garden chronicles, the ivy house begins

at our old house we had an ivy house, i loved the simple structure designed to showcase the glorious fall colors of boston ivy. as i have mentioned before, after our house burned, and we were able to save our scorched lion statuary, i was eager to recreate a new ivy house here at the new house. this time i am going larger, as in i wanted the thickness of telephone poles. i feel very lucky that within 12 hours of thinking about them we had driven 45' minute and collected two very large fat poles! the man was so kind, he called to warn me that these were extra rough and large, pge had used them to train their line men with their spiked shoes, i told him they would be perfect, it will make it that much easier for the virginia creeper to cling to the rough cuts.  

thank heavens for our tractor, these poles were wet and heavy!

first pole up and my husband found a quick rhythm

very quickly 3 poles were standing and rosie was inspecting his work

for the record. it is horrifying having a tiny 8 week old puppy around machinery, i was grateful to see her chewing the concrete stairs and stationary! 

she is our beasty girl! 

with the ivy house outline in place we started putting pavers in from the stairs back to the first poles

with a couple weeks of off and on again rain the project is on hold, but i am thrilled to see it start to take shape. 

i like to record all my plants as i install them, its a great reference place for me in case i forget what i have where...