Gardening Stakes

So, you plug these things into ground and than you can tie cord to them for your climbing crops to grow. If you have better naming than "Gardening Spikes" let me know in the comment section since I'm not so sure.

Initially I planned to include this thing as a demonstration for my upcoming Workbench Board instructable, but in midways I decidet to make it it's own thing.

As an initial material I used some wooden stakes (or planks). They were used at the garden at some point and stored outside, so they were a bit on a weathered side. I cleaned them up a bit with a hand plane, and while I'm using my workbench board, it's not a neccessary part.

After cleaning I cut them into equal ~20cm long pieces.

Then I chamfered corners with a plane.

And the top part was chamfered with a knife.

I cut a notch 1/3 deep on one side roughyi 1 inch from the top.

At this I was using a vice to hold the details.

Using a draw knife I have created a declining area leading to the noth. This operation can also be accomplished with regular knife or chisel.

The opposite side then was sharpened to a wedge. This operation was performed on the same sode the notch is located. It's kind of importent.

This operation can also be acomplished with knife or axe. At this point the shaping of the spike is finished.

There's a saying: "A cheep person pays twice". Rephrasing it I use to say: "Lazy person does the work twice". I don't want to make new spikes next year so I carry about protecting them for as long as... reasonable.

I'm covering all spikes with two coats of boiled sunflower oil. It's like boiled linseed oil but cheeper. For the first coat I'm diluting oil with solvent quiet a bit for it to soak deep into wood, and for second more thick oil was used. It was few hours between coats.

After leaving the stakes for few minutes after second coat of oil I wiped the excess oil with paper towel, and at this poin the finishing was... finished.

I'm growing chinese beans for few years and the are great stuff. They are climbing plants and have to have some support to grow, so I have some T shaped posts installed.

Firstly, I'm driving stakes into ground in between the plants at some angle to earth. The notch should be facing down. The cordage get's tied to the first spike. The notch on the spike prevents the cord from sliding off. The cordage goes up to the post bar and then back to next spike. I'm making a loop around each spike.

I don't know how useful this instructable will be but, I imagine, quiet a lot of gardeners have to deal with this sorts of stuff.

Anyway, this is it for now, thanks for your attention and have a nice spikes.

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