Bamboo Arch Trellis

I also wrote and posted a guide for how to build this and posted it on my site here with my tutorials. In this blog post I’ll feature more photos, and also lay out some personal context and history.

Standing under the trellis looking at afternoon sun backlit dangling Armenian Cucumbers, watermelons of different varieties some hanging in macrame baskets, senescing cucumber plants, and luffa gourd in the distance among the bright green illuminated leaves

Emplaced into the natural line of drainage east of my grandmother’s home on the hilltop while she was very young, a farm pond was dug out of the clay soil and a retaining earth berm added by the Works Progress Administration in the late 1930’s. She says my great grandfather was a great advocate of the WPA, the New Deal, and FDR’s populism. The west side of the pond was nearer the house and popular for fishing bass, perch, and bullhead catfish. The far, east edge of the pond was messier to access through either the brush or the feeding watershed, so the the continued growth of the bamboo that had been planted there maybe around 2000 by my father evaded his attention until 2019 when I started working there as Grandma’s caregiver. At this point it was a massive and well watered stand, constrained only somewhat on the east end by the regular tilling of the upslope field by lease farmers and the regular glyphosate runoff that stunted its growth most at the field’s edge.

The bamboo when crowded or cut back would stunt and come up as a short grass but when sufficiently spaced it ranged in height from 12-18 feet tall. The taller, thicker canes were suitable for makeshift catfishing poles and carved flutes. The thinner canes had a nice flexibility. The flexibility waned as it aged or dried out, and it dried out much faster after cutting. Provided one acted within a few days could often use older or senescent canes that still had some green in them without too much snapping.

I started working the turf-like fallow garden in 2020 and then built the bamboo arch trellis in 2021. With the help of a Ryobi 18v disc cutter/ angle grinder and appropriate safety gear, The structure was made from nothing but the farm’s bamboo and natural fiber sisal baling twine from the shed, later on preferring jute baling twine. Tall enough to arch overhead such that one could walk underneath it to train up vines of cucumber, luffa gourd, tomato, peas, cowpeas, musk melons, watermelons, Apios americana groundnut, and passionfruit, and then harvest dangling produce from the comfort of the shade that grew up. The thin flexible canes bent and tied into in crisscrossed arches formed a diamond lattice that was fairly stable and that supported even heavy watermelon with a little help from twine hammocks crudely strung up in place from simple square knots like macrame to support their thin, fragile stems.

The material degraded quite a lot in the elements after two years, the third year limping along with the thin tops of the arch especially facing severe damage before being significantly dismantled the following winter. A small segment stayed up through the end of my work period in 2024.

I attempted twice to make a second arch but never fully completed either. They really are labor intensive, and only a subset of the canes of the variety the farm grew were thin and flexible enough, or fresh enough depending on the year’s winter kill.

Full shot of arch trellis covered with vines, leaves, watermelons, passionfruit
full front view of arch trellis tunnel mid-early in the season with the lower half covered in plants and no fruits, the upper half only lightly covered with some watermelon vines, bolting lettuce underneath the arch
Closeup of luffa flower stems arching upwards with bud clusters and a bright yellow bud up top, large luffa leaves, dark green compound/pennate groundnut leaves with clusters of their mauve, pea-like flowers
Underside look at *Apios americana* American Groundnut ornate leaves and vine showing one small, dangling seed pod
Closeup of small green unripe striped melon hanging on the vine, partially covered by the leaf
Leafy cucumber vine covered in yellow flowers and a small prickly cucumber, and tomato plant with a small bunch of green tomatoes
Closeup of striped green watermelon in sisal macrame hammock, lightly lit by afternoon sun
dark green striped watermelon hanging in jute twine macrame basket from criss-crossed bamboo canes of trellis
Yellow Luffa Flower, usually swarming with fertilizing ants but here just one
leafy vines of Luffa climbing atop the trellis tunnel with several bright yellow flowers
Early fall fall shot of trellis covered in tan dried cowpea vine and pods, hanging luffa gourds, green passionfruit the size of hen eggs, and dry tall grass overgrowing the garden in the background and trash cardboard meant for sheetmulching in the midground
Full shot of arch trelllis covered with busy cucumber leaves, hanging wateremlons in macrame baskets, climbing tomatoes, and luffa vines

Ozark Chinquapin Seeds

These seeds came in from the Ozark Chinquapin Foundation earlier in the year. One is instructed to keep them in a bag in the fridge in lightly moist loose soil media, taking it out and aerating / stirring every week as the roots emerge. Here the roots are barely peeking out. In spring after frost they can be planted with precautions including a tree tube and a mesh staked into the ground. They are very high in protein so wildlife tend to devour them.

I still am unsure where this is going into the ground given the recent move, so holler if you covet an excellent mast crop tree and a reliable place for it. (Edit: they’ve been sent on with someone already) They prefer excellent drainage, and they’re not self fertile so need at least two in a given place. Old growth chinquapins are believed to have grown to upwards of 60 ft.

Previous year’s attempts were thwarted by not having the ground cleared, not having enough battery life to clear the ground when power tools were available (vs tick precautions this very much constrains the schedule) and then turns out the place was getting gutted for arable fields anyway, etc. There’s a coal chat pile at family property that’s the new candidate if I don’t find a place in town, although it’s overgrown with oak and they might have to clear ground to remove some debris parked up there. I’m equipped with a pole saw and a brush cutter but I’m not set up for felling trees or moving big items. Sigh.

They used to be more abundant like the other chestnut species before chestnut blight severely damaged the wild protein availability of north american forests. Chestnuts proper linger in old root stock but haven’t managed to produce viable seeds without dieback, the Ozark chinquapin had some healthy outliers with a degree of resistance to blight so the foundation has been conducting a breeding program and makes seeds available.

Some photos from their website.

Barbarian sketches 001

For D&D presently I’m borrowing from this older, more arctic design I never really got to play at length. A Moby Dick Queequeg type orc. Large, tattooed beefcake carrying a harpoon / spear.

The present campaign is very pirate-themed. This new character Iosefa is a fisherman from an island fishing village, aiming for the Queequeg inspiration again. It’s 5th Edition and we started characters at Level 3 so I needed to pick a Barbarian variant from the player’s manual to play and I wanted him to have good swimming abilities so he’s Totem of the Orca and can can ritual spellcast for unencumbered movement in water, breathing underwater, etc. More importantly the aim is to channel that yacht body-slamming energy. DM was feeling out an Aquaman vibe and a Roman gladiator retiarius aesthetic, so he also has a net and a magic conch.

I reckon I’ll continue to have fun designing and redesigning the tattoos, I could even directly illustrate gameplay scenes in the tats as I go. Alternately there’s opportunity to set up visual details in anticipation of narrative or character dialogue. (See sexy mermaid below)

Intent to Blog

I’m intending to use sporadic and piecemeal blog entries for smaller sketches, process developments, art pieces, and interesting encounters. If I can successfully backdate entries, might be interesting way to catalog a few items. Probably expect garden photos.

Ozarks Greenways Frisco Highline Trailhead Bicycle Mosaic

I worked as a studio assistant to Christine Schilling of Mosaica Rose studio on Commercial Street, Springfield MO to help produce her mosaic commissioned by Anne Cox for the Ozarks Greenways Frisco Highline trailhead in Willard, MO. I drew up her design as vector graphics, formatted the print pdf for her large mosaic template, assisted with tile layout and pre-assembly, and worked on the concrete emplacement and finishing.

https://www.greenecountycommonwealth.com/content/ozarks-greenways-dedicates-new-mosaic-beloved-frisco-highline-trail-willard

https://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/wm13BA9_Ozark_Greenways_Bicycle_Willard_MO

Animation is Concentration

An excerpt from Richard Williams’ The Animator’s Survival Kit that stands out in my mind. It bears out mostly, depending on the complexity of a task, energy level for the day, etc. Laundry and dishes are still podcast time.