Basket Fence

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I'm trying to get to a great story of what I found in the dumpster next door last night, but first, lemme tell you what I did yesterday, and why I was ALMOST too tired to check the dumpster. Glad I did, now, because it's Monday now, and the trash truck comes WAY too early for that dumpster in the morning for ME to be out there! I'm usually awake by five am, but definately not up for a dumpster dive yet!

OK, it was a pretty day yesterday. Chilly, yes, but bright and sunny. So, when Performance Today came on at nine, I threw open the bedroom window, cranked the radio volume, grabbed my cigarettes, thermos and coffee cup to go outside.

Hitched Porkchop to his lead in the yard, so he could sniff things.

Pulled out my bucket and gardening tools.

By now, all six cats who were, moments before, dead to the world in the nice, warm house, ambled out to help. They stationed themselves around the empty lot to supervise me from all angles.

What does one do with nearly a hundred tall, dead sunflower stalks? They're all over the lot. Many still have seeds, as they're too narrow for birds to sit on while eating. I bundled some and set them outside my bedroom window. I like to watch the birds eat while I'm in bed online with my coffee and a pile of curious cats.

But I can't put all of them outside the window! I'll lose my wonderful, morning light!

Throw them away? Maybe; I guess I could compost them. But they're the consistancy of styrofoam and don't break down easily. And they take up so much space in the compost barrel, there's little left for kitchen scraps and other yard waste.

I tried just raking them, and the stray twigs in the yard, into a pile by the abandoned trailer. Well, THAT looked hideous! And was a fire hazard, although the cats thougt a pile of sticks by the trailer they hide under was a FABULOUS idea. Nope, this would not do.

I have a bunch of wire brackets for political yard signs. I don't know why; can't even remember where I found them. But I'd thought that, some how, they'd make good flower border fencing.

I repaired some of the flower bed borders. I pulled out all the dead stuff, piled up the twigs and stalks.

Rowen, across the alley, had set out about a dozen boards over the summer. She says I can use them. They're about four inches wide, three feet long, and about an inch thick. They have faded, blue paint on them and ragged edges. I think they were shelves once.

I measured the edge of one flowerbed with the boards, cut trenches for them with my shovel, set them in place and piled dirt on both sides, to keep water in the garden. This bed is uphill from the alley and tends to pee.

Well, now I had another problem. Since I'd removed all the twigs, stalks and other tall plant materials, Porkchop now thought this flower bed would be a good place to wander around. I wouldn't mind, but he's on that dang steel lead and chain leashes, and he started knocking things about and pulling up plants with his lead.

This will not do.

Yard sign brackets! I placed them as far apart from each other as they are wide and hammered them into the edge of the flower bed, right up against the boards.

Porkchop walked right under one and pulled it out with his leash! Damn! HE doesn't know it's supposed to be a fence!

SUNFLOWER STALKS!!!!!!!!!!!!

I ran around and pulled out a mess of stalks, all widths, all lengths. They're easy to pull right now, because it rained earlier this week and the ground's soft.

I WOVE the stalks between the legs of the brackets! I WOVE A FENCE!!!!

I left all the flower heads on, seeds and all. They poke out so cute, all the way around the fence. And the birds can eat them easily, now that they're horizontal and not vertical, because they can now perch on the stalks easier!

So, I now have a two foot tall basket fence around my flower bed!

It hides how raggedy some of the boards look, too. It's all very quaint and rustic and reminiscent of both Mexican and Native American basketry...very New Mexico.

I just wove stalks, in and out the legs and then pushed them down the legs to make them secure. I can add more, too, bit by bit. I've still got about five inches of space at the top.

I also snuck in some stronger twigs and tree limbs. These are more rigid, less brittle than the sunflower stalks. They'll keep the fence stable against cat attacks, marauding dogs and wind.

I wish you could see my basket fence, covered in birds! It's quite fetching! Cant' wait to get back out there and do some more!