on the bottom of my pot. I used more rubber coated wire and slipped it through the drain holes in the pot to secure the pole to the pot.
On the bottom of the pot, you can see where I used the rubber coated wire as a cotter pin. There is a drain plate below the pot that will not only hide it but hold it down.
The finished product.
