fast forward a couple weeks and what we have here is a garden in full flight. germination of all seeds has gone real well and the tomatoes are just about all caged up. we even have quite a few small fruits across the 41 plants. i built trellis' from 2x6 cedar, which i ripped on a table saw. the cedar was $1.86 each, which resulted in very cheap, rot resistant 2x2 wood in the garden. i opted to use tee-pee style trellis for climbing beans this year - but upon reflection will probably build a ladder style trellis for my 2010 climbing beans - the tee-pee's just dont seem to be very space efficient and even though i have 12 beds - i need to be space efficient.
the tomato cages are a mix of home grown concrete wire cages and texas tomato cages. these texas do-dads are pretty cool as they solve a major problem with cages - they fold up in the off season and take up next to zero space. but the big elephant in room is cost - those texans cost almost $25 each - not cheap. so i buy a few a year until i get to my total of 36. i did try to build a reasonable tomato cage from pvc - and to build one w/ similar support characteristics was close to $20 - and pvc will break over time when exposed to sun - so texas gets the prize on this one.
Either your a good photographer, or a meticulous gardener - your beds look amazing!
ReplyDeleteI especially like the trellis. I want one now. (Chris' list just got an item added to it, by the way).
katie -
ReplyDeletethx for nice compliment - although i did take photography in highschool, learned about leading lines, etc - i wouldnt classify myself as a good photog.... i think the garden stands on its own. the beds will get topped w/ a finishing board at a later date - one of my goals was to make the garden a nice looking place regardless of the season. the trellis was a result of me being cheap and coming up with something better than store bought. the trellis turned out well, i shot you an email w/ wood info. other specifics - its about 4 feet wide and the horizontal boards are about 7 inches apart.