Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Veggie Plants are Blooming



Last week-end I headed out to cut bamboo for my pole beans and squash/zucchini.  My brother has a yard full of bamboo, and offered a few pieces for my garden.  



We cut 7 foot pieces for my pole beans and tied them at the top with twine, and about 10 pieces of various sizes for my other vining veggies.   I planted Blue Lake pole and bush beans and several bush Wax beans in this area.  All are coming up nicely. 




This is the squash trellis I made.  It's amazing how a pole can look straight while you're in one position, and totally off when you're in another.  That will teach me to wait until I have help.  I'll straighten it out tomorrow when I have another set of eyes, lol.


I found this fabulous old peach orchard ladder and decided to put it the garden this year.  It contains my $2.00 clearance daisy from Lowes.  I have more bush beans and Roma tomatoes under it.  I'll pot up a few plants to place on the other steps of the ladder this week-end.  I have just about everything in,  I need to add a few more cukes, dill, red onions and some additional flowers.  Can't wait to make pickles this year.   



My peppers are flowering.  I planted 15 chili, cayenne, Hungarian, jalapeno and  2 sweet.  I have 2 pink Brandy Wine, 1 Hillbilly, 2 Paul Robeson, 1 Beefsteak, and 1 German Johnson that survived.  Didn't do well with my tomato germination, hopefully next year I will be more successful.  I was truly hoping for a few Cherokee Purple.  I searched the local garden centers, and none carried Cherokee Purple for replacements.  Heirlooms are rare in most garden centers in my area.  Not sure where I went wrong.  I think next year, I won't attempt to transplant them as early.  I'll wait until their stronger.     



I'm hoping that my cages will hold the heirlooms.  How do you cage your tomatoes?  I may add a few of the bamboo poles for reinforcement this week-end.  If they get as heavy as the Amish Paste did last year, I'll need it.   What's in your garden this year? 

15 comments:

  1. Very creative and cool looking garden. It looks like you will be busy at harvest time. I really like your ladder.

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    1. One of employees managed a Peach Orchard. He had several ladders laying around, and guess who was lucky enough to grab one. He has a 7ft that I may go back and get.

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  2. Your tomatoes look better than ours. I am ashamed to photograph them. They grew long and spindly with little root system. Peppers did well. Cabbages may survive. I like your free supply of bamboo, a plant that we don't have. So we use hog wire as supports. We are trellising cucumbers this year too. Great garden, Rosie.

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    1. Everything did well except for my tomatoes. I'm coming over to visit, you must post a picture of your garden. We must share when we're successful, and when we're not so successful, lol.

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  3. Looks wonderful. We planted a ladder this year too - we have zucchetta growing up the rungs. We've decided to stake our tomatoes this year. Seems to be working better for us than using cages. The cages are handy though for peppers, eggplant and cucumber vines.

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    1. Are you tomatoes heirlooms? Just wondering if the stake will hold them. I used 2 T-poles and the garden netting for my pickling cukes. Had the netting around, and decided to use some of it. I'm going to use the netting on the bamboo poles for the slicing cukes.

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  4. Love that squash trellis! We also use bamboo to stake our tomatoes, although the tomatoes are mostly in containers so we can cut the poles into smaller pieces. Looking forward to seeing how your veggie garden grows!

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    1. Thanks, the bottom pole is crooked. It looked perfectly straight while I was standing there. The picture paints a different picture though.

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  5. Wonderful looking garden! You have some great ideas for plant support systems. I can't wait to see pictures of how they are growing.

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  6. Thanks. I try to use free material or what I already have around the house. The pepper stakes were given to me by a friend. So, I have $0.00 invested in support this year. I purchased the tomato cages last season.

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  7. I love your plant supports. They are much prettier than mine :) You have a beautiful garden.

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  8. I just love your squash trellis. Can you provide some directions on making it. I just replanted zucchini because a squash borer destroyed a yellow and zucchini plant. I think keeping them off the ground will help. This is my first time visiting and will keep reading your prior posts.
    Cheers,

    Louise

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    1. Hi Louise, We cut 10 pieces 4 foot bamboo pieces. Tie 2 pieces together with twine to make an A for your ends. Get those in the ground snuggly. Take your other pieces and stagger them up the ends using twine to secure them. Very easy to make.

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