What I'm Growing

Summer 2014 Update:

Looking back I'm filled with regret that I didn't outshine, or even remotely stand up to last years garden. I barely planted a thing! I did, however, continue using the same  Scarlet Runner Beans from Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Co. that I used last year. Only this year, since I took it easy, I just bought $15 worth of those seeds this time. At first my anticipation for them to reach greater heights had me watering them like a mad man as soon as I could plant them. By the time they reached 4 or 5 feet tall, I essentially gave up and left them to their own devices. Relatively hardy, the quantity of seeds this year provided the bulk of what I planted them for, thicker walls. I didn't get many beans this year, but it was my own fault. I still recommend these to anyone trying to build a low cost, vertical trellis, that grows really fast. I think the longest my runner beans crept up the string lights was between 11 and 12 feet. 
I didn't have the patience or energy to pursue the cucumbers, which really only provided visual delight  three months after planting when tediously tended too when cucumbers were visible. They were really a bother to maintain and train, finicky as ever, and provided not nearly as much canopy as all of the beans I planted this year did.  

In last year's Spring post I talked more about building the canopy walls and the difference between building them for cucumbers and runner beans. The construction was a tad time consuming but relaxing, cheap, and efficient. 




Winter 2013-2014

Cabbage, Kale and Dusty Miller - 

Way easier to grow than my summer garden... except the ones on my front windows 

which couldn't catch rain. 

I can't imagine they needed water to survive. 

Mums and whats left of the scarlet runner beans window

Fall 2013

Everything's dying off, replanted the cucumber plants with mums - which were great,  until they died. The scarlet runner beans grew up until frost, or I got too cold to water them, which ever came first....

Summer 2013

the only thing that failed to grow this summer was her enthusiasm

(L->R) Cucumbers, Acorn Squash, Tomato, Sweet Potato Vines & Swiss Chard

Spring 2013

I like watching stuff grow. 

I get stuff to feed my plants at this store specializing in bio-dynamics, organics, hydroponics,  & plant nutrients. I also buy their hemp to build sick-nasty walls made out of veggies.

I get my seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Co.
        My favorites were their Scarlet Runner Beans which were the fastest growing in the garden, low      
        maintenance, and reached up to ten feet long with bright red flowers. They need strings running vertically to wrap around and trellis climb upwards, while the Chinese Yellow Cucumbers, my second favorite, needed horizontal strings to climb up (like a ladder). I recommend tying a lattice system for extra strength. Reinforcing the top rung of the trellis with a hollow metal (3$ @Lowe's) rod or piece of wood was enough to reinforce weaker cucumber plants. 

I get most of my hardware/container's/equipment at Lowe's. 

Cucumber walls - 

TRELLIS: I bought some cheap boards ($2 @ Lowe's) to nail into the deck. Most string forms I used for weaving a trellis eventually stretched as plants grew up them. I learned the hard way re-doing your trellis after its already grown up something is painful. Use garden hemp which is a little more expensive (NOT the really thick hemp, which looks like a great sturdy idea until you run out of the first spool and realize the yardage you were packing. If you have serious cash baskets then go for it but bedazzle that shit.)

Ended up replanting the Acorn Squash (right) when they

wouldn't trellis. 

The lights were a huge waste of money. They were $12 each from Lowe's, but never lasted longer than a month outdoors. (Hear me whine.) Tried exchanging with several other similar string lights, all of even lesser caliber. I recommend looking elsewhere. 

Winter 2012-2013

Fall 2012

Summer 2012