I recently purchased some silver coloured metal garden stakes. They took just four weeks to rust which is what I wanted. Your obelisk would look lovely planted with a climbing Thunbergia alata Orange Beauty. Or Rose Warm Welcome
I have worked as a Gardener for 24 years. My latest garden is a new build garden on heavy clay.
I'm so untrendy... I hate rust and never knew it was in fashion. We got some Hammerite paint recently and I have been scouring the garden for metal things to paint shiny black.
To me, rust = tetanus, though of course that wouldn't be on new stuff straight from a factory.
I grow Libertia Peregrinans with Cosmos Apricot Lemonade , there is a gap in the border so I have added an old rusty oil can. There is a lovely rusty dark orange Petunia [don't know it's name] and Coleus Rustic Orange all work well with rust. Apologies to @B3.
I always wear gloves when moving rusty objects, you do need to be careful. The stakes I purchased were silver and from a forge, there was a note to say they would be rusty in just a few weeks. There was no rain but that is what happened.
I have worked as a Gardener for 24 years. My latest garden is a new build garden on heavy clay.
I always wear gloves when moving rusty objects, you do need to be careful.
Why? Careful of what?
Metal doesn't smell, but iron salts act as a catalyst on skin oils to make them go rancid. This is the smell. Stains, but comes off easily with soap. How do you clean your gloves, and how carefully do you handle them?
Same when I use FeSO4 on lawn moss.
location: Surrey Hills, England, ex-woodland acidic sand. "Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
There used to be a belief that rust could give you tetanus. This was based on descriptions of the sort of wound that can result in tetanus, i.e. a deep penetrating wound from something dirty such as stepping on a rusty nail. Stepping on a rusty nail in a rotten plank of wood in an old cow byre was a common way of contracting it. I knew someone who had exactly that sort of injury back in the 70s and it was treated very seriously indeed by the hospital.
However, it's the bacteria from the dirty environment that contains the tetanus, not the rust itself which is no more dangerous than anything else in a wound ... but rust and bacteria are often bedfellows on farms etc.
Thankfully most folk are sensible enough to keep their tetanus jabs up to date, particularly if they're gardeners.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
@bede You are obviously highly intelligent as all your posts suggest. I am sure you have heard of Osteomyelitis. No need to reply I don't intend contacting you again.
I have worked as a Gardener for 24 years. My latest garden is a new build garden on heavy clay.
Posts
To me, rust = tetanus, though of course that wouldn't be on new stuff straight from a factory.
I always wear gloves when moving rusty objects, you do need to be careful. The stakes I purchased were silver and from a forge, there was a note to say they would be rusty in just a few weeks. There was no rain but that is what happened.
Metal doesn't smell, but iron salts act as a catalyst on skin oils to make them go rancid. This is the smell. Stains, but comes off easily with soap. How do you clean your gloves, and how carefully do you handle them?
Same when I use FeSO4 on lawn moss.
"Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
However, it's the bacteria from the dirty environment that contains the tetanus, not the rust itself which is no more dangerous than anything else in a wound ... but rust and bacteria are often bedfellows on farms etc.
Thankfully most folk are sensible enough to keep their tetanus jabs up to date, particularly if they're gardeners.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.