Deck Gardening

Gardening on decks  has made a comeback that rivals the comebacks of Brett Favre, George Foreman or Evander Holyfield.  The new “green” movement, combined with the 100-mile diet has stimulated backyarders and urban farmers to rejuvenate their green space into black and green (as in soil and veggies).

But the new gardening enthusiasm has opened myriad new prospects for petunias and venues for veggies.  Across urban North America, rooftops are blooming with flowers, glowing with grass and topped with trees, as green roof technologies offer an assortment of benefits.  Indoor gardens, hydroponics and soilless systems grace countertops and coffee tables.  Even patios, verandas and decks relinquish space to pots and planters of all sorts.

This gardening phenomenon (don’t call it a craze!) offers even more opportunity for avid green-spacers.  Built-in growing stations – larger than pots, and with watering or light-guiding systems – are found on deck edges and parapets of balconies.  One of the most novel approaches is to design eco-friendly fences with recesses and alcoves for favourite flowers or fruit bushes. 

More than decorative, these planting spots add a chance to include fresh fruits and vegetables to your city diet, fresh from your own city farm. 

Some of these planters have been incorporated into wooden fences, offering a break from the visual straight-line perspective that conventional walled fences present.  Others have been built into stone retaining walls, or dry-stack fencing.  Still more fit nicely into cinder-block or split rail fences.  Indeed, planters constructed into fence lines can be included in any material system, from wood to PVC. 

Planters that have been included in the integrity of a fence also may add stability, offering reinforcement against wind load, and a solid footing for longer lines of continuous-run fencing.

But garden fences offer the ability to combine a variety of fence styles and materials in one run.  Simply by including climbing vines, like clematis, grapes, hops or scarlet runner, the galvanized chain link fence, open horizontal board fence or even split rail fence is provided with a decorative façade that hides the plainness of these materials.

Constructing these fences, though, requires a professional touch and a personal flair for eye appeal.  For this reason, homeowners are urged to work with a quality fence builder, to ensure that their dreams and mental images are realized in the final design.

While the days of back lot vegetable gardens are not likely to return to the prominence that they had in the 1940s, the new gardener sees significantly more options and avenues to explore his own inner gardener.  And fences, no longer, are a barrier to garden growth!

Ground Screws Versus Piles

The use of ground screws in fence construction has been a widely accepted practice for more than a decade, yet the use of ground screws for decks has not been as well embraced.  However, these innovative products offer significant advantages over conventional piles & posts or pad and post systems.  They have evolved considerably in recent years, with a wider array of types and widths.

Consumers are well advised, however, to either consult with a knowledgeable supplier or research the best type of screw to use with each specific application, to avoid the risks associated with employing a screw, pile or post that is inadequate for the task.  Many do-it-yourself decks are supported, in large measure, on good faith and not good foundation!

Simple, one-level smaller decks may well be adequately supported by a 4 by 4 post on a concrete deck pad.  Even then, though, improper levelling can lead to unbalanced load distribution and shifting.

One step beyond pad and post supports is pile or pile and post supports.  Piles offer the advantage over pads of distributing the weight into the soil below the deck, and providing an underpinning that is less likely to shift with varying soil moisture content and heavy deck traffic.  In most cases for larger or multi-level decks, pile systems are the minimum standard to ensure stability, durability and strength.

But ground screws go beyond pile or pile-and-post construction, particularly for the home handyman.  Simple ground screws can be easily removed and repositioned, unlike piles. With no digging, significant manual labour is eliminated.

Ground screws act in a similar manner to wood or metal screws.  Their spiral allows for less force to be needed to insert the screw into the soil, while the increased surface area of the screw face provides more stable contact with the binding soil.  This results in decreased frost heave and shifting due to dry or wet soil conditions.  On the other hand, the screw is not suitable for some soils, such as those with lots of rubble, loose compact such as gravel or sand, shale, sandstone, dense or frozen soils.

In spite of these drawbacks, though, screws are more adaptable, and casnn be inserted in close proximity to overhangs, where piles could not be driven.  Screws can be easily installed on slopes, and the light-weight equipment used for most applications is less disruptive than heavy pile-driving machinery.

Less digging and soil disruption means less waste left over and less cleanup and less noise during construction.  Both screws and pre-cast pilings can be subjected to structural load immediately after installation, whereas poured-in-place piles require drying time.

In spite of the numerous advantage of screws, though, factors such as cost, building code requirements and aesthetic considerations need to be factored into decision-making.  To ensure that your deck supports are properly designed, we advise that you consult with a building professional, to determine the application that is most appropriate.