Apple scruffs

Our garden is filled with paths that make it easy to see where to walk — and where you're not supposed to walk. But somehow folks often seem drawn to spots that are fragile and can't take too much foot traffic. So, a few years ago, I bought some bamboo hoops as a way to mark off those areas where we didn't want garden visitors to go. It was an attractive deterrent, but too expensive a method to use throughout the garden. 

Luckily I later had an "ah-ha" moment that's provided a long term solution at no cost — well, nothing we had to go out and buy. One winter day while Mark was cleaning up all the apple prunings, I realized they were very similar in size to the bamboo hoops as well as having a nice reddish color. Why couldn't we recycle the trimmings and turn them into our own edging material? 

Mark agreed that my idea had merit, but we needed a way to shape them into half-circles.  So he built a simple device (above) to mold the whips into shape while they're fresh and pliable. The board filled with the hoops is always next to the garage where we keep materials for ongoing projects.

When the apple hoops have dried into shape, we trim the ends to make them pointed and sharp. Then we just stick them into the ground as needed, overlapping the half-circles as we go. They are easy to use and visually unobtrusive during the growing season. 

They've turned out to be an ideal edging material that is more in keeping with our Midwestern location than the bamboo was. They are more individually varied which gives them a kind of artless charm in the garden as well. And they are a wonderful addition to the winter landscape, creating patterns and shadows on the snow.

In the beginning, we were very Japanese in our treatment of the hoops, tying them together with black twine where they criss-crossed. Not really that difficult, but it's the kind of task that's most efficient if you're putting in a whole row. If you're just replacing one or two hoops that have broken, then tying them together is definitely an annoying chore. 

Looking at this picture, though, I must admit that the ties do add a finishing touch and bit of useful visual tension. I will just have to make a point of carrying the twine in my garden basket so I'm always at the ready when I heed to replace one of my little apple hoops.

Comments

[Lecia]

Very nice! I agree - a great finishing touch and "bit of useful visual tension" - well said.

[LINDA from EACH LITTLE WORLD]

Thanks, Lecia! And thanks for your nice post on International Women's Day ... can't believe I forgot it!

[lucia]

You have a Lecia, above, and now you have a Lucia commenter. I have so enjoyed reading about your garden(s). As a native Wisconsonian transplanted to NYC, there is even more for me to love about your blog than a denizen from another state. Wow -- I love your apple half hoops. Can you explain (but not in painstaking detail) how you constructed your peg and wood hoop shaper. I'm going to copy you! They do make nice winter interest, but to paraphrase the New Yorker (I believe) I say winter interest -- and I say the hell with it! C'mon -- when is spring going to arrive?
lucia

[LINDA from EACH LITTLE WORLD]

Lucia — I've hit the "hell with it" stage, too. Since Sunday we've had, rain, freezing rain, snow, high winds, and way below normal temps! I just want the snow to be gone and there to be some green that's not a pine tree.

I'm going to have my husband email you some simple directions since he made the hoop form.

[Pam/Digging (Austin)]

Great idea. Materials from your own garden are the best possible edging. I'm using stone chunks found at the back of our new garden, presumably broken up when the pool was installed. However, I'm also finding chunks of concrete mixed in, which makes me think they broke up a mortared patio or path somewhere along the way.

[LINDA from EACH LITTLE WORLD]

We had lots of broken concrete at the first garden and a whole wall of it here — which is still in place for a few more years until we get around to re-doing that area of the garden. There's always something that presents ideas for reuse!

[Lisa at Greeenbow]

A great idea. Tying them together not only makes them look neat and purposeful but probably makes them last longer too.