Garden Gates

 There is something special about a Garden Gate

I like building and designing Garden Entries.  I built
this arbor a couple of years ago and now it has a beautiful clematis growing over the top structure.
I suggested at the time to add the gate but the client didn't believe me!  Two years later she did!  She has two very small dogs and the gate is to keep them in; however, I think the gate adds a nice element and helps define the garden space.

Locked In!

It is a four foot wide entry, big enough for any wheel barrel and could have been a single gate but I like the drama of a double entry gate.

Steel and Stone

 Stone Post, bridge, my house

 Gate to compost area

 Mixed Lettuce in Slate Planter

 My Back Yard Shop

 Fence in back yard

 Railing from the back stairs

 Not rectangular gate to firewood area

 The Bridge to my shop

 Another gate to ditch

 Gate to back yard, circles

 Curved gate beside my shop

 Another garden entry, copper and marble

Gate to ditch near studio

 Little curved gate protecting the blueberry patch.

This is my Main Garden Gate with a Trumpet vine over it. I originally made this for the Opera "Tosca" 

 A Gate with Slate in a display area
There is really a lot more to see.  I haven't even showed you the garden or greenhouse, inside my shop or my studio but this gives you some idea.  It is not a flat green back yard.  Come visit me sometime!  and here is the LINK to other jobs I have done,

I went around my little third acre yesterday taking pictures of metal work and thought I would share them with you. When I finish the projects that I am working on I will continue with my Spring clean up.  It is a process of dump runs, power washing, getting the pots planted and a major clean up.  It is beautiful all summer long well into the Fall.  The white, red and blue pots you see were once light fixtures that I re purposed from the dump.  I have about 22 of these and they make great flower pots!

Garden Gates

I wonder if "The Secret Garden" had a door?  I have three garden gates entering my garden area.  One has an arch over it with a Trumpet Vine creating the main entry.  The other is near my compost pile and the third is beside my shop next to the garden and leads to a walkway beside the garden and behind my shop.  My garden needs to be "Dog Proof" because I have a 128 pound doggy who loves to dig!
I counted the gates on my property yesterday as a client was coming by to look at them for ideas for his own gate.  I have a total of 14 and that surprised me.  There are no two the same and although they all lead somewhere their main function being to limit my dog's freedom and as samples for potential customers.  I have three dimensional gates, gate with stone incorporated into them, classical gates, modern art gates and gates made from just plain junk.  Custom garden gates can range from $200 to $800 to create and I suppose even more if I were to add some gold.

A fun gate with a lady picking roses!

   Gates could be less expensive if I could make them in advance and keep them available for purchase but it doesn't work that way.  Most people set the posts first and then go shopping for a gate.  They never fit requiring custom work.  If they were to buy a gate first and then set the posts to match the gate it would be a lot easier!
     Maybe tomorrow I will post photos of all my gates?
Here is a link to my WebSite for more gates and garden ideas

I Create My Own World

The World is nuts around me.  There is some airline issue in Congress over 16 Million Dollars that is costing 25 Million Dollars a day to resolve, causing 70,000 people to be laid off, putting danger to the airline industry and its passengers.  Congress is on vacation and the bill will be over a Billion Dollars upon their return! This is so disgusting I don't even look into the details.

   I have my little 1/3 acre almost in the center of town and hide out here in a world of my own.

 Creating a New Entry to my Garden

   Today I will invite you to join me!

This was my Spring Project, creating a new Entry to my garden.  For years I had railroad ties as the border to my garden because they worked and it was all I could afford.

They are not good for the garden.  They leak creosote and after 20 years were pretty much rotting away.



I have made a hundred changes to my property in the forty years I've lived here. Some little and some big.  This Spring I made permanent concrete borders to my garden.

This next photo was taken yesterday of the same area.

The flowers like this new entry and the green beans

are growing up the new fence section.

There are two separate gates into my garden, a main gate

with an arch and a huge Trumpet Vine and on the

far left side a smaller gate.



 Lots of flowers at the Garden Entry





 Two more weeks and I will post another photo!

Everything is behind schedule this year.  We had a wet, cold Spring and the garden is just now playing "catch-up".  In about two weeks this Trumpet Vine Entry will be at its best with hundreds of deeply orange flowers which will last until October.  I picked my first tomato!  So there is hope.  Zucchini, of course, grows no matter what and I have been eating cucumbers and lots more from my garden!

 My Other Garden Entry

and this is my other garden Entry.  I have two because I like to build gates and I don't want people to feel trapped. If you should ever visit me there is always a way out.

More  of my Garden is always HERE