Luxury Housing Trends & Home Improvement Ideas

This morning, I went to a gardening class on growing small berries and edible vine plants such as grapes and kiwis. I love grapes (and wine!) so it’d be fun to grow some. The problem is that you need to run grapes up a trellis, arbor, pergola, etc. so the vines are kept out of the moist soil and have airflow. Also, grapes running up a trellis just look cool.

Arbors and especially pergolas are pretty expensive to build (and the kits are even more expensive), but a simple grape trellis such as this one is fairly affordable. If you’ve got a wall or a spot that is protected from the wind, you can run your grapes up the trellis and let those vines grow, grow, grow.

This grapevine trellis is made from high quality PVC vinyl rather than wood, so it should last for years (actually, the product description promises a 20-year warranty). A ground anchoring system is included, and the trellis is maintenance free, so you can’t beat that.

$60 at Yard Lover.

If you know how to grow bamboo, then you also know that the stuff spreads. Like crazy.

One of the reasons bamboo, which is actually a grass and not a tree, is considered eco-friendly is because it is easily replenished, growing to maturity in years instead of decades. That’s great if you run a sustainable bamboo forest somewhere, but what if you just want a little bit along the fence to act as a bamboo privacy barrier between you and the neighbors or the street?

In that case, you may want to invest in a bamboo barrier, which is installed in the dirt at root level. This keeps new shoots from popping up all over the place and creeping into your neighbors’ yard (they may not be as enthusiastic about the plant as you are!).

The “DeepRoot” bamboo barrier shown below can be purchased by the foot, so you can get as much or as little as you need.

“The smooth surface of the Bamboo Barrier acts as a rhizome barrier, diverting the bamboo root and preventing unchecked growth.” Also, “When used around building foundations and medians, [it] maintains soil/water equilibrium and prevents root intrusion.”

It sounds like it’d be useful for those pervasive Himalayan blackberries too.

Berkey Supply offers the bamboo barrier for $1.29 per linear foot.