Q&A: Practical and Pretty

Question:
Can you please tell me where I could purchase or view the wire garden cages by Carl Ulmschneider - saw a picture in Pacific NW Magazine this morning and fell in love with them!!

Thank-you,

Kristine Hill

Answer: The artistic wire cages you're admiring are in Alf and Shirley Collins' Whidbey Island garden, profiled in last Sunday's Pacific Northwest magazine. Retired engineer and Whidbey resident Carl Ulmschneider makes a variety of styles and sizes of these practical, beautiful cages - you can use them as scaffolds for climbing plants, to protect plants from deer and rabbits, and/or as garden art. In the summer, I stick mine in a raised bed and grow sweet peas up it, then in late autumn I move it around to the front door and cover it with little white lights - a perfect winter-long Christmas tree.  You can find the cages shown below at Museo Gallery on First Street in Langley;  Cultus Bay Nursery on the island also carries Carl's cages. Well worth a trip to Whidbey Island to check out Carl's work.....

"Brita"
120"x36"

"Trellis Concave, Trellis Convex"
108"x40" each

"Vessels"
various sizes

 

Comments

[Kimberly Frappier]

Hi Val,
Was just looking at the photo from your garden featuring your stock tank raised beds and the trellises behind them. Did you build the trellises yourself. If not, where did you get them. I am an avid gardener but not such a great hand at building the solid elements of the garden. My trellises generally consist of bamboo poles and hemp twine, but love the look and function of those pictured in your garden.
Thanks,
Kim

[valerie Easton]

Hi Kim,
I had a carpenter build the screens you see behind the stock tanks in the photo. They are just cedar framed, hog wire screens - couldn't be more simple. In winter they're an architectural feature of the garden and in summer they're covered with wisteria, a climbing rose, clematis and sweet peas....they're very heavy duty and durable...hope this helps...
Val