Sunday, June 7, 2009

Back to the Drawing Board

The time is fast approaching that I will need to have all my trellis work completed. That also means I'd better make up my mind what I'm going to build! I have 3 beds that require some form of support. I thought I had two of the three figured out. Two of three has turned into ZERO of three. I was using the sticks for the rattlesnake beans and pickling cukes, up until I discovered the tree branches were rooting. For the other pole beans and tomatoes, I was planning to use a stack of 2x2's I have on hand (a freebie from last summer). It seemed so simple, too simple in fact. The plan was to build 4 sets of these...


This is not going to work. It's completely unstable and when there are plants on it, I think it could come crashing down during a good windstorm. Unlike some fellow gardeners who very much enjoy overengineering these types of projects (I'm sure this post will make at least one man in Alabama cringe) I tend to go with more of a "wing it with what you've got until you really know what you want" sort of method. Sometimes, it doesn't work out so well, so back to the drawing board it is. I also still need to decide how I'm going to support the vining plants. I've really got to get crackin', the pumpkin is starting to grow.

The potatoes are growing well it seems. I'll be adding the second board on my bin before too long now. I'm curious to see the differences in production between the potatoes in the containers, the bin and the ones in the ground.



Most of the tomatoes are doing well. I lost the one Roma, but the others are all hanging in. I have one little guy in here who's lagging behind but it was not looking well when I planted it, so it's at least an improvement.




The Galinas Gold Cherry which was the early leader in growth before transplanting isn't doing as well as it was. It has a little leaf curl and just isn't thriving like some of the others. It is still growing and is about to bloom again. Hopefully, it straightens itself out.


The black cherry (not pictured) which looked bad after transplanting seems to be doing well now.


These are the remaining Rattlesnake beans (since the bunny dug in behind them). I'm going to wait a bit longer to see if more sprout before I fill in the blank spots. I had them planted around the sticks that I had to pull out. Crazy trees.

On a positive note, the Sugar Snaps are SO close! Not much longer now- I can hardly wait!!


To those of you who use Blogger, I can't drag & drop anything in compose mode anymore (for the past few weeks) for some reason. Anyone else having this problem?

5 comments:

Liisa said...

Hi Amy,

Best of luck on the trellis dilema.
Your not the only one...I'm not able to use the drag and dorp and it is a pain. I have to go into the HTML and cut and paste my photos where I want them.

Liisa

Jeff Vandiver said...

I'm cringing....ha! Well, I think it's great to use what is available - as I do lots of times....It'sreally according to what you intend to grow vertically. If I can help in any way, please don't hesitate to ask.

Amy said...

EG, I really wasn't picking on you (but yes, I was referring to you). I just know you built some darn sturdy trellises, and so far, I have not...

Jeff Vandiver said...

Amy - the only reason I build all of my trellises very strong, is it allows me to grow anything on them. My thinking, is that it's better to be prepared for anything. However, I do enjoy building sturdy things! Ha!I knew you weren't picking on me....

Just Jenn said...

Things are lookin' good for you - it's been so cold there it's nice to see some pretty greens in your garden!

I just recently started harvesting the snap peas - they're so good!