Backyard pics

[flhiker]

Nice Job! Are those tempensis's blooming now? I have 5 and none of them are in bloom or even spiking. I do question the use of hydraulic cement rather then traditional concrete. Hydraulic cement is mostly used for wet area's, patching holes and usually doesn't have rock in it. Which makes it fairly weak. Anytime that something dries real fast it usually becomes real brittle. Encasing the post is a good idea as the earth will rot the wood quicker then the harden cement. Although the post are generally made of timber I'm curious how long bamboo will last as post. How ever it looks great. And the addiction grows. LOL There is a company that goes to the Fakahatchee to collect palm fronds for the roof covering on chickee huts.

Junebug your bamboo should be fine. Just pre-drill it before nailing or bolting it to prevent splitting. I've built chickee huts and just nail mitered joints with 16 or 20 penny galvanized nails. Bamboo is extremely strong and will last for years.

[got ants]

A couple more details..

I only used hydraulic cement on the corner structure, and, it already cracked. It did have rocks in it though. On all the bamboo poles cemented in, I made sure the cement was built up high around the base so rain water would run off, and not sit there. I plan on caulking the bead line around to better keep moisture out. This will make the bamboo last a little longer.

The upright poles are 3"-4". I made sure they were cured by rolling them on the ground a few days until the green was gone. You can use better cured poles too, just be sure you have thick walled bamboo.

In the corner structure, where I have my dry zone, the structure was built with two upright poles, and then lag bolted a pole across, with another pole from the center of the cross pole lag bolted in front, then a self tapping bolt into the 4X4 post in the back. It was pre-drilled for easy screwing, and I used a socket wrench for easy work of it.

The rafters across are cut to fit snug (scrolled?) using a sawzall. The ends were also cut to fit onto the fence. Then finally the split bamboo strips across so the coraplastic roof won't sag. These were just screwed on using 1 1/4" decking screws. I used 1 3/4 decking screws with finish washed to secure the coraplastic roof down.

The "tiki hut" has the cross poles using threaded galvy rod because the mating of different sized bamboo poles would require expensive and not necessary over-sized lag bolts. The thinner poles the orchids hang on are pre-drilled and secured with 1 3/4" deck screws.

I would not use the hydraulic cement again, but I can fix the crack with regular caulking. It's secure, I just worry about water intrusion.

These structures are not hurricane proof, and are considered "temporary", but they really do hold up well. The biggest reason for doing them, besides hanging plants on them, is also to protect the plants from the falling coconut palm trees.

[flhiker]

You can just rap some plastic (visqueen) or tar paper around the post and use standard concrete. Its common practice used to protect copper pipe from the acid and oxidation that corrode them.
The Seminoles make timber structure's with palmetto palm fronds as roofs called Chickee huts that look very close to tiki huts that use bamboo. Being from here I assume they are all Chickee huts.

[got ants]

Here some more detail pics...

This is the crack in the concrete in the corner structure..


Here is the other regular concrete showing the thickness of the poles..


Here is the roof rafter where it ties into the center beam..


The rafter ends..


And this is how I attached the trellis material to the bamboo poles..


I screwed a PT 2X4 straight to the pole at a 45% angle, and the the trellis material was screwed to it.

[got ants]

And lastly..

chiddy corner


And my potting station...lol

[flhiker]

I have a nice piece of schomburgkia tibicinis that would look great mounted to one of those palms.

[got ants]

Originally Posted by flhiker

I have a nice piece of schomburgkia tibicinis that would look great mounted to one of those palms.

Not sure that's a good ideer. When the fronds fall, they can do some serious damage. I have three different schoms. Well, as far as I know as I haven't had them long, and never seen blooms yet. They were bought at various local orchid society auctions, and were not labeled.

The pic with the tampensis is from this past spring.

[thakshila smith]

Looks great .Thanks for the innovation .We got lots of bamboo wood here .Thought of the durability?

[thakshila smith]

The large flower hanger/ basket with blooms on the third pics of yours looks like oncidiums . my God that is great bush.
Congrads for you ! How old is that bush?>
Do you get coconuts from the palms? Do you know how to great them?

[got ants]

thakshila, the plant in the third pic is a specimen Encyclia tampensis. I literally rescued it. They were clearing a lot gor yet another strip mall, ad it was on a large oak branch, moments away from going in a dumpster. I literally ran in front of a backhoe to stop them from destroying it.

I brought it to our local orchid club for showing, and it was awarded best of show, with main comments of good colour form. It was mostly yellow, where as this is normally white to greenish sepals. I'll post some pics when I can dig them up....

[found-em]


and yours truly