Vertical Gardening: Teepee Trellis

I learned in the 1980s when I first started vegetable gardening in small spaces that it was absolutely necessary to grow some vegetables on trellises, and I learned last year when I grew my first indeterminate tomatoes, that they must be staked. I had a massive jungle and few tomatoes. I did, however, have small trellises for my snow peas and cucumbers that were made from wooden stakes and chicken wire on the ends of my raised beds.

Last year’s backyard garden: tomatoes, basil, cucumbers (left), lettuce, spinach, garlic, carrots, herbs, snow peas (right)

What I did this past spring was make two different types of structures from saplings and branches that I pruned or cut from trees on my property. Both turned out to be perfect for the jobs they were assigned.

Bean Teepee (or in my case, Cucumber)

I cut or used recently cut saplings that were at least eight feet long, tied them at the top with paracord (wish I had used vines) and buried them in the ground in a circle. I then dug the ground around and a little inside the teepee.

Teepee trellis

I added organic matter and planted bean and cucumber seeds along with some dill. I ran twine all around the saplings leaving an opening on the shady side for entrance into the teepee.

Pickling cucumbers and dill

The result has been astounding with an abundant harvest of cucumbers so far. Not one bean, though.

Romano beans (left side) and cucumbers (remaining three sides)

Teepee trellis July 9, 2013

Lots of Suyo Long cucumbers. July 15, 2013

Teepee trellis, July 29, 2013

Next year I will probably plant black beans or snow peas around this trellis and build a second teepee trellis for cucumbers since I rotate crops (do not plant the same thing in the same place two years in a row to prevent insect and disease damage).

Additional ideas and links:

I have always wanted a wattle fence. There is just something amazingly beautiful about such a fence, made from branches and saplings. Mother Earth News has a great article on using twigs and branches to make beautiful garden structures.

Another excellent article entitled, Arbors, Trellises, and the Edible Garden.

BHG article with downloadable instructions on building a Willow Arbor.

July Connecticut Organic Garden – Part 5

Wednesday, July 24

Another rainy night last night. I am spared watering and everything seems to be doing so much better with rainwater vs. well water. No surprise there.

Moskovich tomato ripening

I finally have my first ripening tomato in spite of temperatures upwards of 89° F yesterday.

Squash are continuing to produce small numbers. Seriously, I can’t believe how few squash I have this year so far, though I am grateful for the ones we have eaten. They are so good, and my 20 year old even put zucchini in the spaghetti sauce the other night for an extra layer of flavor.

First marigold flower, Naughty Marietta, an heirloom — it is a day of firsts around here

I pulled up three pumpkin plants yesterday and found the vines that I left in the ground are still alive this morning. Pumpkins put out roots along the way to support their long vines. I think I’ll just pull up the rest of the mother plants and the vines that survive on their own will be a bonus. Nothing lost if they don’t produce any pumpkins, and maybe I will be surprised with a couple of small sugar pumpkins in the fall.

Added another level of twine installed on the front garden tomato supports. Plants are loaded with Yellow Pear tomatoes but still no plum tomatoes on the other six plants. They must be a late-season tomato. I grew these plants from seeds that I saved from a tomato purchased at a farmer’s market. Although the vendor assured me that it was an heirloom variety, there are no guarantees. These tomato plants are one of my experiments.

I spent some time in my favorite yarn shop, Connecticut Yarn & Wool in Haddam, yesterday talking with Carol about preserving food. She shared some techniques that she uses to preserve tomatoes and kale. I was inspired to plant more kale so I can preserve it for the winter. Kale seeds sowed in the pumpkin bed (where the pumpkin plants no longer reside).

First eggplant flower

My son’s roommate got the chainsaw running just long enough to take down two small trees, allowing a little more light into my front garden. Then said chainsaw stopped working again (leaving us with two felled trees that need to be cut up into log lengths, one well into the front yard). I am going to look into a hand saw. We have discovered the hard way that it is well worth spending what seems like an unreasonable amount of money to buy good quality tools. My son purchased a Stihl felling axe that is amazing. It cuts into trees like nothing I’ve ever seen. But it takes real muscle to wield. The chain saw is more predictable for taking down a tree and having it land where you want it to land (missing people, houses, trees that you want to keep and power lines). The dream is a Stihl chain saw. Dreaming is good, right?

Thursday, July 25

Brrrr . . . it is a little chilly today. 57° F at 6:30 a.m. Watered seeds and seedlings, cucumbers and tomato plants in grow bags. Zucchini has germinated in the squash bed. More buckwheat is popping up in the garlic bed. More tomatoes have begun to turn red, promising fresh salsa possibly within a week.

Friday, July 26

Another rainy day. It rained all night. Glad that my raised beds have well-draining soil. Started fermenting some pickles in Fido jars. First time ever making pickles, though I did ferment green beans, carrots, garlic and onions last fall which were absolutely delicious.

Saturday, July 27

Strawberry popcorn tassels

Quick walk around, harvested some cucumbers, one zucchini and one yellow squash. Saw that the dill is up in the pumpkin bed (that I sowed over about 10 days ago), zucchini seeds germinated where I just put them here and there, and one area of buckwheat has germinated and another seems to not be. I will resow buckwheat in the area showing failure. I wonder if some creature came and ate the seeds.

Three tomatoes ripening now, and soon I will have more tomatoes than I will know what to do with. I plan to can salsa for the winter. We love salsa on everything and because most commercial salsas contain vinegar (which is made from genetically modified corn), we have been doing without.

But look what I found in the Strawberry popcorn patch. Tassels are emerging from the largest of the popcorn plants. So excited! Reading up on tasseling, I think I will be okay, but I will probably go out and see if I can help the pollinating process along a little bit when it is time. Each kernel of popcorn (or corn) must be pollinated separately.

Started two more jars of pickles. I am using lacto-fermentation in a closed environment, not canning using a water bath.

Sunday, July 28

It is comfortably cool outside (meaning I could wear a sleeveless shirt and flip flops with no discomfort) while puttering around in the garden this morning. I watered the cucumbers and grow bag tomatoes. Everything else was moist enough.

Harvested some more cucumbers and saw a lot of new cukes forming. I read that Suyo Long cucumbers are one of the slicing cucumbers that can be used for pickling. Yay! Great news for my pickle loving son.

Front garden: pickling cucumbers growing on a pear branch trellis with 12 tomato plants supported by two more trellises and twine

My front garden tomato plants are full of cherry tomatoes, the yellow pear variety and another variety that I cannot identify yet. And the plum tomatoes are beginning to set fruit, finally. The positive side to slower tomato formation is that I will be harvesting tomatoes next month and possibly into September. Fresh tomatoes in September? Oh yeah!

Kale seeds have germinated in pumpkin bed. Lots and lots of tiny kale plants. I think every single seed has germinated. I will be thinning some of these plants, probably moving the extras to other areas. I want to dehydrate a lot of kale before it gets cold for putting in soups during the cold months.

Monday, July 29

Suyo Long cucumbers growing inside the teepee trellis.

Humidity is the word to describe this day. But it wasn’t hot yet when I watered my entire garden. Although everything looked moist on the surface because of heavy dew, when I put my finger several inches down into the soil, it was dry. So I watered deeply today hoping that I can skip a day or two per waterings and get back on my staggered schedule of half one day and half the next with grow bags getting water every day.

Lots of new cucumbers on vines in front and back gardens. I am allowing several cucumbers to remain on the vine to ripen for seed collection in the fall. The cucumbers I have been harvesting lately are smaller than the early cucumbers, so I think it is time for another application of compost this week.

Teepee trellis a compact way to grow a lot of cucumbers in a fairly small space

I am thrilled with the teepee trellis I devised for growing cucumbers this year. Although one side was sowed with Romano green beans, I have yet to see one flower and, subsequently, no beans. The cucumber vines, on the other hand, absolutely love the teepee trellis and are spreading to the bean side now; I am happy to give them the space. I think I will create a post dedicated to how I created what I have been calling the “bean teepee,” that turned out to be a cucumber teepee.

Brassicas are a huge challenge to grow organically. Even organic gardeners spray Bt to control caterpillar damage, and I am thinking about doing the same. I survived the earlier attack by Cabbage White moth larvae (caterpillars) only to have a new attack by two different caterpillars that I have yet to identify. Yes, I squished a lot of caterpillars today. I did end up spraying my cabbages with my homemade peppermint spray that I use as mosquito and tick repellant near the end of the last attack, and I might just do that again.

San Marzano plum tomatoes

More tomatoes ripening. I have three Moskovich tomatoes I picked already ripening indoors (because Moskovich tend to split if left on the vine too long). More new tomatoes growing in front garden. Harvested another yellow squash. Snow pea vines are starting to produce again but since it is only a few pods per day I typically eat them while puttering around in the garden.

I pulled up most of the coriander (cilantro) since most of the seed pods were dried, or partially dried.

Tuesday, July 30

Multiple female flowers on cucumber vines

I did my morning rounds before 6 a.m. and it was delightful. Cool and quiet, it is like the day is holding its breath to see what will happen next.

I harvested a bunch of ground cherries, one plum tomato and two Suyo Long cucumbers. Then I noticed the cucumber vines in the back yard. They are covered with tiny, new female flowers and potential cucumbers. August looks like it might be a good month for cucumbers and pickle making.

Finally, a sugar pumpkin

Oh, how I could not exclaim this first before anything else, I don’t know. But it looks like I have 3 sugar pumpkins truly growing after all of this time. What have I done differently? I started watering the ends of the vines, not the base. After pulling up all eight of the pumpkin plants from the raised bed and just dumping them on the ground, I started watering the last 6-8 feet of each vine whenever I water my garden. Looks like that is what was necessary for the pumpkins to “take” and then survive. I can only hope there is enough time for some of these babies to mature before it freezes. I am thinking about making the back yard my pumpkin patch which would mean piling leaves, manure, and whatever else I can find on the ground to kill the grass and make that ground fertile over the winter. I just need to avoid the opening to the septic tank and I should be okay. Then next year I would have the area prepared for growing pumpkins.

I will leave you with a photo of black bean pods. I discovered that black bean pods turn purple as they mature.

Purple black bean pods? Interesting.

Hope everyone is having a great week. Happy gardening!

June Garden Update – Part 2

Aichi Chinese cabbage bolted and going to seed, which I will harvest to replant in the summer for fall cabbage

Terraced garden is quite colorful right now as the dwarf bok choy and Aichi Chinese cabbages have gone to seed.

Strawberry popcorn plants about 5″ tall now with black bean plants growing on the outside of the bed

Yellow pear cherry tomatoes and plum tomatoes (12 plants) in front garden

Dwarf bok choy seedlings growing beside red cabbage

Tomato plants in grow bags are doing very well. I sowed marigold seeds in each bag which have germinated

Romano beans growing up the teepee

Sugar pumpkins, beets and ground cherries

Boots posing among the zucchini and yellow squash with snow peas growing vertically in the background. Anaheim peppers are growing near the center.

Potatoes getting ready to bloom

Tomatoes blooming — can’t wait to taste the first tomato of the season. Now if the weather will warm up it will help that process along quite nicely.

Young garlic scapes — these will be so tasty

If you look closely you can see a flower forming and almost ready to open. Ground cherries taste like candy. I planted these all over my gardens.

Very first snow pea flower. Fresh snow peas will be available very soon.

Backyard garden looking like a jungle. Two weeks of rainy weather with intermittent sun makes for a lot of growth. It needs to warm up, though.

In the rear between the two raised beds are my huge potato plants in grow bags.

Garden transformation, warm weather

As the cool temps transition into warmer days and nights, it is time to transition planting areas as well. My dwarf bok choy has bolted. Planted in the tiered garden bed near the driveway, it gets a lot of sunlight and lots of warmth compared to other garden beds.

Dwarf bok choy bolting, going to seed, and forming a flower head. Looks a lot like broccoli, doesn’t it? Perfect for eating.

How do you cook dwarf bok choy? You can steam it, but yesterday I ate some for lunch and dinner. For lunch I made a pan of organic quinoa (with sauteed onions). During the last two minutes of cooking I placed the dwarf bok choy on top of the quinoa in the pan and put the lid back on. After a minute, I stirred the succulent greens into the quinoa and they immediately wilted and were ready to eat. What a lovely, delicate flavor, requiring nearly no cooking at all. I made fried rice for dinner and did the same with the dwarf bok choy; I laid the greens on top of the rice, allowed it to steam them for a minute, stirred, added the cubed pork chops and served. They were delicious.

The Aichi cabbage is beginning to head up. I am not sure it will have time to finish before it gets too hot and it also goes to seed. Even if I never get to eat them, they are lovely.

Aichi Chinese cabbage

I will be planting cilantro and parsley in the spaces left by the harvested dwarf bok choy.

Spaces left by harvest dwarf bok choy will be filled with heat-loving herbs such as cilantro and parsley

Now let’s see what is happening in the back yard garden. The bean teepee is seeing a lot of life. Looks like 6 of the Romano bean seeds germinated and are now growing. The really exciting part are all of the cucumber seedlings, and the dill coming up.

Pickling cucumbers and dill

Potatoes growing like crazy. The center grow bag is almost ready to have shredded leaves added.

Potatoes in grow bag

One of the new raised beds had the Early wonder beets transplanted (mole infestation in garlic bed turned me into a crazed Elmer Fudd and I dug up that whole corner to block the mole’s entrance to my raised bed — the beets had to be moved to safety). But if you look closely you can see sugar pumpkin seedlings. We love our sugar pumpkins during the holidays for fresh pies, muffins, pumpkin bread, and more. The pumpkin plants will escape from the bed and pour out into the yard.

Pumpkin bed new home for beets which will be harvested before pumpkin plants get too big

Pumpkin seedling

Spinach. Lots and lots of spinach. Spinach omelettes are the new favorite breakfast around here, especially when combined with sauteed onions and cheese. I don’t pull out my spinach plants to harvest them. Spinach can be continuously harvested by cutting the outer leaves off allowing at least two inner leaves to remain. The plant is stimulated to grow more leaves, and you can continue to harvest until they bolt from hot weather. You can see in the photo below how many leaves have been cut off. I harvested two leaves from each of these plants yesterday morning. They grew that much in 24 hours. I do feed these with a fish emulsion once every week or two.

Continuous harvest spinach by cutting outer leaves

Look at how big the snow peas have grown! Hoping for flower buds any day now. And while seed packets tell you to thin seedlings to 6-8 inches apart, I use the intensive gardening method and will allow them all to remain. The soil was amended with manure and compost before planting and should support all of these plants. If necessary, I will give them a little fertilizer, though peas and beans fix nitrogen to the soil, so they do not need much fertilizer if grown in healthy soil.

Heirloom snow peas

Squash seedlings are coming up after the last few warm days. Oh, how I love squash. These are Cocozelle Di Napoli summer squash, an heirloom variety that grows a green striped squash. In the same bed are yellow summer squash that are just breaking through the soil.

Cocozelle Di Napoli summer squash seedlings

I still have not planted my tomatoes and peppers, but hope to accomplish that this week. I am recovering from a pretty bad flare-up that has me struggling (persistent Lyme disease). But I will get through it and my garden will get planted, eventually. Yes, it is frustrating after waiting for warm weather, but life is like that, isn’t it? In the meantime, I enjoy pulling weeds for a few minutes each day and planting what I can.

Ruby Swiss chard and bunching onions growing near the spinach