3' Tree

My intention is to have a triangle of these trees - 9 or 14 trees total. The base of the tree is composed of 3' tomato stakes purchased from Lowe's. These are green plastic on the outside, about 3/8" diameter. As it turns out, there is a metal tube on the inside to give them strength - I have not examined them close enough to try to determine the metal.

I drilled a small hole (~.10") about 1/2" from the top of three stakes. Using a 4" black wire tie, I attached the three stakes together. It was important to use a black wire tie rather than the traditional white - the white wire ties will deteriorate under the UV of the sun. The black wire ties are UV resistant.

The tapered end of a forth stake was cut off and the remaining length was cut into three equal parts (~12" each). A small hole (~.10") was drilled into the end of each of these rods, about 1/4" from the ends. Another small hole (~.10") was drilled in each of the three 3' stakes about 15.25" from the bottom of the stakes. Two of the short pieces were then wire tied to each of the stakes forming a triangle that holds the 3' pieces rigidly in place.

The finished frame is now ready to add lights.

I wrapped the frame with 3 100 bulb strings, one of yellow, one of green and one of red. The strings are kept together so the three colors are clustered together. As the strings were wrapped around the frame, a 4" black wire tie was used to hold the strings in place - other wise they tended to move up the frame. Spacing is about 2.5" to 3" apart on the rows. Each string is controlled separately.

Yellow only Red only Green only

Red & Yellow Green & Yellow Green & Red All 3 strings

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