Beautiful!! I'm envious of your space. I don't have that much room, nor do I have a nice fence or place to put one.
Thanks for the photo.
Denise

Love the picture! How far apart are your vertical rows? I just bought a house and am looking forward to using the sqft method. I would love to plant cukes, watermelon, and canteloupe too. Do I need to have my rows running East-West so that my plantings are on the South side of the fencing? If I plant a row of cukes, followed by a row of canteloupe, and then a row of watermelon, will my space between rows need to increase to allow for sun exposure and air circulation?

Any suggestions will be appreciated!

Thanks,
boballi

boballi - be careful planting cukes & cantaloupes too close together. I made that mistake last year. The melons weren't impacted, but the cukes were decidedly strange. Not bad flavor, mind you - less "zing" (for lack of a better word), but the size, color of the 'meat', and texture was a bit off. Good ol' cross-pollination - gotta love it!
Ilsa

Thank you ilsa for the warning. I hadn't considered cross-pollination. How far apart were your plants?

boballi

My rows are three feet center to center and run North & South. A little closer than I would like but have had no problems with the fit.

Cross-pollination is an issue only if you're saving seeds. When a mother plant produces fruit, the purpose of the fruit is to propogate the seed. The seeds in the fruit have the DNA code from the mother plant and pollen. The fruit itself is unaffected, kind of like a cow's meat being unaffected even if it's impregnated. So a tomato plant that is cross-pollinating with a Pepper plant in your garden right "now" will have normal looking fruit...but the seeds will have mixed-up genes - they will grow a plant and fruit that won't be the same as the mother plant. A 'hot' tomato or a plump, round, catfaced pepper. That generation, the generation resulting from the original cross-pollination, is the F1 generation. It's a 'hybrid', a crossing of two kinds of plants.

Ilsa, your strange cukes were either a F1 or perhaps some other issue was effecting them?

Thank you everyone for your input! As a newbie, I really appreciate your help and advice!

mojogardener: What varieties did you plant? (cukes, canteloupe, and watermelon) Do the panels work for any type of watermelon, or just the "mini" versions?

boballi

boballi
I grew a pickling type hybrid of cucumber(Eureka) for dills, (sweet 'n early)hybrid muskmelon, and (crimson sweet) watermelon. I find it takes a little coaxing, but once they grab hold, they're gone! My watermelon ranged anywhere from eight to twenty pounds. Once they get to a pound or so, I make a sling out of some of my daughters old tights and tie each end to the trellis. I also sling the muskmelon. You can get those tights pretty cheap at the dollar store.

Thanks so much mojogardener! I was afraid that I was only going to be able to grow tiny melons, and with five kids, tiny melons don't go very far.

The tights tip is a great idea; I know we've got more than a few with holes in the knees.

boballi

Once you see those melons grow in the sling, you'll wonder how those kids ever put a hole in them? They're tough, but my four year old daughter seems to be a little tougher!

Plot Thickens - thanks for the quick "class"! No telling at this point, since those cukes are looonnnggg gone. Makes sense, though, that they would be an F1. Any sites you'd reccommend so I can learn a little more?

Ilsa

Last year I grew cantaloupe vertically via concrete reinforcing wire and when they ripened, they automatically and gently fell to the ground without squashing.

Here is a link that might be useful: Garden Corners

beeziboy, your vertical pvc designs are an inspiration. Looking at your pics from your Garden Corners link, it looks like you connected the frames of your 2X6 raised beds with perhaps 1.5 inch diameter pvc pounded into the ground? How deep are these posts? And you drilled holes into the pvc posts to connect those frames with screws? Then you slipped a smaller size (what size please!)6 foot long pvc pipe into it for a leg of the vertical frame? Then you used a 90 degree connector with a 4 ft pvc to be the top vertical bar? Did you thread or cement any of the pieces? Did you paint pvc with anything? How is the stability with weight and weather? Do you remove the pieces for winter storage? Do you add pieces to it for perhaps a greenhouse of plastic? I'm so curious! You've made me want springtime!

Your pics and sites like these have me itching! http://www.pvcplans.com/pvc-pipe.htm ~Tom

beeziboy,

You have a "picture" called Giant Tomato Trellis.doc on your site that I can't view, probably because it isn't a ".jpg" file. I think it may be the one that shows the details of your PVC corner-making technique. It's in a picture group all by itself. The rest of your pictures are quite interesting. You display a lot of ingenuity.

MM

Tom,

"... sites like these have me itching! PVC Plans"

I can see why. That PVC Plans website is very interesting. It's amazing the things people are making with PVC pipe and fittings. Makes me want to plan a PVC project, myself.

MM

Very well organized garden site. I plan on growing melons and squash up this year. Normally I let winter squash sprawl but it is a bit like the monster that took over the garden that way. As for cukes, I always grow them up, works great. Let you know how the melons go.

My 2 X 6 X 4' raised bed frames are connected at the corners with 1 1/2" PVC 5 1/2" long and sit on the ground. I make the completed frame in my workshop and square them up with temporary 3/4" scrap 12 inches long across each of the four corners. Standing in the middle, I can carry the completed frame to its permanent location in the garden.

The PVC corners are fastened to the sides with four 2" deck screws. Using the corners as sockets, 1" PVC pipe 4 or 6 foot long is inserted in each corner to serve as a trellis. These are connected at the top with PVC angles including a horizontal bar.

No need to paint the pipe as a UV inhibitor is included in the manufacturing process of the pipe. No cement is used either as friction holds it all together. This makes for easier dismantling for winter storage.

I'll post more pictures on my website.

Here is a link that might be useful: Garden Corners

I will be growing all of my vine crops vertically this year.

To view these photos, sign up for Picasa. Its free.

Here is a link that might be useful: Pics of Verticle Gardening 2006

beeziboy,

It looks like, with all that lawn space, that you don't really need to do vertical gardening.

MM

MM:

The reason I do vertical gardening is that gardening is a hobby and I enjoy figuring out ways to make it more enjoyable as well as bountiful. If I were to garden the 3 acres I have available, it would become a hateful job and would no longer be satisfying to my creative and inventive mind.

I am encouraging all homes, especially those with children, to establish a small raised bed garden in their back yards in order to demonstrate the wonders of nature and where our food comes from. The kids need outdoor exercise to build their bodies instead of the electronic gadgetry that is so prevalent today that occupies their minds.
Our colonial forbearers all had kitchen gardens at their back doors, why shouldnÂt we?

beeziboy,

"Our colonial forbearers all had kitchen gardens at their back doors, why shouldnÂt we?"

They also had "slop jars" and outhouses and if they caught small pox they were put in a "pest house".

But your point is well taken. Our kids do need to get outdoors for some fresh air and exercise instead of staying inside all day watching TV and playing video games.

I must say though, that if I had that huge level lawn, my Merry Tiller would be carving out over an acre of new garden.

MM

MM:

We have a Troybuilt tiller sitting in the barn and not using it for several years. Now all I need to take care of my 21 raised bed plots is a fork, rake and a hoe,

I am 91 years old and retired for the past 30 years. I have had acre gardens in the past so I know what is involved ----work!

I am more interested in sharing my experiences with the younger generation as well as figuring out ways to make the job more enjoyable.

Beeziboy,

Great photos of your vertical garden. I have two questions for you: What did you use to anchor the pvc in the corners of your raised beds? Also, could you please explain the bucket design and technique for your hanging tomatoes? Thanks! Maximum

Maximum:

No anchors are necessary. Just drop the 1" trellis pipe into the 1 1/2 pipe corners. Gravity and weight holds them in place.

I just drilled a 2" hole in the bottom of a plastic 6 gallon pail using a hole saw in my cordless drill.

I had to experiment a bit when inserting the tomato transplant in the hole. I used a coffee filter around the transplant to keep the soil from falling out.

Here is a link that might be useful: Garden Corners

beeziboy,

"I am 91 years old and retired for the past 30 years. I have had acre gardens in the past so I know what is involved ----work!"

No argument about that. You do have a few years on me, and I admire you for that, as well as your ingenuity in building vertical support structures.

MM

Beeziboy,

Thanx for the response. I'm anxious to try your hanging tomato plant design. Maxium

I'll echo the sentiment that beeziboy's pvc work is inspiring. (I actually was browsing the forum looking for ideas on the best ways to support flowering vines for a hummingbird area -- having taken one person's advice to "think vertical" -- and now am contemplating the advantages of PVC over wood, metal and wire. Thin black PVC pipes could actually make a nice contrast in front of the adobe-colored shed, and would never rust or rot or need painting...)

And my respects to someone who served in the Solomon Islands in WWII. From what I've read, it's the kind of environment where you're lucky if the plants and insects (and occasional giant lizard) don't eat YOU, much less introducing new food crops there!

Beeziboy,

We are also planning to grow canteloupes vertically and have found your photos and descriptions very helpful. What type of wire did you use to form the trellis part within the PVC frame? Also, do your canteloupes grow very far out to the sides? I want to make sure ours won't grow so wide that they will overgrow onto the plants next to them.

Thanks!