Re: [A/S] Lanscaping/Don't make me get crazy!

["Joan L. D'Andrea" <j.dandrea@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Wally.  I think there are more of us out here than you thin who have
purchased to live in and now and then travel with.  I bought mine for
exactly the same reasons as did you.  I live at the beach twice per month
and wanted a place that wouldn't fall into the ground like so many of the
other RV's and less expensive "Homes on Wheels" I saw.  Second, there is a
dedicated group of people with ample knowledge about the older girls, ie.
vintage AirStream, and last because compared to other trailers the AS pulls
with ease.

Knowing I might want to change my plans at a later date or move my Airstream
into another configuration or to another piece of land I have in the
mountains I wanted a movable fence that would hold up under time, the
elements, and travel.

I have kept dogs in the backyard for years,but being Scotties,they are
diggers and destroy my landscaping, so years ago I developed the following
mobile fence.  First, I determined how much fencing and of what type I
wanted and am currently constructing for the beach  what I call moveable
fence sections.  These are sections of fencing I can comfortably move into
any configuration I want and will fit the length of my truck bed.  Mine are
made from Green, plastic covered, mesh, the kind you can fine at any garden
store, WallMart or Home Depot. I chose this material because it is
resilient, easily fixable and relatively light, but strong.  It comes in
rolls of varying height.  I selected three foot.  I made 10 footers.  I
constructed a frame of treated two by fours braced at 3 foot intervals  and
stretched the wire over the frame.  For looks, I nailed 1x2 along the edges
of the wire and stained the whole frame.  At the each end of each section I
attached 2 door hinges, but if you make smaller lengths you can use lighter
weight hinges.  What you want is a hinge where you can remove the pin
easily.  I constructed a smaller section as a gate. Voila!  I have a movable
fence to enclose dogs, whatever.  Mine will be five sections and a gate.

Next I went to potted plants, trees and bushes.  My pots vary from crockery
to plastic, but are all selected with ease of moving in mind.  I am
currently designing a mobile platform for a somewhat larger fruit tree.  I
chose a variety of tall, long, wide and skinny pots and boxes I knew I could
lift with dirt and plants.  I also kept my eye open for and have purchased a
number of garage sale little red wagons, the red rider type.  In them I have
either made a planter box or constructed one.  the wagon has a sturdy metal
frame designed to hold up under kid abuse.  It makes a perfect frame for a
simple planter box of varying heights.

The nice thing about all these movable boxes is they go with me.  If I am
not going to be at the beach for a while I simply pack them home and they
add to my landscape there.  I can move them around to my heart's desire.
They vary in their ability to drain according to the needs of the plant.
Bog plants, discussed later, have almost all the drain hole covered.  Plants
that need "Good Drainage"  have double holes and are connected to a water
system I designed using flexible tubing (the kind you use for an aquarium
for air hose and plumbing tubing for RV's.  This supplies water from the
outside tap when I am not around and there is a need for summer water.  It's
on a timer when I am gone.  If you are interested I will let you know how I
made it.  Don't worry.  It's easy!!   I decided against a lawn in favor of
the ease of using the indigent flora and fauna as much as possible, but we
had rock hauled in for a good parking base for the trailer so there are
places with no beach grass.  Primarily, in these areas I have put down
gravel, pumice, rock and so forth.  Beauty bark is a great coverall and
makes everything look nice and tidy for a while.  Once you get the ground
cover down then put your containers all over the place and look at it for a
while to see what you want to change.  Remember to imagine the plants.  I
have a nice line of taller plants in front of my tires to protect them from
UV.  The tongue will soon look like a big shrub, and so forth.

I have plans for the summer for two additional projects.  The first is to
bring in a rigid pond.  I started putting these in my home garden years ago
because of zoning and resale rules when you have a pond.and love them.  They
are easily installed, especially in sand, movable, easy to maintain, good
for plants or fish  ( I recommend plants in one and fish in another if you
want fish), nice to listen to and so forth.  They are also inexpensive.  You
can get a BIG one for around $100.

Good luck and have fun.  I suggest you are pretty careful to pick things
that will fit into your environment.  Go to the library and pick up a couple
of landscaping books and look at pictures and then sit down with a pencil
and paper and draw a diagram.  I actually blew up a picture of my Airstream
to scale and then made a little diorama during the winter as I planed my
site.  It was a lot of fun and gave me a good idea about how things would
look.  You can go to a hobby shop and get a bag of flora and fauna if you
want.  I just took a woodland walk for mine.  I carried a big plastic bag
and picked up moss and rocks and twigs.  I pasted my picture of the trailer
into a beer box I cut down to scale, the edges being the fence, and added
about an inch of sand.  Then I moved my collection of twigs and so forth
around it until I got the look I wanted.  then it was back to the books to
pick out plants that reached a maximum height I wanted in different areas,
provided color year round and so forth.

I am sure once your imagination takes hold you will come up with lots of
ideas of your own.

By the way.  You guys and gals who are on the road can benefit from a little
landscaping as well.  Years ago I discovered the joys of X-pens while on the
road from dog show to dog show.  I really don't know how I lived without
them before.  An X-pen, for the uninitiated, is a metal pen hinged together
at three to four foot intervals.  They come in a variety of sizes and are
available at some pet stores, all dog shows and in most dog equipment
catalogues.  I carry four to six all the time.  Two are shorties for along
the trailer, and the others are taller for the fence.  You need the shorties
so the dogs don't escape under the trailer.  :-)  We also carry four to six
potted plants inside the trailer for placing along the fence or where ever,
for beauty etc.  the X-pens are linked together with brass clips, two per
edge or the doggies escape, and everything stand up on its own once erected
unless you go for a really long one and then you need to add a couple of
portable posts along the long side.  these can easily be made of two-three
inch PVC pipe and a base.   For those of you who carry an extra canopy, a
great way to keep it on the ground and avoid having to tie it down all the
time is to cut lengths of four inch PVC pipe,about a foot each, and fill
them with concrete with an eyebolt in the end.  When you set up  your canopy
or sun house or whatever, just tie a length of rope from the loops  to the
concrete filled pipes and Voila, no digging.  I started doing this when we
were camping on tarmac at dog shows.  It is also a great way to anchor the
canopy.  Just make sure you put enough weight on each canopy standard.

Well.  E-nuf for now.  Joannie in Seattle