The World of Trellisses and Arbors (Arbours)

Further to my suggestion of what might be possible on your back balcony.

The word I was looking for to call what I was trying to tell you is an arbor, or some call it a trellis.

Basically what you are doing is building a structure out of wood (preferrable red cedar or regular cedar, untreated of course) that lets in indirect sunshine, and some direct early day sunshine, but keeps out the really strong direct high noon and mid-afternoon sun shine.

It also provides you with a structure that you can grow creeping vines, train other plants to grow along so that when they leaf out, they also provide some added shade from the sun. It also can provide some cooling affects too, when the plants mature.

Yes, there are grape vines that will grow there. Some if not most are just ornamental, but there is one variety that will produce grapes that can be used in jelly or wine. You also grow something like currents, raspberries, strawberries, snow peas, peppers, or a variety of patio or roma tomatoes as well.

Sort of like a, 'Ms Ellie's Garden.'

You could put the right combination of plants in it that would bring butterflies and such that would also help your yard of flowers (weeds) as well. How this works would be explained in your medical text books on the subject of the birds and the bees. There are also bat houses you can build and put in your arbor that will attract the very small bats who eat pounds and pounds of bugs.

With the right combination of plants and herbs, you can also minimize the bugs and pests you will get too. Organically.

There are other ways of building an arbor that do not entail the cedar lumber, but need a bit more work and inegnuity. You can use twigs and small dimensional trees that are laying on the forest floor, or you can use bamboo stems. This method entails lashing them with natural string, and being a bit more of an architect than I am. You basically would be using the methods to build this way that were used in building a teepee.I have built chairs, tables and baskets from them, but that is about it.

Another way would be to look at installing bent iron structures such as hanging baskets and put plants in them that will grow large and bushy. This might include sweet peas and such. Then you run into the problem that sweet peas do emit a fairly strong sent espeically at night. It is natural, but might be too much for you.

The cedar wood will be fragrant too, and if you get the untreated wood, (which you must if you are an evnironmentalist) it will be a natural smell.

Cedar is a smell I love to smell, but it might be too strong for you.

Anyways, there is a book/magazine on this subject that Rona sells in their project resource centre.

You could make your patio into a very nice little ecosystem with the right planning and methods. And a lovely source of some natural food and herbs.