Going Vertical

Bean teepee

I built this teepee type trellis back 2007 for an 'extra' cherry tomato plant I had at the time and have since used it for green beans. Works much better for beans than tomatoes.

It's just over six feet tall and fits perfectly inside the garden over -winter.

It's made of redwood and cedar which are supposed to be able to take the elements but since I have room in the shed for it and it's rather light weight I decided to bring it indoors each year.

I just recently got the urge to build a couple other type trellises and today I finally got around to it.

Tomato cage made of redwood and pine

Here's a tomato cage for the Cherokee Purple. It looks pretty big but the tomato plant will fill this in pretty quickly once it gets going. Normally I only use redwood or cedar but I had some extra pine furring strips so they got the call. They can replaced in a couple of years with more resilient cedar or redwood.

Squash Ladder

I know this isn't a very good photo of this but you can get the general idea. It stands six feet tall. I've never tried one of these but have read some pretty good reviews. There are a couple of pepper plants in this bed two and I'm a little worried they might get trampled over because squash is pretty aggressive and doesn't play well with others.I have a back up plan though if the peppers need to be moved. I rather like the idea of squeezing as much as possible into the space I have but this may be a bit too much. Only time will tell.

This three panel trellis 'fence' was install in 2009 to cover up a chain link fence that was installed to hide the compost pile. The panels are tied to the chain link by wire, the right side is attached to a chain link fence and the left side is tied to a metal pole I anchored in the ground with cement. Well, the wind pretty much has its way with this whole thing because I did not do a very good job of anchoring that pole.

So, I got to thinking that instead of digging up the pole and anchoring it properly I'll just add another pole. This time a 4x4 redwood post was used and I did a much better job of anchoring it. I placed it just far enough from the metal pole to insert another more narrow lattice piece between the two and it is holding that whole fence through some very strong winds we have had of late.

Adding hardscape items sure changes the complexion of the garden. Next, I'm thinking about adding a water feature of some sort. We have bunches of birds visit us everyday and I want a better means of getting fresh water to them other than me hauling it out to them every morning.