Doing projects in my yard make me really feel connected to the Earth and to my homestead.  Yesterday afternoon I created a natural wall at the entrance to my east property.  After the tree cutters brought their machine through last month, a path could be seen from the street. I didn’t want anyone walking down it and into my yard, so I used bamboo stalks, grapevine, potato vine and oak branch deadfall to weave a natural privacy wall. I don’t prune the wild grapevines here until I’m ready to use them. I move them out of the way and route them along shepherd’s hooks to let them grow long.  I wanted the wall to look very natural and random so if someone glanced in from the street, it would look uninteresting and uninviting.  I began by placing several 12-20 foot long cut bamboo poles horizontally between trees that are about ten feet apart.  The bamboo are about as big around as my arm.  I place them where the trees have forks in their trunks: about head, shoulder  and waist height.  Then I pulled up a bunch of wild potato vine and used it to weave a loose wall in between the bamboo rods.  Next I strategically placed cut palmetto fronds and began weaving the live grapevine to secure them in place.  The vines will cover the branches by the end of year as they grow.

RELATED: Weaving my nature walls