Do you have a dollar store? I lucked out and when ours closed down they had them for half price. Half a buck for a bag of 12 wasn't to bad. :-)

Is your location remote from other larger towns? I am just wondering if purchasing bamboo which can deteriot over a couple of years, is really worth the effort & the money of obtaining them by mail order? My thoughts are why not take a trip to one of the towns with a hardware store and purchase more durable materials - perhaps like fencing posts and chicken wire - or metal posts like rebars. As for large quantities of top soil (in response to your other message), unless you have garden centres willing to deliver to your area, you might probably start asking the locals if they happen to know of farmers who may be able to sell you some good soil. You may end up having to work out the soil improvement yourself, by adding compost and other materials depending on your present soil quality.

Ianna

We are several hours driving time from any large city.

The local Dollar Store only carries the 2ft lengths of green stained stakes. I want the 6 foot lengths.

I guess I will have to resort going into the woods on our property and just cut down some young poplar trees, of which there is an abundance.

Soil improvement not a problem. We have sandy and slightly loamy soil which just needs compost. It's just that there's an area behind the greenhouse which I'd like to build up to start planting and buying bags of ground isn't feasible for that project, thus the desire to get a couple truckloads of soil delivered. Many years ago before we bought the house, someone dumped some junk dirt full of rocks in piles which were never leveled out and now is populated with spruce and poplar. Behind that is a gentle slope where many years of rocks, tree limbs and leaves were tossed, like a garden garbage heap. It faces north and would make an ideal fern, woodland and shade plant garden. It slopes down about 10 feet and the very bottom would make a good bog garden, then the ground slopes up again. Might be hard to see in the picture.

{{gwi:520901}}

I love the expanse of your property. If you do mail order - do you get regular deliveries? Is your location in Ontario?

anyway back to the question on topsoil. Since you have a sandy mix, you need not only compost but possibly soil with some clay components. I do hope you get access to someone close by to deliver more soil YOu only need to add more compost to it and perhaps some composted manure to make a great bed.

As for using local materials for your pea trellis, it's a good idea.

You might want to begin a project of making your own compost and if you do happen to know of local ranches, stables or barns, you might be able to secure horse,sheep, cow manures.

i agree that the north facing garden would be ideal for a shade garden and bog garden (hope it's not too many mosquitos in the area)

cearaqc , probably summers are to short in your area ? it must be very cold, aren't you scare to live there, there must be a lot of wolfs? don't you miss people, I would like to visit you, just in the summer:-)
Are you far away from me, Brampton, Ontario? My house is 44 Km from down town Toronto, Queen's Park.

Don't be surprised if the poplar twigs root up! I know that willow will. Still, there will be lots of long straight suckers available..I say go for it!