Now that we've retired (yay) we have plenty of time on our hands to complete our list of projects. What we don't necessarily have is the skills required to complete each of those projects. So, we're learning on the job and making our fair share of mistakes along the way. So far, the results have been just fine. As long as one doesn't look too closely.
Months ago, we bought a bunch of pine poles with plans to build two pergolas (or arbours?) in our shade house. They've been sitting in a pile in the shade house waiting for us to muster up the courage to do some construction. We finally got brave enough to have a go.
Firstly, we assembled the equipment we needed: one petrol pole digger (very handy for getting through clay), a measuring tape, spade, gloves, drill, screws, a ladder, the poles (of course) and water to keep us hydrated.
After a bit of measuring, a bit of discussion and some more measuring we dug our first hole and put the first pole in.
Turns out, the first pole was the easiest. After that we had to get all of the poles in line and level. We discovered that isn't as easy as we thought it would be given the poles are round and all different lengths and thicknesses. But with lots of grit and determination (read swearing and frustration) we managed to get three poles in:
I'm really glad we didn't cement the poles in though because several had to be taken out and redone. They looked perfectly even and level when we knocked off for the evening. They definitely didn't look that way the next day though. Eventually we got the hang of it and put in a total of ten poles, six in one pergola and four in a second one.
We were going to halve the remaining pine poles to use across the top. But we don't have the right kind of saw for cutting them in half and didn't want to shell out for one. Luckily there were several jarrah beams lying around the place (left by the previous owners) and we were able to make use of those. Wullah, one finished pergola ready for grapes, or passionfruit. Or both.
The second pergola was built around the seed raising table. We've still got to put the beams across the top of that one. We're planning to grow grapes over that to give the seedlings shade in summer and sun in winter. We've also installed a sink so we can wash the veg that we pick before we bring it inside. I gave it a test run with some leeks that I picked.
Instead of going down the kitchen sick, all that dirty water now gets collected in a tub and can go back on to the garden.
The pergolas are not perfect by any stretch but we're happy with them and they will work. Now we just need to find some grape vines and passonfruit to plant.
