Intro post and a question

[untonuggan]

Hello! I am a secondary gardener in my household, as I live with a Master Gardener who has staked out most of the gardening territory + I have chronic health issues that sometimes get in the way. (And sometimes I ignore them, like today, and plant a camelia, and then my hips hurt. But I wanted my hands in the soil.)

I had a question that is not strictly gardening related, but sort of about a gardening hardscaping project. I wanted to build this rustic garden tuteur as a cool looking structure and thing for vines to grow up. Plus, we have a bunch of extra branches lying around from some serious pruning we had to do when we moved in. (Too many trees close together = not good for trees.)

Here's my question: the garden tuteur instructions call for peeling bark off the logs before making the structure, but I think this might be rather hard on my hands with the chronic pain/inflammation. I think it would look equally cool with the bark still on, but I don't know if that would end up rotting as time went on...or if I would mind. Any thoughts?

Mods - sorry if you decide that hardscaping questions are inappropriate, I'll try posting elsewhere if you deem it necessary.

Comments

[chalcopyrite]

What the bark is likely to do, I think, is dry and crack off on its own. How long that takes, and what it looks like, will probably depend on what kind of wood it is. You might get dampness/mold accumulating under the bark, but if that's happening, the bark's coming loose anyway, and you can finish peeling it off more easily. (And if the bark isn't loose.... it's not growing crud under it anyway!)

Short version: I *think* it should be fine, and it'll just look more "rustic" than the stripped branches.

[teapot_rabbit]

You said pretty much everything I was going to say. :) Smaller branches with thinner bark would be less likely to have issues with bark cracking and peeling off on its own. In addition, bark doesn't always peel off easily - it depends on the species of tree and the season. So go crazy, OP! I think the tuteur would look just fine with the bark still on.

[untonuggan]

Thank you! \o/

[untonuggan]

Thank you for the info! I think it would look kind of cool half-cracked so, I'll try this when I have spoons again!