Weekend Warrior

Sometimes I work harder on the weekends…

Based on the Farmer’s Almanac and the Master Gardeners in my area, we were supposed to wait until after 4/24 (our “normal” last frost date). Being that is has been insanely warm in Zone 6A or 5B, depending on the resource, I opted to transplant 2 weeks early, as shown in my last post. Easter weekend was all about building more infrastructure for my new garden, and of course eating candy.

April 14

Good Friday indeed. The weather was beautiful all week, no squirrels, rabbits, or birds have even approached my transplants or came after my seeds. In order for my tomatoes, cucumbers, and beans/peas to grow big and strong, they need something to guide them. I thought building a trellis instead of buying one, or using tomato cages would get me the most bang for my buck. So, I went out and got some supplies:

• conduit pipe and fittings
• rebar
• zip ties
• nylon netting

Turns out this really was the most cost-effective way to make a trellis! Time consuming yes, but it looks great, and with the rebar, it’s definitely not going anywhere! I knew I was going to have vining plants to I would have to make some sort of trellis. Thank goodness for planning! I read that the trellis should be on the north side of the Square Foot Garden (SFG) as to not shade too much of my sun-hungry plants (Planning is important!).

Almost finished with the first netting. You can see the pipe set on the third box (it’s hard with all of the fencing to distinguish) Those blocks in the corner will be used soon!

Trellising in place, and beans strung around the netting to begin clumbing

April 15–16

Photos of Woolly Pockets on the walls in our old apartments

I planted all of these beautiful vegetables, and I had not yet even started on what I wanted to be my herb garden. Now, it’s 100% possible to plant herbs directly into the SFG, but I wanted to keep them separate in order to grow as many vegetables as possible over the summer. I wanted to make a giant A-framed trellis and vertically hang herbs in Woolly Pockets that I had from a living wall in our old apartment. Since the pockets weren’t being used in our current house, I thought I’d fill them up and use them for herbs! I stacked a small folding trellis on top of several large paver bricks that our landlord had piled up, and secured the trellis by tying it down to the brick piles through a series of knots and lashings (Boy Scouts comes in handy at times). From there I transplanted Basil, Rosemary, Lemongrass, Thyme Dill and Oregano.

In Pots: Chamomile (from seed) and Lavender. L to R: Rosemary, Oregano, Basil, Lemongrass

I also had some lavender and chamomile I wanted to plant, as well as various herbs for shade which I decided to grow in the window boxes in front of our house. Hopefully this summer approaching the front door will fill our nostrils with fragrant sage, thyme, and chives.

Happy Easter!