Creative Tomato Trellis

In this raised box I have tomato plants...... 18 Russian Black Heirlooms and 2 Fantastic Slicers.  (again, all started from seed!) Why the mix???  Well, I read that heirlooms are often temperamental and one way to get better production is to introduce another variety for cross pollination.  So, I pulled 2 of the Russian Black's and planted the Fantastic's.  

So here is the trellis I've built.  I used 6' fence post.  For the cross sections I used construction stakes and fastened with wood screws.  The wire mesh is the type used when they pour concrete (I'm sure it has a proper name) but let's just say I got lots of strange looks at Home Depot when I was trying to fold these 8' sheets in half to get into the Jeep.  We didn't have a heavy duty wire cutter so I decided to use my new tree pruner.... but I needed Mr. B to help me cut the wire mesh.  So between the two of us we got it cut.  I have a sore shoulder and elbow, but we got it cut!!! This we laid across the stakes to create the trellis for the tomatoes. 

Yes, looks like we ruined the tree pruner, but I have a trellis for this tomatoe bed that I can store in the winter and move around in future years!!

And...GOOD NEWS..this morning I saw little tomatoes forming  .. yeah!!!  we may have tomatoes to eat yet this summer!
Off To The Dirt!!!

Potatoes, Level 5, and stopping

I'm stopping this potato tower at level 5.  This last time I broke two of the plants off during my building up with straw and compost.  It's getting to unwieldy to pack in the compost without breaking branches. 

But the remaining plants look good and are robust.

Are there actually potatoes growing in this cage???

Off to the dirt!

BeanFest

Celebrating July 4 with the first harvest of bush green beans.  They grew from little bean'lets' to 5" in about 4 days. These are started from seeds, Speedy Bush Bean from Territorial Seed Co.  They were to come into maturity in 50 days.  I planted them the week of April 10.... so I'd say that this cold and wet spring definitely slowed the growth since the first picking is about 75 days out.

The edamame are beginning to bloom so hope to be picking those in about 20 days.