Sweet Hanging Squash!

Posted by Katie in Blog | Comments Off on Sweet Hanging Squash!

Jan 18, 13

Grew my cucumbers on a trellis last year, and it was so successful I can’t to do it again this year.

I saw this picture on Pinterest today, and I had to write a quick blog post about it!  I actually tried a simplified version of this in my own garden last year.  You can actually train most veggies to go up a trellis – saving you TONS of space in your garden.  I was successful with watermelon and cucumbers, but as you can see with this picture you can do it with tons of other plants including squash, pumpkins, eggplants and more!

As I said, this saved me so much space in my garden, but it also improved the condition of a lot of the produce as well because it wasn’t laying on the ground.  My cucs, all had really great shape and colour was lovely all around the entire fruit.  It can also prevent leaves from getting many moulds and bacterial infections because they don’t get as wet laying around at ground level.  My garden starts right at the edge of my house and extends out into the lawn, so I planted all my “vine” plants at the back with trellis’s leaning up against the wall, and then my smaller bush plants, (beans, carrots etc.) in the front.  It makes a beautiful 3D garden with tons of veggies in a small tight space.  (Just make sure you have healthy soil!)

I pulled this pic from Pinterest – but it shows you can get really creative to create amazing garden features with your veggies.

Another favorite product of mine for growing ‘upward’ are the woolly pockets.  If you haven’t seen them before, and you like gardening – you are going to LOVE them.  They are waterproof pockets that allow you to grow vertical gardens not only outside – but inside too!  They make gorgeous living walls in homes, but are also being used by community gardens in inner cities where they have limited space.  The pockets allow planting to go several rows up.  Personally, I wouldn’t put large plants in them, because I think there would be limited soil nutrition available over the life of your plant, but for herbs, strawberries, radishes, or small bush beans – you can’t go wrong!

If anyone is curious by the way, I order all my seeds from The Cottage Gardener, which is a organic, heirloom seed company that is local!  (They are based out of Newtonville, just east of Bowmanville).  Its a family run business, and I actually just got my 2013 seed catalogue in the mail from them, so I’m getting ready to sit down with a cup of tea and plan out this years garden.  If you would like to order some seeds and try out this fantastic idea, you can order from their website too!

If you’ve had these kinds of successes in your gardens, please let us know in the comment section!  We would love to hear from you.

See The full gallery of Woolly Pocket Gardens.  So awesome!