10 Weeks of Vegetable Gardening: Week 8
Each Friday I am posting a weekly guide for prepping your home vegetable garden. In Raleigh, the last killing frost date is April 11 (on average, give or take a week), so my first weekend for planting (summer crops) outdoors is April 9
Have you given thought to what you will be going your tomatoes and bean vines on yet? This is a great time to look back over your layout plans (or to start thinking through them) and determine what type of support system you will use for plants that like to be trellised.
I have used bamboo teepees for peas, green beans and tomatoes the past couple years. They are easy to build and the materials are fairly inexpensive, especially when you can buy them in bulk. I was able to find packs of 12 at Big Lots several years ago.
These metal trellises ran about $30 each, but I found them on sale at Lowes. I used them to grow Carolina Jessamine in the past, but we dug that out for the new garden. I plan on growing hanging squash from these.
I purchased this old ladder at the flea market a couple weekends ago. It would make a nice support for tomato bushes and only cost me $10, whereas some of the sturdier cages can cost upwards of $15. A ladder can add a little whimsey to the garden. Unfortunately, Scooby has already claimed this one as his own. A teepee out of bamboo or large sticks can make a wonderful trellis as well.
These 10 ft metal thingermabobs (technically they are steel remesh) were located in the masonry aisle of Lowes and cost me $2.97 a piece. I purchased seven of them to make a pole bean tunnel.
Start looking and dreaming!
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