05/18/12 - Replication

My son and his wife have now put up their own satellite dish gazebo, with a decomposed granite patio surface underneath. It's still a work in progress, but it already provides a shady seating area away from the house. They've planted a white potato vine which will eventually cover the dish, and will blend beautifully with the blue potato vine "tree" that's already in the yard.

05/05/2010 - Integration

The gazebo is now a key focal point in the garden, providing a delightful spot to watch the birds and have morning coffee or evening wine.  When the vine is in bloom, it's full of bees.  When the berries ripen it's a popular spot for mockingbirds.  The leaves provide a thick shady canopy, sheltering us from summer sun. When frost arrives, the fan comes down and the heater goes up.  Since we didn't paint the dish, there's almost no maintenance----just trimming trailing branches around the edges.

Next time you see one of these relics that's destined for a landfill, I hope you'll remember this blog.  If you do create your own satellite-dish gazebo, please send pictures!

05/29/2010 - Celebration

We found a big paddle-bladed outdoor fan to put in the center of the gazebo.  It was the perfect height. Then one day my husband took a picture of a chandelier he saw on the Lowe's sale table.  It was gaudy as the dickens, but I told him that it would look great in the garden if we could figure out the right spot for it.  He brought it home, but it took a while to find that spot... 

When we were starting to plan a dual graduation party for our son and his girlfriend, I asked if there was any way the chandelier could be turned upside-down and mounted like a light kit on the bottom of the fan.  Well, yes it could, but the gazebo would need to be raised a couple of inches to accommodate it.  Fortunately, that was easy to do since it had been built with the sleeved support legs (remember I told you that capability was going to be handy?)

On party day, which was very warm, the fan kept bugs and barbeque smoke away from guests under the gazebo, and it made a perfect conversation and dining spot!

02/13/2010 - Proliferation

By the following spring, branches had completely covered the top of the gazebo, and had to be thinned out.

05/31/2009 - Foliation

Much to my delight, the vine bounced right back.  Bill figured out a way to hang the propane heater from the center section so we could admire the garden's progress on chilly spring evenings.  He also hung LED fairy-lights around the edge of the dish, and put electrical outlets and switches on the support post next to the vine's trunk.

02/02/2009 - Delineation

After giving the porcelain berry vine a little time to settle in on its new support structure, we pruned it back to the main branches.  Then we very carefully and gently wrapped the main trunk around the support post, and wired the leaders to the inside edge of the dish.  Although the vine seemed healthy, I was worried that it might not survive all the abuse it had taken in the past few months.  Some of the branches were brittle, so we couldn't bend them very much.  The ends of the two main leaders didn't quite meet on the side opposite the trunk, and I was really hoping they would grow together in the spring.

10/23/2008 - Finalization

The pathways throughout the garden and under the gazebo were covered with 4 inches of "Ginger fines", which cost twice as much as "Gold fines", but was of course the color of gravel I HAD to have.  After the little oval of green sod was laid, it really all started to come together.  We actually had something we could call a gazebo!  But that was really just the beginning.....