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Trading spaces, saving spaces

Posted on May 31st, 2006 – 5:36 PM
By Jaime Chismar

The beds are tilled and my seedlings are ready to go — But where?

Unfortunately, my garden impulse buys are becoming organizational headaches.

Last year, I relied on companion planting to maximize my space. It was great for plants that can tolerate a little crowding like herbs, beans and greens, but not so great for veggies that need lots of sun (and pollination) like tomatoes and peppers. Between the squirrels and all the tangled-bee-thwarting foliage, I was lucky to get a tomato or two a week.

This year, I’m little short on garden space and a little behind schedule. I’d like to blame our hot and humid Memorial Day weekend for my disorganization. However, at this point in the growing season, my enthusiasm has become my biggest enemy.

Purple potatoes? Gimme, gimme, gimme — I’ll take ‘em all! Woo Woo!

(Note to self: Next year, do not plant an entire bed of potatoes on a whim because you will have no room for your pickling cukes or fancy melons.)

So, how do you “make do” when you run out of garden space? Try container planting? Edible landscaping? Sneak next door and plant in your neighbors’ beds?

I bought a copy of Square Foot gardening for some ideas, but I’m a little intimidated. Anyone have success growing melons or cukes on a trellis?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 31st, 2006 at 5:36 pm and is filed under Container gardening. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

13 Responses to "Trading spaces, saving spaces"

Corey says:

May 31st, 2006 at 11:10 pm

I’ve had trouble getting cukes to climb trellises. Of course, my trellises were built from the dried stalks of the giant sunflower plants I grew the year before, in a fit of madness, and the cukes were those giant weird-looking ridged japanese cukes that get three feet long.
Those cukes need lots of space, and I decided to skip them since I also was running short on space this year, after carpet-bombing my garden with onion sets and planting WAY too many tomatoes. So I went with two varieties of bush cukes, which I have grown in the past and had a lot of luck with in a small space. So I crammed six hills of cukes into a space that should’ve had only two or three. Open warfare between the cuke vines will no doubt happen, and right now I’m betting that The Picklers will be triumphant, after a lightning raid against the neutral zucchini.
The resulting battle will be entertaining at least, with all those plants crammed into a small space and fighting for territory in an orgy of Darwinistic strife. Once one variety becomes ascendant, I’ll start leaving the cukes on the vine to slow them down, and relentlessly Miracle-Grow their neighbors.

Greengirl says: Outwit, outgrow, outlast — This sounds like a recap of Survivor: Exile Garden. Personally, I’m rooting for the zucchini. One plant will take over your yard, your house and everything in between. Please, keep us updated!

BTW: Is this a portrait of you? Hilarious!

debw says:

June 1st, 2006 at 6:12 am

I have very good results growing cucumbers on a trellis of tomato stakes and string. The stakes provide support for the wind and the cukes climb the string mesh. I make a network of down strings and cross strings that are 8 to 10 inches apart.
I looks like a really big net on two stakes when I am done.
I did not have as good of luck with the melons when I tried that. They got too heavy even when I made slings and put stuff under to support them.

Elizabeth says:

June 1st, 2006 at 7:18 am

I LOVE square foot gardening!!! My husband just built new boxes for me last weekend and they are planted and ready to go. If you really read the whole book you will find lots of ideas regarding quantity of plants, spacing, etc. You will also read that seeds last a long time if stored properly, so buy some compact bush cukes, plant them and yes, you can get them to climb a trellis. Good luck.

Greengirl says: Last night, I finally checked out Mel Bartholomew and his square foot mania. He’s incredibly thorough, detail orientated and organized. I don’t see myself converting to his method, but, you’re right, Mel has some great ideas for small spaces.

Tracy says:

June 1st, 2006 at 9:04 am

I’ve grown cukes on trellises for several years and it works great. The trellises I have are actually collapsible bamboo tepees that I got at Bachmans (I think they still sell them). They still take up space, but I can get about 12-16 plants per tepee. I grow Straight Eight, which is an heirloom variety that doesn’t get too terribly huge.

And I sympathize on the potatoes - I did the same thing this year. The romance of French Fingerlings and Purple Vikings was just too much for me. It seems that last year in a catalog I saw a container you could use specifically for potatoes, potato barrel container, but now when I google it, I just find a potato barrel that is only sold in the UK: http://www.ferndale-lodge.co.uk/pd_559171.htm. How cool would that be, though?

Greengirl says: Waaay cool! Can you imagine the look on your guests’ faces? “Welcome to my back yard. Would you like to try a patio potato?”

Sonya says:

June 1st, 2006 at 9:40 am

I am trying a modified square foot garden this year. I made the trellis in the book and that thing is solid. It was really inexpensive and realistically I think you could make it yourself. My husband made mine, but it’s just assembling pieces. I’m using mine for tomatoes and peas. I also started tomato plants from seed this year and have so many that half get the trellis and the other half will get the normal tomato cages plus stakes and twine as they grow out of the cages.

The trellis from the square foot garden book would work really well for cukes. The author claims it works for melons as well, unfortunately melons won’t grow where I have my garden so I can’t test that theory.

Good luck.

Greengirl says: Cuke vines look capable of supporting the weight of their fruit. But melons? It could be a set-up for heartache.

Michelle says:

June 1st, 2006 at 1:42 pm

Hey Jaime, not really a comment about garden space, but I’m still enjoying the blog! Saw this, and thought of you!

Greengirl says: Aw, yeah. As a Pepper Pimp, I know all about hoes. Love it!

Ben Reebs says:

June 1st, 2006 at 2:40 pm

Hey Green Girl,
You covered us at SustainLane a couple days ago. I just wanted to let you know, Minneapolis came in #10 today in our 2006 US City Rankings for sustainability, which came out at midnight last night. And you guys have 6 farmers markets. Kick a–! http://www.sustainlane.com/article/850/
You rock!

Cheryl says:

June 1st, 2006 at 4:55 pm

Well… one solution was to make my husband dig another garden plot! My mother used to sneak in a few containers or plant little bits here and there in with the landscaping. At our house we just don’t plant every thing every year. This year I’m into potatoes, but I’m not growing pinto or black beans. I plant lots of tomatoes one year and lots of cucumbers the next. Pumpkins only every other year because they take over whatever space you give them. (One year the vine went over the 6 foot fence to the neighbors and grew a huge pumpkin hanging 5 feet in the air - scary.) I hit up the Farmer’s Market for whatever I don’t have space for each year.

Greengirl says: This year I may have to choose between planting cukes and planting melons. Rebecca from Veggie S.O.S. swapped me a Suyo Long cucumber seedling for one of my Hungarian Heart tomato plants. My impulse buys from Seed Savers may have to wait until next year to be planted.

We’re lucky to have six farmers markets in the metro area.

debw says:

June 2nd, 2006 at 7:00 am

You could always “cage up” the space greedy spuds. I actually used to grow all my potatos in rabbit wire cages with great results.
1. You put down a 3 to foot circle of the caging wire where ever you want. I had a weedy patch that needed smothered so I got dual duty.
2. Place potato seed on top of mulch material.
3. Cover with at least 6″ more mulch material.
4. Wait for sprouts to come to top of mulch. Add more mulch to leave just the tips of sprouts peek out. Repeat until you run out of patience, mulch, or until fall when the sprouts ripen
and turn yellow.
5. Lift cage off and discover how many spuds you have.
This works well as there is no digging and if they can grow great potatoes in Idaho in sand then this is more humane to the spuds than that!

andra says:

June 4th, 2006 at 8:24 am

I always grow my cukes up a trellise, actually it’s an ugly little piece of fencing that I put in the garden. When the cukes start growing I coax them into growing vertically. The cukes are easy to pick, they don’t have any white spots and I hardly use up any room in the garden.

Lilas says:

June 4th, 2006 at 1:03 pm

I always plant straight 8 cukes and have them climb up a tomato cage.
Doesn’t take much room and up they climb.
Home Depot has some very high tomato cages that I bought a couple of years ago. The more rings the better.
Lilas

LARRY says:

June 8th, 2006 at 2:59 am

how else to grow cukes but on a trellis? my garden is right up to the south wall of my house, and a carpenter friend made me a almost free trellis in about 15 minutes. that was 2 years ago, and i still use it. with his screw gun and a bunch of drywall screws left over from a job, he simply put in a row across my wall at a reachable height, and another row at the bottom of the wall. this extends the full length of my garden. he then had me weave strong twine up and down, around the screws. another friend then wove small green tree branches into the twine web, and thats it. looks really cool, and the entire wall is covered with sugar snap peas and cukes, which are planted just in front of the wall. i do have to trim or re-direct the vines at the top, or they will grow up to the roof. i suppose you could grow just about anything up walls like this. if i had more wall, i’d try beans flowers, and whatever else likes to climb. makes my garden almost twice as big, and looks great. i have another wall done this way with morning glories. very easy to pick, too.

Kristine says:

June 13th, 2006 at 3:48 pm

Hey GG,
I planted some cukes for the first time last summer; I planted two plants on each side of one of those metal arches you can pick-up (cheap) at Joann’s.
I have two of the vintage motel chairs under the arch, so if the cukes grow all the way up and over this summer, it will be a nice little shady area to rest…
KK

Greengirl says: Oooh, cucumber arches! I would love to see a photo in September.

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