Bonsai Pillar Stand

Adair M

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I personally am not a fan of monkey poles. Each pole holds one tree. A simple bench has a lot more flexibility.

If you’re set on monkey poles, then just ignore this. But I found these benches to be really sturdy, easy to build, and if you want to move it, you can!

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The bench is three 4x6s. Mine are 12 feet long. You could get shorter ones, or cut them to whatever length you want. The columns are concrete “wall bricks”. 4 to a layer. They’re heavy, the columns are sturdy.

I chose to use 4x6s because they won’t sag.

I can change the height of the benches easily by adding, or taking away, layers of bricks. The key is to start with a flat and level underpayment for the columns.
 

penumbra

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The sole purpose of a monkey pole is to highlight a specific specimen. It works like a frame for a piece of wall art. I have a 10 x 4 , a 6 x 4 bench mounted on the same 6 x 6 piers that I use for a couple of my monkey poles. I also have a t shaped bench that is 14 x 2 feet with a t section that is 6 x 2 feet. I love my benches and they do hold a lot, but I am quite smitten with my monkey poles and will be building more.
 

Adair M

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The sole purpose of a monkey pole is to highlight a specific specimen. It works like a frame for a piece of wall art. I have a 10 x 4 , a 6 x 4 bench mounted on the same 6 x 6 piers that I use for a couple of my monkey poles. I also have a t shaped bench that is 14 x 2 feet with a t section that is 6 x 2 feet. I love my benches and they do hold a lot, but I am quite smitten with my monkey poles and will be building more.
Sure. They do put the spotlight on individual trees. And they do keep you from overcrowding the benches.

I suppose I am too lazy to have build a monkey pole for each tree! Lol!!!
 

penumbra

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Sure. They do put the spotlight on individual trees. And they do keep you from overcrowding the benches.

I suppose I am too lazy to have build a monkey pole for each tree! Lol!!!
Everyone has room for a monkey pole or two. Often it is well used in a place other than that where your main bonsai display garden is. Our front yard was torn up from foundation work and a new porch but when I re-landscape it this fall, I will probably end up with a monkey pole or two in the middle of an English Cottage Garden. One thing I learned from 50 years of landscape design, was how to use elements like these and others. BTW, your bonsai are amazing. I love mine but have nothing to compare with any of yours. Still, it is about the journey.
 

Nishant

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I prefer the monkey poles as you can go around to do checks on the plant. In a small garden space becomes a premium and bench reserves lot more space. I may still have to go the bench way. Setting up these poles requires digging up and I am worried this may damage the roots of Pyracantha and Wistera as I have to set-up about ten of them.
 

penumbra

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I prefer the monkey poles as you can go around to do checks on the plant. In a small garden space becomes a premium and bench reserves lot more space. I may still have to go the bench way. Setting up these poles requires digging up and I am worried this may damage the roots of Pyracantha and Wistera as I have to set-up about ten of them.
You are not going to adversely affect your pyra or wist. They are great plants but also cultivated weeds.
 

Adair M

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I prefer the monkey poles as you can go around to do checks on the plant. In a small garden space becomes a premium and bench reserves lot more space. I may still have to go the bench way. Setting up these poles requires digging up and I am worried this may damage the roots of Pyracantha and Wistera as I have to set-up about ten of them.
You don’t have to put benches up against a fence. A free standing fence allows access from both sides.

One of my reasons for preferring a bench is I want to install an automated water system, therefore a single feeder line can service several trees. If I had 30 monkey pokes, that’s a lot of piping!
 

Adair M

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I agree that a well placed monkey pole with a fabulous tree that looks good from all angles can be the highlight of a garden.
 

Brian Van Fleet

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One of my reasons for preferring a bench is I want to install an automated water system, therefore a single feeder line can service several trees. If I had 30 monkey pokes, that’s a lot of piping!
Not necessarily...but I have been considering replacing my front row of monkey piles with longer benches for versatility.
45EABB48-2398-49F1-A931-AF8624D8B7C3.jpegAC410F9D-24BA-40EE-A5A6-91E919026342.jpeg
 

Adair M

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Not necessarily...but I have been considering replacing my front row of monkey piles with longer benches for versatility.
View attachment 249224View attachment 249225

Yeah, I want to use “spitters”. Smaller sprayers that use less water, and are more directional.

Your garden looks lice, Brian. Is that the new place or the one you sold?
 

penumbra

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It is so beautiful the way it is Brian. Might you consider doing a bench elsewhere?
 

Brian Van Fleet

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Yeah, I want to use “spitters”. Smaller sprayers that use less water, and are more directional.

Your garden looks lice, Brian. Is that the new place or the one you sold?
I deliberated on the smaller emitters, but would be concerned they don’t stay put well. And as much as I move the trees around, my luck I’d miss getting one back in. My irrigation guy is meticulous and the coverage is just about perfect. This is an older shot of the current house. Come visit sometime. Good luck at Shohin...keep Dave in line, or vice versa.
It is so beautiful the way it is Brian. Might you consider doing a bench elsewhere?
Thanks, considering lots of options now, including moving the whole setup to somewhere else in the yard. Who knows...
 

Adair M

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I deliberated on the smaller emitters, but would be concerned they don’t stay put well. And as much as I move the trees around, my luck I’d miss getting one back in. My irrigation guy is meticulous and the coverage is just about perfect. This is an older shot of the current house. Come visit sometime. Good luck at Shohin...keep Dave in line, or vice versa.
Thanks, considering lots of options now, including moving the whole setup to somewhere else in the yard. Who knows...
I’m used to the spitters, that’s the way Boon had his place in Hayward set up. He had both overhead sprinklers and spitters, but as it turns out, the spitters would have done the job more efficiently as a higher percentage of the water goes into the pots. A typical set up is two spitters per pot, one on each side. Extremely large trees, or trees with large trunks that block the flow might get more. They only had to run for about two minutes.

It just became a habit, when getting a tree off the bench, the first thing to do was locate the spitters, pull them out of the pots, and stick them into little holes drilled in the wood bench. When returning the tree, set it back, then replace the spitters. It’s all what you get used to.
 

Nishant

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I got another idea to have monkey poles without having to dig but still quite stable ( at least I think that would be the case ) I always had this idea: just sharing it here to see what people say.

The idea is to lay a timber joist, a heavy one and lay it flat on ground. Screw monkeys poles onto this timber joist. May be add a perpendicular bars on end of joist to add extra stability.

What say?
 

penumbra

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I got another idea to have monkey poles without having to dig but still quite stable ( at least I think that would be the case ) I always had this idea: just sharing it here to see what people say.

The idea is to lay a timber joist, a heavy one and lay it flat on ground. Screw monkeys poles onto this timber joist. May be add a perpendicular bars on end of joist to add extra stability.

What say?
No doubt it can be made to work but it is not the look I am going for. Now if you planted a ground cover to hide the bottom (joist) it would be fine. But I bet that leveling the joist would be more of a challenge than digging a post hole in many cases.
 
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