Since I wrote a paper on Buckmister Fuller in college, I've been enthusiastic about geodesic domes. They've always been in the back of my mind as something I really liked but had no space or practical use for. That changed last year when we bought 100 acres of mostly raw land in Kentucky. And last winter when I made a passing comment in a reddit thread that someone had built a geodesic dome from scratch out of wood, someone responded telling me about about the Hubs kit. Given the low price of the kit, and my guess that I'd be able to get 2x2s inexpensively (as cheap as they can be during the record high prices), I pulled the trigger and ordered the hubs kit. One of the interesting features about the hubs kit is that you can make the sticks as long as you want, as long as they're proportionate to each other. After a bit of back and forth and some math, I figured the ideal ratio to make the most out of an 8' board. If you're curious, my stick lengths were 1295 mm(50.98” ) and 1135mm (44.69”) , this gave me under 1/4" of waste per board. As the dome required 35 long sticks, and 30 short, I was stuck with waste in the length of 5 short sticks, but I'm always coming up uses for scrap wood in the garden, so no big deal. I intended to get 2x2 lumber (about the largest diameter these hubs will support), but all of the 2x2s at the store looked awful, so I saved some money and got 1x2s. The hubs kit came to $175, and the 8' 1x2s cost me about $75 (this was an outrageous price btw). I picked up a quart of black paint for a darker look and to somewhat protect the wood, and painted all the sticks, then a few days later, had my husband give me a hand holding them while I screwed the ball joints into the ends of them. A few days after that, my mom and I assembled the dome in 45 minutes, and we were set!
The plan for this dome has always been to function as a trellis/arbor for some hardy kiwi vines, however, in mid-May, it was getting a little late to mail order and then plant perennial vines on land where we do not yet have running water for easy irrigation. So I left the trellis bare until I got my stuff together and got annuals planted. I planted what were supposed to be dwarf butternut squash (and maybe they were a little smaller than others I've seen?), 2 plants that were in the same pot. They took a little while to really start growing, but they've taken off. One thing that may be helpful is I got a stretchy rope (apparently this is called shock chord) and wrapped it around the sticks so I could tuck the vine under it to hold it on as I trained it around the sticks.
I was hoping that the vine would be thick enough to provide meaninful shade, which it didn't really. I have hopes that the kiwis will fill in enough that it'll be a nice shady spot to sit. So far this year, we've harvested 24 squash from it, and have several more ripening.
Overall, I'm very happy with the design, the height is perfect, I can just barely touch the top when I stand on my tippy toes (I'm 5'8") so I feel like I'm making the most of the space while still retaining easy management.
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