shelves built on fence

dstack 7/28/2014, 12:19 pm

I like to make the most of our garden space, so I started my pineapple shelve project this weekend. Phase 1 (of 4) in the project is done, and I'm making good use of reclaimed wood. When the project is done there will be four of these shelves staggered along the fence. The pineapple plants were getting so big and taking up space. This way they'll be up and out of the way. BTW, for some reason pineapple plants do much better in pots than in the SFG boxes.

shelves built on fence Pineap10

**sanderson** 7/28/2014, 1:22 pm

Dstack, Very good use of the small backyard. You are really going vertical! Very Happy

flowering_fauna 7/28/2014, 6:20 pm

What a cleaver idea!! It looks real nice flower

Marc Iverson 7/29/2014, 1:00 am

Looks good!

I hope it gives you enough room. When I saw pineapple growing on plantations in Hawaii, its spread was really wide.

How are your papaya doing?

dstack 7/29/2014, 5:51 am

Marc Iverson wrote:Looks good!

I hope it gives you enough room. When I saw pineapple growing on plantations in Hawaii, its spread was really wide.

How are your papaya doing?

I have four papayas that are producing fruit, but only one that I've harvested from so far. The one that had the muriatic acid from the neighbor's yard is still in a pot and has been replaced by another papaya. I had to cut it back because it developed a hole in the trunk. The one that took it's place in the ground is starting to grow fruit.

I'm a bit concerned about yellow spots on the leaves on all of the biggest plants, especially one one in particular. I've seen it before in a previous generation of papayas.

shelves built on fence Imag0711

It must be some kind of fungus that has infected the older leaves. But the fruit is good and have had some of the biggest that we've ever seen. Very Happy

rabbithutch 7/29/2014, 12:31 pm

I wish you all the best of luck with your fence shelves, but I'm a bit skeptical about what impact the unbalanced weight will have on your fencing over time. Given your location, I suspect that your fence posts are in sand. Even if mounted on concrete bases, the weight of those pots falling in such a concentrated area and not balanced on the other side of the fence is likely to cause the fence posts to tilt.

dstack 7/29/2014, 12:40 pm

rabbithutch wrote:I wish you all the best of luck with your fence shelves, but I'm a bit skeptical about what impact the unbalanced weight will have on your fencing over time. Given your location, I suspect that your fence posts are in sand. Even if mounted on concrete bases, the weight of those pots falling in such a concentrated area and not balanced on the other side of the fence is likely to cause the fence posts to tilt.

Glad you brought that up! Because of the occasional hurricanes we get, our posts are closer than it would be in other states to meet the city code standards. Also, I've further strengthened the fence the way I build the shelf. I know you can't see it in any of these photos, but there is a 4x4 that is tightly wedged between the posts, and then "L" braces hold up the 4x4 cross beam. This weekend I'll take a photo of the next one that I build in stages so you can see what I'm saying. The shelf brackets are screwed into that 4x4.

Of course if a hurricane comes I'll take those plants down to the ground, but during the storm this will be the strongest part of the fence.

rabbithutch 7/29/2014, 1:15 pm

Great!

Sounds like you've got it covered.

Sponsored content

shelves built on fence

shelves built on fence

Re: shelves built on fence

Re: shelves built on fence

Re: shelves built on fence

Re: shelves built on fence

Re: shelves built on fence

Re: shelves built on fence

Re: shelves built on fence

Re: shelves built on fence


	Hello Guest! Welcome to the official Square Foot Gardening Forum. There's lots to learn here by reading as a guest. However, if you become a member (it's free, ad free and spam-free) you'll have access to our large vermiculite databases, our seed exchange spreadsheets, Mel's Mix calculator, and many more members' pictures in the Gallery. Enjoy.