Tippy Pots

I use tippy pot stacks in my displays around the garden centre, and am often asked, "how do you do that"?

The trick is to install a piece of re bar, to support the stack. If you have a hard surface, where you intend to place your stack your re bar will need feet. The feet allow you to place it in the bottom of the pot. Otherwise you may pound re bar directly into the ground, and thread your pot onto it through the drain hole.

I sometimes place additional support, in this case some old stakes, to keep the second pot from settling. Make sure you compact the soil well before placing second pot id you don't use a stake.

The second pot rests on the soil.

The pot is held in place by threading it on the re bar through the drain hole.

The re bar should sit up against the edge of the pot, giving it maximum tip.

Thread on your third pot, balancing it on the edge of the second pot.

The next, or final pot, must tilt from the opposite edge, it's easy.

This is my giant version, these are large pots, and they sit outside the front of my store.

tippy pots planted up with pansies, and perennials.

Arborisculpture

An ancient art is being revised, pleaching or arbori-sculpture has been around for centuries. Many of us have seen braided ficus trunks on our potted specimens at our tropical plants store. This is the same in a go big or go home manner. Pleaching has also traditionally been used to make wattle fences; a method which involves bending and weaving live pliant saplings of species like willow. They are planted in a row, woven into a fence, and in time grow together to form a solid structure. Here are some pics where this technique has become although practical, I think for fun, or Art's sake.

Here is nature creating her own version.

Ficus tree hut

How to grow a Chair interview with Richard Reames

Using ancient grafting techniques and a few basic tools, Richard Reames shapes living trees into furniture and sculpture near his home in Oregon for clients worldwide. He is the author of two self-published books, How to Grow a Chair: The Art of Tree Trunk Topiary with Barbara Delbol, and Arborsculpture: Solutions for a Small Planet, published in June. His work was on display this summer at the World Expo in Aichi, Japan. Joshua Foer spoke to Reames in July 2005 by telephone. http://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/20/foer.php

Lawn chair with real lawn

I finished my Lawn Chair, for more pics check out http://urbanoasisgardening.blogspot.com/