Trellis

I think I've mentioned that I don't really know what I'm doing with this garden.  But I will say, there was some slight foresight.  After reading Mel's suggestion to trellis vine-type veggies, we thought that sounded like fun  So we planted the squash, tomatoes, peas, and vine flowers around the edges of the garden box with the intent to trellis them.... But what to use as trellises (trelli?  trellium?  I don't know the plural of trellis.  Maybe it is just trellis.  Like Moose and Moose)


Options:
1)  Build one  - like Mel did in the Vertical Gardening chapter of Square Foot Gardening
2)  Urban Recovery - I was walking through the neighborhood and look what was in a vacant lot!!   Pre-built trellis!!  Ok, it's actually a disassembled attempt at chain link fence and I was a little worried that the metal might burn the cute little plants in the summer heat.  Or that perhaps my idea of "urban re-purposing" could be misconstrued as criminal activity.

3)  Purchase -  some of the heavy duty durable plastic ones.  I've had coworkers recommend them.  And I think they'd work great, but were just a little more investment than we'd wanted

We decided to go with the building-our own route.


The Supplies:

• 4' Garden Stakes
• Trellis Net
• Rock Hammer (somehow this one finds its way into all the yard projects)
• Zip Ties

The Manual Labor:
Bill rock-hammered the garden stakes at the corners of the raised garden box and then practiced his balance beam skills stringing the trellis across the stakes.

I came in behind and zip-tied the trellis to the stakes.  I find it a little strange that Bill has a supply of zip ties in his toolbox.  Is this something normal people keep on hand?

The only worry we had about using the trellis netting instead of a rigid plastic one is that if the veggies got ripe at the same time it might get too heavy and weight down the garden stakes and net to where the trellis could collapse.  So Bill anchored a few spots to the yard fence to give the trellis something a little bit heartier to support it.

I have a lot of fun picking on Bill.  He's really good at most everything, so I took a moment to show off my small and dexterous pygmy hands to knock out the tiny zip ties.

Ta-Da!  Done!  Good Work Bill!  Especially with the snow peas growing like weeds!