Garden Update - April 2009
We are upgrading our garden again. As you can see, we are adding trellises to each raised bed, of which we now have 5 (one behind the fence). There was a bit of a start up cost, with all the rebar, PVC pipes, lumber, and soil mix, but hopefully we will see a great increase in produce output. We have already seen a great difference with garlic, which is the only thing we have grown so far under both conventional methods and also square foot gardening methods. Two beds currently have nothing in them because we do not have vermiculite for them yet.
Herb / perennial bed is doing great. Surviving from last year are bee balm, sage, yarrow, thyme, lavender, peppermint, oregano (which is creeping more than the creeping thyme), creeping thyme (finally starting to creep), and on the very right is one of our fledgling blueberry bushes.
Overwintered bed. Garlic, onions, carrots. Now has two yellow Brandywine tomato plants and three sweet peppers (one California Wonder and two unknown heirlooms that we got as a complimentary gift from a seed company).
We bought another fig tree (brown Turkey) to complement the dwarf one (Italian honey) that we got last year. Peas and Winter Density lettuce (under the row covers) are doing great. Aphids have already found the peas, but hopefully the ladybugs that seem to pop up in the rose bush will find the buffet. The trash cans and tubs you see contain our potatoes. (the ones in the trash cans seem a bit waterlogged - we poked a bunch of drainage holes a long time ago)
Our first bed, the only one with a completed trellis. This one will have pole beans crawling on it, hopefully. Planted two paste tomato plants (Heinz) and one hot pepper in this bed.
Our little strawberry patch. Hopefully we will get a macroscopic amount of strawberries from here. Aforementioned rose bush shades them a bit.
This is what's behind our fence, in no-man's-land. It is still technically our property, so we are making use of it. Our small compost pile is on the left, and it is wonderfully and disgustingly full of big fat earthworms :D
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Maybe this is a stupid question -- but what is a trellis good for?
A trellis provides support as plants grow up. That means that any plant that will keep growing up so long as it is supported: beans, indeterminate tomatoes, some types of squash, watermelon, some varieties of peas, grapes, etc. Some plants like grapes and legumes will grow little feelers that loop around any support they can find. Others, like indeterminate tomatoes, don't grow feelers. They will instead grow as high as they can in their support structure (usually a tomato cage). Here is a picture of tomatoes growing up a trellis rather than in a tomato cage. Obviously, trellises are wonderful things when your garden is short on space, as ours is. And here is a very cool picture of watermelons hanging from a trellis. :-)
Our trellises will be holding two types of beans (Kentucky Wonder and Laudermilk, a pole butter bean), our indeterminate tomatoes (Mortgage Lifter and Yellow Brandywine), watermelon, winter squash, and Korean melon (참외). Assuming they all grow. And assuming the trellises hold. ;-)
I have never thought of using a trellis for tomatoes or watermelon! Your grandparents, as you may have heard, grew butter beans beside a fence near a creek in Charlotte & had them running up the fence. They also did similar in Baltimore, near their apartment. Fences do make good trellises. Your garden is coming along nicely. Looking froward to seeing it next weekend!