He Made Palm Trees For A Backyard Pool

He Made Palm Trees For A Backyard Pool AG WORLD “I thought other FARM SHOW readers might get a kick out of the palm trees I made for around my backyard swimming pool ” says Doug Schiller Belvidere Ill     Schiller says his wife said one day that it would be nice if there were palm trees around the 20 by 35-ft pool However he lives in Illinois so real palm trees were out of the question     “I looked online for artificial palm trees but found they’re very expensive so I decided to make my own using plastic drain tile 55-gal barrels and real coconuts ” says Schiller     The homemade trees look realistic with trunks that bend and taper toward the top Real coconuts hang from them and one tree even has a plastic monkey climbing up the trunk     “I’ve made 3 palm trees one 7 ft tall and the others about 12 ft tall It took a lot of trial and error to build them but it was worth the effort ” says Schiller     He used 55-gal plastic oil barrels to make the leaves He makes a pattern and then uses a jigsaw to cut around the barrel creating strips 25 to 36 in long and 8 to 10 in wide depending on the size of the barrel “I usually get 4 leaves from each barrel ” says Schiller     The curvature of the barrel is tighter than the curvature of the leaf so he bends a 3/16-in thick by 3/4-in wide metal strap into the curvature he wants and then pop rivets it onto the bottom side of the leaf “The metal straps give the leaves the right arch and also add strength ” says Schiller     To make bumps along the leaf’s edges he puts one end of the metal strap into a vise and then uses a blow torch to heat the plastic so he can bend it “Once the plastic cools it gets really hard It’s amazing how much stronger the bends make the leaves ” says Schiller     He uses 8 to 10-in dia drain tile for the tree trunks To taper the trunk he cuts pie-shaped pieces out of the sides and then uses wire or zip strips to narrow up the diameter     Lengths of aluminum or steel pipe run through the center of the drain tile to support the trunk To bend the trunk he lays the tree on a bench and puts a block of wood under each end Then he runs ratchet straps around the center of the trunk and pulls the drain tile to one side until it bends “One of the trees has a really big bend in it On that tree I actually bent the pipe before I put it into the culvert ” says Schiller     Once the drain tile is bent he breaks up Styrofoam packaging material into small pieces then shoves the pieces inside the drain tile until it’s packed full Then every foot or so he drills holes into the drain tile’s grooves and squirts Great Stuff aerosol spray foam through them “The foam expands and packs the drain tile full which forces the bend to stay in place ” says Schiller     The next step is to wrap lengths of rope around all the grooves which smoothes out the trunk and also adds strength     The tree trunks are anchored in cement about 3 ft deep in the ground Both the monkey and the real coconuts are roped to the tree     All components are brushed with a fiberglass resin and then covered with fiberglass mesh More fiberglass resin is applied on top of the mesh and finally everything is primed and painted     He took photos as he went along and sells plans “There are a lot of shortcuts on what you can do ” he says     Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Doug Schiller 345 Biester Dr Belvidere Ill ph 815 979-4591; flagcaddie@gmail com

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