Hi everyone,
Brand new here (said hello over on the "Hello!" forum earlier). I have my first 4x8 community garden plot this year in Chicago, and I'm completely stumped by trellising and how to organize my garden. I was thinking of putting a tomato plant and a cucumber plant on the back row of 4, but I can't figure out if they can share a trellis or if they each need their own support?
I'd also like to plant a dwarf pea plant as well somewhere in the middle, but they also require support. Would an upside down tomato cage (the garden has tons left over from last year) work? I'm not very confident in my ability to build anything just yet and I don't want to spend gobs of money.
Also curious - though unrelated to trellising- if trying to put a tomato plant, cucumber plant and a bush bean plant in the back too much for one row? Was planning to keep a blank plot in front of both the cucumber and tomato plant for a bit more room...
Thanks a million to anyone who has suggestions!
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sara_allison
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- Joined: Mon May 04, 2015 4:04 pm
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RedBeard1987
- Full Member
- Posts: 46
- Joined: Sun Jan 11, 2015 3:28 pm
- Location: South suburbs Chicago. Zone 5a
Hi and welcome! I'm also from the chicago area, been seeing more and more of us popping up! I'm not the most experienced but ill share what I know. cucumbers will climb just about anything in my experience. A trellis is really an easy thing to make, as long as the plant can grab on to something it will climb! Ive used chicken wire and bamboo to make a trellis that looked awful but worked great! Even if it looks bad when its covered in cucumbers nobody notices!
it would help to know how your garden is layed out. its 4x8 but what side faces north/south? it helps to know where the sun will be. keep taller plants to the north side so you don't shade the smaller ones. you can plant quite a bit in that sized area. tell use more of what you want to plant. its best to figure that out first so you don't run into spacing issues later.
keep some distance between cucumbers and other plants unless you can check it regularly to make sure your cucumbers aren't climbing your tomatoes. cucumbers vine and grab onto anything near them. so I wouldnt allow them to share a trellis unless you want to do a lot of vine training.
I have never grown peas but I know they come in a bush variety that shouldn't need any trellising if its an issue.
it would help to know how your garden is layed out. its 4x8 but what side faces north/south? it helps to know where the sun will be. keep taller plants to the north side so you don't shade the smaller ones. you can plant quite a bit in that sized area. tell use more of what you want to plant. its best to figure that out first so you don't run into spacing issues later.
keep some distance between cucumbers and other plants unless you can check it regularly to make sure your cucumbers aren't climbing your tomatoes. cucumbers vine and grab onto anything near them. so I wouldnt allow them to share a trellis unless you want to do a lot of vine training.
I have never grown peas but I know they come in a bush variety that shouldn't need any trellising if its an issue.
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mphillips
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- Joined: Tue May 05, 2015 6:54 pm
- Location: NE Alabama Mountains (Zone 7)
I use corn for Trellising. I let my corn get to between 3 to 6 inches and let my cucumbers and pole beans. This serves 2 purposes, the corn lets the vines grow upward plus it helps to keep steady the corn stalk, so it will not be affected by the wind.
I am a fan of the 3 sisters methods of growing squash, beans and corn.
I am a fan of the 3 sisters methods of growing squash, beans and corn.
I use fence posts the metal kind and if you get a post pounder, it makes it easier to pound them in especially if you get a helper. I get 8 ft posts and pound 2 ft into the ground about 4 ft apart. you need to use your most northern bed as the trellis bed so as not to block anything in front of it. If the bed is 4 ft wide, run the fence posts down the middle so you can plant on either side Make sure there is a path between the bed and the neighboring fence, that way you won't cast as much shadow on the neighbors' garden. I use CRW run between the posts and tied with 14 guage wire. It makes for a very strong permanent trellis. For one of my bench trellises I used rebar pounded into the ground for the base and jammed 8 ft bamboo posts on top of them and tied the CRW to the bamboo posts. Bamboo, I can get for free and the larger diameter bamboo will last a few years. The metal posts last about 10 years then they rust.
My trellis at my community garden looks like a tent frame. I have metal fence posts, the kind for chain link fencing. The post are every 4-6 feet around the perimeter of my 8 ft by 15 ft bed and they are a little less than 5 ft above ground after anchoring. There is a taller post about 8 ft in the middle of the 8 ft side and there are three of those posts in the middle of the bed. The posts are connected by conduit tubing and rebar. Conduit is bent at the top to form a peaked roof and a straight piece of conduit connects the "truss" pieces together. There are a couple of more straight pieces of conduit and rebar that are wired to the trusses for additional support. The "roof" only covers have of the poles. The back of the structure is open. Over the roof is CRW wire. This is what the gourds climb on. The only problem I have with it is that I forget that I am taller than the side posts and I keep hitting my head on the conduit.
I can plant the bed as a regular albeit double wide bed anytime or I can use the trellis usually to plant gourds and squash. in summer and I can plant something that can handle more shade below. The community garden has too many pests to plant cucumbers and tomatoes do not grow well in alkaline soil pH 7.4. I do have some wild tomatoes growing they just don't get as big as the ones I have at home. Cucumbers would get stung without covering them and beans and peas require almost daily picking when they are in production and I only go to the garden twice a week. I plant things there that will keep a while and take up more space than I have at home.
My trellis at my community garden looks like a tent frame. I have metal fence posts, the kind for chain link fencing. The post are every 4-6 feet around the perimeter of my 8 ft by 15 ft bed and they are a little less than 5 ft above ground after anchoring. There is a taller post about 8 ft in the middle of the 8 ft side and there are three of those posts in the middle of the bed. The posts are connected by conduit tubing and rebar. Conduit is bent at the top to form a peaked roof and a straight piece of conduit connects the "truss" pieces together. There are a couple of more straight pieces of conduit and rebar that are wired to the trusses for additional support. The "roof" only covers have of the poles. The back of the structure is open. Over the roof is CRW wire. This is what the gourds climb on. The only problem I have with it is that I forget that I am taller than the side posts and I keep hitting my head on the conduit.
I can plant the bed as a regular albeit double wide bed anytime or I can use the trellis usually to plant gourds and squash. in summer and I can plant something that can handle more shade below. The community garden has too many pests to plant cucumbers and tomatoes do not grow well in alkaline soil pH 7.4. I do have some wild tomatoes growing they just don't get as big as the ones I have at home. Cucumbers would get stung without covering them and beans and peas require almost daily picking when they are in production and I only go to the garden twice a week. I plant things there that will keep a while and take up more space than I have at home.