Sort of Genius

The iron trellis we inherited from the former owners never looked like much against the coyote fence, it just blends in. 

And growing a vine on it has been problematic. Too much shade I think. 

The purple Jackamii did okay but didn't show up well against the fence, the white Jackmanii died, and the recently planted Alba Luxurians is not coming back. 

On a whim I took it out. The feet had rusted away, but I propped it up behind the emerging Gro-Low sumacs, and it's kind of genius. 

It pops against the stucco garage wall. 

It's not really stuck in the ground since the feet rusted away. It's just propped up with rocks to sort of stabilize it. The sumacs hide the piles of rocks at its base.

I don't want it to touch the stucco wall, since it will make rust marks. It looks like it is leaning against the wall, but it's out away from it, and I'll need to stabilize it more, with more big rocks I guess.

I'm not going to plant a vine on it. The structure alone against the wall is nice, backing the redbud and providing something visual to fill the flat blank space.

And the spot gets full shade half the day and then gets blasted with western sun and reflected light and heat off the wall in the afternoons. 

The sumacs do fine there, but I'm not going to try anything on this trellis.

I had pondered lots of other ideas, like a rain chain from the canale in the middle of the garage wall, or a big rain barrel below it. 

I even thought about staging the bbq grill up against the wall for convenience but also to fill the space. But no.

In the end I liked the square patio table there, with some pots on it, and a newly planted Cardinal penstemon to fill the space below in front of the table.

The redbud needs to gain size, but even when it is bigger that wall is a blank space. The trellis doesn't really do anything but it adds interest and it goes with the slightly formal, structured idea of my circle garden, paired with the black metal table nearby.