GARDEN STRUCTURES

I work with cedar, bamboo and mahogany.

Heavy-duty black hinges support the 2 doors.

 

 

I hand pick the boards for soundness and color.

 

I don’t use nails or screws- these would pierce the skin of the bamboo and lead to decay.

 Instead I lash the poles to cross-beams.

 

 The Hinoki Cypress seen on the left was only a few years old when I built this fence.

While the tree grew and got fuller, the wood took on a grey cast.

 That’s what happens to wood outdoors. Regular maintenance would include re-applying a good grade exterior finish.

 I built the trellis below for my neighbor over 15 years ago. Every year he gives it a new coat of oil-that’s why is still looks so good.

 

 Unfortunately the fence received only occasional attention, and after a number of years, -you can see how much bigger the Hinoki got, I realized I had to RE-DO the fence. Unfortunately I don’t have a photo of the fence before I re-did it.

  I sanded down the 4×4 cedar posts, (western red cedar) and applied Cetol, a translucent exterior finish. I replaced all the wood and installed new bamboo.

Since I was re-doing the whole fence, I decided to change the design a bit.

 

The 3-part fence below was almost 15 years old. There was no regular maintenance.This is what happens if the fence is left un-treated.

I designed this fence so that all the parts could be repaired or replaced except the 4×4 posts.

 I sanded these down and gave them 2 coats of oil. As I was replacing all the cedar and bamboo, I thought I’d come up with a slightly different design.

 

Here’s another trellis I built using cedar and bamboo. The dark reddish wood is

Meranti, a type of mahogany.