GROWING UP

A thick blanket of snow still covers the garden. But I'm in planning mode for March when my gardening year will begin. This year's garden plan includes peas, cucumbers, tomatoes, and buttercup squash--all of which will be my vertical gardening plants. I've been boning up on vertical gardening to maximize our yields and space in the garden. Growing up also makes sense for healthier crops. Plants grown on trellises enjoy greater air circulation. This will translate into far less trouble with pests and disease. So my plants will produce more unblemished fruit. Not to mention less waste from rotting. 

Here's the scoop from Vertical Vegetable Gardening by Christ McLaughlin (winter is great for reading about gardening!):

"When plants are grown horizontally, they're often on soil that's damp and warm from the leaf cover. This exposes the plants unnecessarily to soil-borne diseases. Crops grown on a support have much fewer problems with rot, and therefore, waste. By allowing plants to grow up instead of out, you also limit their physical contact to neighboring plants. This is a major plus as plant diseases are readily transmitted through physical foliage contact" (page 6). 

I'm looking forward to bigger yields from our garden this year. I'm thinking growing up means growing more! More food on the table. More veggies in the freezer. More canning jars all filled up! 

I remember the 1st time we tried vertical gardening--outside of the usual tomato cages. My husband built a long trellis that acts as the focal point in our main garden. He erected 7 pressure treated posts with a decorative cap which he designed. There is a top bar at the top of each section (I love watching the birds perching up there!) And from post to post, he strung 5 strings of wire. 

Our plan was to grow winter squash with that trellis. I bought some soft ties, thinking I'd support the growing plants. After all, buttercup squash isn't light. Surely they will need a little help in growing up! But we were delightfully surprised that the tendrils of the squash latched onto the wire and to other squash quite on their own. The network of all those tendrils were all the plant needed to stay on our trellis. 

This year, my plan is to branch into trellises for tomatoes. We're going to set up a PVC system where our tomatoes will have all the support they need. Usually, I set up tomato cages. And I've tried all sizes and grades of wire ones. Two years ago, I bought the tallest and heaviest ones at my local Home Depot. But they were still too short for my heirloom tomatoes and our bush varieties were so heavy with fruit, some of the cages fell over. Argh! 

So this year, we're going to mimic what goes on in a greenhouse. They use a string and post method for support. So we're planning on giving that a whirl this year. I'm always experimenting in the garden, aren't you? It keeps everything fresh and fun behind the picket fence. 

It will be sometime before we get tomato fencing going, but I found my inspiration at this website from The Living Farm. Check it out! 

http://thelivingfarm.org/easy-pvc-tomato-trellis-part-one/