Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Reclaimed Wood Plant Hanger

One day in July, I stumbled across Under The Table Dreaming, a really cool blog with all kinds of how-to's for stuff around the house.  I was charmed by the reclaimed wood plant hanger/birdfeeder and considered how one might fit in my backyard. I liked it so much, as a matter of fact, that I sent the link to my darling husband, who happens to be very handy with anything wood.

His response: "Okay. When?"

We made a trip to Home Depot and picked up Gorilla Glue and two small plants. We spent a lot of time discussing the design and exploring how we could adapt it for longevity in the south Florida sub-tropical environment. With high humidity through much of the year, it's always a factor for consideration whenever working with wood or textiles. DH (being an engineer educated in Germany) added biscuits to the joints before gluing for added stability.

He said he'd never used Gorilla Glue before, so it was a guess how it would perform. Glue's a funny thing, you know ... and, one thing that affects it a lot is the amount of water in the air ... that humidity thing. Which we have in abundance here in sunny south Florida.

I was pretty useless during this part of the process, so I took pictures while dh worked. Once he had it all glued together, he put these clamps on it and we had to wait for it to dry. Don't the clamps look like torture devices? I can imagine someone being ... oh, well ... never mind.

I have lived in my house for 23 years and all the trees in my yard were planted by me. The live oak that hosts one of the plant hangers (dh made two!) was planted when my youngest daughter was four years old.

She's 23 today. (We moved in five days before she was born.)

It was a little, skinny, sapling tree, given away by the city to promote planting native trees on private property.  I think it was the beginning of the local NatureScape movement.  Today, it's quite majestic for a young tree, offering shade, habitat for cardinals to nest, and a place for this cool hanger to keep company with a flourishing young staghorn fern.

You may notice that this planter doesn't use the wire for hanging as Stephanie does on Under The Table Dreaming.  DH drilled two holes in the top of the frame and used nautical rope in lieu of wire, again for added stability.  The second plant hanger is suspended from the roof truss of my little, pink, gardening shed.  I planted moss rose in the pot to bring some color to the area. It's shaded by an orchid tree and will be keeping company with an abundance of tropical plants. 


















It wasn't a difficult project at all. You have to wait for the glue to dry, and there was some wood cutting involved, but, aside from those two things, it was a really simple project. Simple to me, of course, because dh did all the hard work!  Thanks, honey!!

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