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 4

Summer has arrived!!! It has been sunny for 6 straight days and hot, humid weather has hit New England. In the backyard garden, the Cocozelle Di Napoli squash and pumpkin plants have grown quite a bit. The pumpkin plants have made a run for it, escaping their raised bed. The vines will grow 10-12 feet and possibly more over the summer, putting down roots along the way. I have eight pumpkin plants so I am hoping for at least 8 sugar pumpkins this fall.

First pumpkin vine to escape

Three of my Early Wonder Beets are bulbing, nearly ready for harvest. This will make more room for the pumpkin plants. I will plant onion sets in place of the beet plants. I have been harvesting young onions as needed for cooking and then replanting with more onion sets since I bought three bags of onion sets and have yet to plant all of them. They were inexpensive, so I am not hesitant to use them as green onions. They have amazing flavor, much better and fresher tasting than fully grown onion bulbs.

Beets almost ready to harvest being crowded by pumpkin plants

Sugar pumpkins, Early Wonder Beets, Aunt Molly’s Ground Cherry, and onions

I decided to put in at least one or two more raised beds in my backyard garden area. My 17 and 13 year olds built me an 88″x44″ raised bed from pallet wood on Sunday. The spot I chose gets a lot of sun but was on a slope so I had to dig out the hillside to level the new bed. Then I discovered something that is so very common here in New England.

New raised bed on left with, what else, a huge rock of undetermined size and depth.

This rock looks like it could be larger than the one my 20 year old wrestled out of the front garden.

I think I am just going to leave it alone this year. These boulders rise from the ground an inch or two a year. Next spring I will reassess the situation.

So many snow peas in this little vertical garden space.

Snow peas producing well

I sowed a small patch of Dwarf Siberian kale in the spot where I took the beet plants out to chase the mole terrorizing my garlic bed (beets survived transplantation well). After I put out a couple of slug beer traps and caught three slugs, the kale seems to be growing well.

Dwarf Siberian kale

The Romano green beans are growing well and look like they might start blooming soon, but the cucumbers have been so slow growing. I top-dressed all of the cucumber and dill plants with compost this morning before watering. I expect a lot of growth in the next week with the beginnings of cukes in the weeks to come. Fingers crossed, because we all absolutely love cucumbers. I planted pickling and Suyo Long cucumbers on the bean teepee.

Pickling cucumber and dill plants have been slow to grow.

Now for the front garden which is doing better since I top-dressed with compost. With the heat I water every other day. I finally have a head of broccoli growing in one of the three broccoli plants. I have been so surprised at how long it has taken for the broccoli to go to seed (which is what a head of broccoli is — a bunch of flowers).

Front garden from front to back: Bed #1 – black beans and strawberry popcorn, Bed #2 – leeks, cucumbers, plum and yellow pear tomatoes, dwarf bok choy, Bed #3 – oregano, onions, dwarf Siberian kale, Swiss chard, broccoli, dwarf bok choy, red cabbage, and chamomile

Black beans border the Strawberry Popcorn. The area that looks bare has been resown with newly germinating popcorn seeds.

Driveway area terraced bed is overflowing with Aichi Chinese cabbage and dwarf bok choy seed pods, indeterminate tomato plants, broccoli, Aunt Molly’s Ground Cherry, peppers, lettuce, onions, and cilantro which has already gone to seed (cilantro seeds are known as coriander which I plan to put in the pickles I will make for my 13 year old).

Terraced bed

Lettuce bed still providing daily greens, bok choy seed pods, tomato, basil and cilantro

And finally, I must show you how much my grow bag tomato plants have grown in the past week. They all have at least one tiny tomato and lots of flowers, along with marigolds about 3″ tall now.

Tomato plants in grow bags with 48″ tall welded wire cages

Popcorn, black beans, and grow bags

Yesterday I was so excited to discover a couple of tiny grass-like spikes shooting up from the large bed where I sowed Strawberry popcorn. I had been watching the black beans germinate for a few days, and was happy to see the pickling cucumbers come up as well. But no popcorn. It is coming up after a week of fairly warm weather and a few days of rain, though. I have no expectations for this crop. If I get a few tiny ears of corn I will be happy. I honestly need the black beans and cucumbers much more. The popcorn will just be a treat if it works. I know virtually noting about growing corn having attempted it once about 9 years ago — I think we got 3 tiny ears of sweet corn. Then this past winter I saw Strawberry popcorn in a catalog and thought it looked so cute.

Black beans growing on the sides, pickling cucumbers on the ends and Strawberry popcorn growing in the center — all just coming up

Who sows kale this late in the spring? I do. I have a shady spot in my garlic bed that was great for a long lettuce season last year. Why not kale, a cool weather crop? Dwarf Siberian kale was sown a few days ago and is already up. I took a picture but it was so boring I will spare you until the plants have some true leaves.

Now on to the exciting part: tomato grow bags. I found a company advertising and selling tomato grow bags with a wire cage inside providing support and structure for the bag. I attempted to reproduce that using grow bags that I sewed from landscape fabric. I created wire structure from welded wire. I discovered that with the wire cage inside the grow bag it was nearly impossible to add soil and in the future would be difficult to work with the plant. So I had some ideas, one of which was to leave the front partially open. But I really didn’t love this idea.

Leaving the front open allows easy access to plant but structure is weaker

I thought about putting the structure inside the grow bag and removing some of the wire at intervals so I could reach my hand in easily, but I would need to file the wire left behind or I risked cutting and scratching myself every time I tried to work with the tomato plants.

I slept on the problem a few nights, planting was delayed anyway with the weather and fatigue. I woke up in the middle of the night a couple of nights ago with a solution that seemed like it would be perfect. Just fill the grow bag with soil, plant tomato, and then put wire structure on afterwards. It worked! It was so easy I couldn’t believe I hadn’t thought of it sooner.

Wire structure outside the grow bag

Although it doesn’t give the grow bag quite as much support, it is sufficient. To work with the plant inside, I just open the support. The dimensions of my grow bags are 12″x12″x12″. A little on the small side but I think they will work just fine. Now to get the rest of my tomatoes planted.

Now for a little thinking outside the box. I have more plants than garden space right now. But do I? I decided to tuck plants into my flower beds, containers, anyplace I can find a little soil and sunlight. The greatest danger will be deer. I can’t fence in every little nook and cranny of planting space. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, I say.

Below is my driveway container garden with the very large oregano plants that need cutting back and dehydrating. There is a cute little trellis beside that container. Last year I grew purple green beans (which were disgusting to eat).

Wild and crazy oregano needs to be cut back and dehydrated

I planted a few black bean seeds behind the oregano so it can grow up that trellis.

Black beans growing behind the oregano

So I have grow bags and containers for expanding my growing space. Happy gardening!

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

Vegetable Gardening: What’s Your Style?

Discover Your Gardening Style

There are so many different styles of gardening that you should easily discover your niche in this ever-expanding world. Here are a few to explore:

• Row, inground
• Raised beds
• Intensive
• Square foot
• Container
• Vertical
• Frugal
• Community
• Organic versions of the above

Inground Row Gardening

New garden space dug out of turf in May 2011. Notice wide rows vs. single rows.

Garden in the ground, usually a fairly large plot, can have single or wide rows. This bed was double dug. Notice how I dug the walkways out and moved the soil onto the wide rows to create slightly raised beds. In areas with clay soil you can actually water the walkways and the water will seep horizontally into the wide rows.

New garden area in August. Pumpkins went crazy.

Raised Beds — Wooden

Two wooden raised beds with tomatoes, basil, cucumbers, lettuce, carrots, garlic, snow peas

The easiest way to start a garden is to build one or two wooden beds, plop them down on top of the grass and fill with soil and compost. Instant garden. Can cost a bit of money, though.

Intensive Gardening

Tomatoes, basil, cucumbers (left), lettuce, spinach, garlic, carrots, herbs, snow peas (right)

Whether in ground or raised beds, this method is preferred by most modern gardeners. Plant close together, mix different vegetables that share similar needs, and the plants shade the soil to hinder the growth of weeds. Does require staking, vigilance against pests, powdery mildew and other diseases. My favorite gardening style.

Square Foot Gardening

Nearly identical to Intensive Gardening. Mel Bartholemew’s book of this title is a great resource for any beginning or experienced gardener. Grow a lot in a little space. Companion planting, vertical gardening, consecutive plantings, and so on make this a very practical way to grow vegetables at home.

Container Gardening

Fall veggies in containers on deck

Do you rent? Don’t have the space in your yard? Not enough sunlight? Buy a few large containers, fill with good soil and organic compost and grow your tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, spinach, beans, peppers and whatever else you want wherever you get the most sunlight. This is a great method for beginners. Containers do require more water and feeding, though. Be sure to have a garden hose within reach of your containers. Hauling a watering can to any spot quickly makes container gardening a chore.

Vertical Gardening

Suyo Long cucumber growing on trellis in wooden raised bed

Many vegetables lend themselves to growing on trellises. A trellis can be as simple as two $1.50 wooden stakes and a small piece of chicken wire to large, expensive structures.

Frugal Gardening

Canned tomatoes: had leftover tomato plants. Did not grow many tomatoes; containers were too small. Be creative!

I mention this separately because you can grow vegetables anywhere and in nearly anything. Use only what you have on hand, barter for some heirloom seeds, and go for it. Americans are so into having everything picture perfect that they sometimes forget what they are really doing: growing food. The food doesn’t care if you have expensive tools or pretty pots, or if your wooden beds are exactly the same size, or if you have commercial trellises. You can grow vegetables in any container large enough to hold soil and the roots. Please do take into consideration the composition of the container: you don’t want your soil and plants to pick up toxins.

Community Gardens

Don’t have the space or money for even soil and containers? Join a community garden. For a small fee you can rent a garden plot and have access to many resources. I enjoyed the community garden in the Burnett Road area when I lived in Austin, Texas. Great way to make friends and grow food.

Organic Gardening

One of the main reasons people choose to grow their own vegetables is health. They want to avoid pesticides, fungicides, and chemical fertilizers. Organic gardening is a bit more challenging than conventional gardening but it is well worth it. Please take some time to understand what “organic gardening” even means. I have lived on this property for almost 13 years now and never used pesticides. I even raised my goats and chickens organically with organic feed. I consider this a selling point when it comes time to sell. Vigilance will be required for organic gardening to work for you.

Hope you discover your gardening style!