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Curls
Trombetta and Luffa squash vines have completely covered the teepee and surrounding fence in the garden. It’s been awhile since we’ve has squash or zucchini on our plates, so hopefully with the heat wave in the past, the vines will begin producing. My kids can hardly find a way into the teepee now, which isn’t much of a loss considering the mosquitoes have us surrounded. Seriously, going outside provides very little pleasure due to all itchy bites. The corn is phasing out and some of the tomato bushes have died off. The bean vines are flowering, but not producing beans. It’s that lull between July and August, where the heat…
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Peak of the Garden
We’ve had several days of rain, and the garden is just booming with life and growth. I don’t know how many squash vines I planted, but it was definitely more than we have room for. They are growing up the teepee, spilling over the fence and trying to take root in the neighbor’s lawn. I’m about ready to pull out some cherry tomato plants as I can no longer keep the ten or more plants picked on time. There are now large open spots where I’m pulling out spent corn and been plants, but I’m not quite ready to turn the plots and get fall crops planted. I need some…
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Upcyled Tomato Stakes to Folding Shade Trellis
I’m a roll creating vertical growing space in the garden. Here we have 12 55″ tomato stakes converted into a folding shade trellis. The stakes from Logan’s were inexpensive, and I already had wood screws on hand. The two end verticals are spaced 45″ apart. The laterals are spaced 10″ apart. The concept is that vining plants will grow up the ladder side, which faces south, providing shade for lettuces that like cooler temperatures. I’m hoping this will give me a head start on my greens. I used just one wood screw at the joint between the verticals and support legs to allow rotation of the support legs so I…
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Melondome Rhymes with Palindrome
Yesterday I was looking at the cantaloup vines thinking how crazy it was to be wasting nearly 20 sqft of garden space on three piddly cantaloups. I watched a neawly discovered YouTube channel: growingyourgreens.com, and John packs in huge amounts of veggie plants on his 1/10th acre lot by growing vertically. After a conversation with some Twitter pals, I decided to tidy UP my canteloup vines and create the “melondome!” I found several pieces of used steel remesh behind the neighbor’s log pile, so I “borrowed” them to made a dome. Four 10′ segments criss-crossed was all it took. The Baby thought it was a fantastic addition to the garden!…
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Upcyled Tomato Stakes to Fan Trellis
Earlier in the summer I purchased several packs of 5′ wood tomato stakes from a home improvement store. There were four stakes leftover, which were set aside in the garage. I have a bean/squash/cucumber tunnel that is rapidly outgrowing itself, so I decided to convert the stakes into a fan trellis. This took no more than 10 minutes. I used a handsaw to cut one stake into 3 segments approximately 2.5′, 1.5′ and 0.5′ in length. I then arranged my fan on the garage floor spacing the segments to leave several inches free at the bottom and nailed them down. With a hammer, I drove the fan into the garden…
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Squash Talk. Climbing “Trombetta”
This morning, which happens to be the Baby’s first birthday, a female blossom opened on the Climbing “Trombetta” Squash, an Italian summer heirloom from Renee’s Garden. There have been a couple other blossoms that never opened and eventually fell off. I had two squash vines and one gourd vine on this trellis, but I lost my other Trombetta vine to pests. I was beyond thrilled to be greeted by this one. Not wanting to risk it going to waste, I got a pipe cleaner to pollinate it by hand. I stagger my squash plantings so as not to lose all my squash plants in the initial wave of pests in…
