A Few Months Later...

In a few months time, we had quite a bit of growth starting in our garden. Before some of the plants got too big, we wanted to put up some frames for them to grow on. The tomatoes, peas, green beans and even the cucumber all require a bit more growing room, so why not grow upwards?!

We have been attending a few free gardening classes at the OC Great Park this summer and picked up a few tips. Some cheaper tomato frames can be made with steel frames and rebar from your local hardware store. We soon discovered that the tomatoes need frames on all sides of the plants. They reached nearly 8 feet in the air!

The cucumbers needed smaller frames, something to climb all over. When the fruit start, tie them up with old pantyhose to the frames. They will stretch as the fruit grows.

We learned that butternut squash needed alot of room to creep and crawl.

Even just two plants needed more than 6 square feet of space that we had given it.

Peas especially needed some vertical frames. They really wanted to reach for the sky! We were very surprised to see any peas this summer, since they are more of a winter vegetable. We just got a little overzealous with the "companion planting".

The radishes, lettuce and spinach did initially well in the wall mounted gutters but the heat of this summer stunted and wilted the plants after a few weeks. We plan on moving the radishes and lettuce into a movable planter box that we could place into the shade.

The basils in the back planter really went gang-busters once we got them into the ground. We had to be out there twice a day to pluck off the flowers from all three plants. We should have left it to just one in the end. We have made alot of pesto without even making a dent in these plants. One of our friends is getting a free basil plant sometime soon!

One last tip: green onions can be planted directly into the ground from the store and trimmed when needed. Though as a warning, they get HUGE! If you don't want to plant them in dirt, you can also place them in a glass of water on a window sill.

Hope some of these small tips can help with your garden! Goodluck!