Planters along the Pergola

Its funny how when you do one thing it always sparks an idea for another. Building the path and terrace at the front of the house was no different. We put up the pergola knowing that we wanted to grow grapes, kiwi and possibly Vanilla pods if we could find the plants.

This was what we had to work with. Initially we thought about making the blocks into the planters and we may still do that with the ones left over.  The idea of using the stone theme and trying to take the straightness off  gave us the idea of building round, rock planters.

This was my first ever attempt at building anything. It is normally Kev's job if it involves cement...I just mix it for him!
The first thing I had to do was make a template of the shape I wanted to build. As the planters were to be round, using a string would be impossible and we wanted them to look rustic anyway so not to worry if they weren't perfect!

I dug out the soil to follow the shape of the template and then made a foundation using big rocks. Hopefully the smaller rocks would sit on this foundation without moving.

So far so good...half way up. Now to make the complete circle.

 

First planter finished.

 

 

To a trained eye this most probably looks like the pits, but to us it is perfect. The planter being built down the front of the path will allow the roots of the plants to spread and not become root bound. Ok so one finished 4 more to go!

 

 

Number 2

 

I got three finished last year with 2 more to build. The weather turned extremely hot, very early on and so all work stopped. The mortar was going off too quickly and we were wasting mixes. So this next month is the time to finish the job.

 

We can't wait to see these planted up. The plants will provide shade for the front of the house, give us grapes to eat and will look beautiful too.