~~ A Flea Market Gardening ‘My Big Garden Project’~~
Turning an old corn crib into a garden structure was a dream this gardener needed to fulfill!
Her own dream ‘Cornzebo at last!’
Jeannie Rhodes, who lives and gardens near Warsaw, Indiana, saw Myra Glandon’s ‘Cornzebo‘ on Flea Market Gardening she knew she had to have one! As soon as she had the chance to get her own, she went into action. She says, “Myra’s corn crib was the inspiration for this one. As soon as I saw hers I began looking for one!” Wouldn’t you have liked to hear the conversation when she proposed this idea to hubby?
Jeannie’s gazebo made from a corncrib
The process involved a lot of hard work and challenges, but it was worth it! We bought our corncrib from a man named Dr. Graber who owns Craig’s Blueberries. He had a second one, but we chose this one because it was in better condition. The most difficult part is getting it ready to move and the actual transfer to your property.
Building the corncrib gazebo
“It collapsed like a taco when my husband tipped it over with our pickup truck so he had to bolt landscape timbers together and bolt them to the sides to regain the original round shape. He also used the come along to help restore the shape. We had a man on each end using a skid loader with a boom to lift it on and off the trailer.”
She says, “I had planned to set it closer to the road, but property line issues forced us to set it where it is. We could have set it to the back of our property, but I wanted to be able to see it from my kitchen window.”
Digging a base for the floor
Building the cornzebo base
Jeannie says, the corn crib finally is home and waiting for spring to complete stone floor. Jeannie says, “It’s held down with concrete anchors that go deep into the ground. We used the come-along to keep the shape while moving.”
Installing a gravel floor for the gazebo
In the beginning….we decided against a flagstone floor because of the expense. We ended up laying down a layer of crushed limestone and putting a layer of pea gravel on top. I read about limestone/pea gravel paths in Organic Gardening magazine. They’re used a lot inEurope. It would have never occurred to me to use them together. It has worked out great. I use a garden rake to smooth the floor when necessary.
You can see the gravel floor here and the rooster gate!
There’s no screen on the sides, just the wire from the corn crib, so it’s not exactly mosquito-proof. It’s more of a rustic gazebo. It has plenty of shade though. We put a gate on the corn crib gazebo to keep the neighborhood dogs out! It also works great to keep our little pug inside, too.
Decorating the Cornzebo
Jeannie decorated the ‘walls’ with stained glass windows. She says, “We have another stained glass window to put up. Most of the glass came from an old box that belonged to my grandpa. I found the two old windows at the local Habitat for Humanity store…$5 each!”
I bought the glider for a song…only $35
Jeannie found the glider at a bargain price that would make any of us proud. She says, “The $35 dollar glider was was a little rusty so I had it sandblasted and painted bright blue…my favorite color.”
The Cornzebo phone is not real but looks great here.
The phone here is just for show and the old sign came from inside my grandpa’s blacksmith shop. By the end of last summer metal advertising signs encircled the inside of entire metal band that goes around the corn crib. I attached them with those little extra-strong magnets.
Another view of the inside
The fun part, planting around the outside
Jeannie planted three different vines around the corn crib gazebo, including ‘Love in a Puff and Purple Hyacinth bean. “I’m anxious for them to start blooming!”
A Purple Hyacinth Bean Vine growing up the side. I planted several different vines around the perimeter.
Jeannie Rhodes’s ‘Love in a Puff’ vine
Joe Pye Weed
Inside the corn crib gazebo
Finished corn crib gazebo
“Putting up our Cornzebo was a labor of love. Anyone could do the same thing…you just need to find a corn crib, cut it in half, and move it to your property,” Jeannie tells us. “It was a lot of hard work, but worth it.”
3 Comments
I love this idea and have a quick question for you. How did you anchor it to the ground?
Hi Theresa,
I could contact Myra Glandon about this,…she made the original.
Myra anchored the cornzebo with metal hook type pieces about 2 ft long. Myra suggests, though, calling your zoning board, because she says, Jeannie Rhodes who also created a cornzebo, had to anchor hers in a different way.
Myra also says, her situation was easier since the cornzebo was relatively close to her house and she also did not have a poured foundation for it.
We used ground stakes. Think we purchased them at Menards. They go into the ground straight. It has a pointed hinge thing on the end and when it’s pulled back it spreads out underground. We’ve had some pretty high wind and have never had any problems with it coming out of the ground. We used six of them. Each one is supposed to support several thousand pounds.