Heirloom beans are a fantastic crop for the backyard gardener, and if you’re a bit cramped for growing space pole beans allow you to go vertical in order to increase your yields even more. So here’s Barb from her small but productive garden in Northern Virginia:

Springing for an Economical Mix of Pole Bean Seeds

Hiya, Kenny! I am going to report on beans today. This is the first year I have dedicated space to pole beans. One was an early producer called “Spanish Music.” The second packet was a mix of three different beans. This is what I want to talk about.

I have never been a fan of buying mixed seeds. Oh, I’ll spring for salad mixes, of course, but really prefer one-per-package. I guess it’s the purist in me. BUT this small packet of three pole beans has turned out to be the best investment made.

Painting an Attractive Picture for the Small Space Gardener

You know I have an extremely small garden space. I put in maybe a dozen of each type of bean seeds, taking slightly more than six linear feet. The mix had white, red and brown seeds. They grew into a yellow wax type, a lovely purple string bean, and a green bean.

The other packet, Spanish Music is a wide, flat bean that can reach 10″ long and a full inch in width and still not be tough.  Here it is, mid September. This small allotment of space for pole beans produces three pounds of beans a week! They have outgrown the trellis by several feet, and I have to use a ladder to pick the upper reaches.

For the small space gardener, this type of mixed packaging can be a real money saver. One packet of three bean varieties, and I still have leftover seed. If I had bought three separate packets I would have more unused seed than I could use in years.

Using that Valuable Real Estate under the Bean Trellis

Underneath the bean trellis, the leeks are growing and the summer lettuces are giving way to the winter salad greens. Earlier this season you wrote about leeks not liking beans. Now I can tell you why…

Beans have an amazing root system. The leeks which are closest to the beans, and I mean within a foot of the bean row, are not as large as those which are three feet away. But the beans will come down and those leeks will be harvested last. We’ll see how they compare at the end of the winter.

Thanks for all your help and advice, hope this letter spurs someone else to take a chance on a small space garden.

Thank you Barb for sharing this great advice on growing pole beans in the backyard and for your perspective from a smaller sized garden. Pole beans are extremely easy to grow, very productive, and ideal for planting in the confined quarters of a small space vegetable garden.

Hi Kenny!  You’ve been a big help to me in the past with my gardening stuff, so I just kind of wanted to show you what I got going on out there with my tomatoes.  You had mentioned the problems you had with cages and trellises… I did too so I started making my own trellises.

Creating an Attractive and Sturdy Tomato Support

They cost about 10 bucks each to make and take about 2-3 hours each, but they never bend or break, can be used for years and years, and I think they look beautiful.  These are not buried in the ground.

I used 4  pieces of 6 inch pipe  about 18 inches long… filled them with pea gravel about 6 inches, put in the trellis, leveled it, then filled it to the top with pea gravel (actually the top ½ inch is white marble for looks).  This way, the boards NEVER rot, I can remove it annually and redo stain and waterproof if necessary and the whole process of removal and re-installation takes about 10 minutes.

I am sending a picture of it early in the season so you can see the trellis and one late in the season so you can see the size the things get to in it. It is very heavy with fruit. I have been pulling tomatoes since the 4th of July (ended up being a pretty easy day to remember).

Extending the Reach of Your Tomato Plants even Further

A little magic fertilizer system helps with the size… the picture with me in it was taken about the middle of June; the plant is well over 6 foot now and has consumed the trellis.

Oh, by the way, you can’t really see them in the pictures, but the “extension” of the trellis serves a purpose later as the plant grows bigger around. I take wire insulation hangars, drill holes in the ends of the “extensions” and put the wire through them.

These hangars are very strong and take a heck of a lot to bend them. In essence, you end up with a “dual layer frame” type of trellis, and the outer layer poses no problems in reaching past into the plant to harvest yer bootie!

There’s More than One Way to Trellis a Vegetable Plant

As John has just shown, there are many angles to take in constructing a trellis or structure for supporting all of your homegrown veggies and fruits. There’s no right or wrong way, just whatever works for you.

The trellises can also be adapted or modified to support other vegetables and fruits. For example squash plants and even melon vines can be trained to grow and bear fruits on a trellis.

I still love the support system that I shared in my tomato trellising video, but there are so many great options and techniques for supporting your plants and they will all help improve production, plant health, and help maintain order out in the vegetable patch.

John M. has been gardening for ten years and has watched his garden grow larger with each passing season. Tomatoes are John’s favorite crop and they grow like trees in his backyard vegetable garden. He admits that it wouldn’t be possible without the religious watering, pruning, and nurturing provided by his lovely assistant Peggy!

Those tall things are actually my trellises for cucumbers, beans and peas. They are made from 2” x 4” x 8’ cedar, ripped lengthwise (@ 1.50” x 1.50” square). Before I cut them I marked out in 7 inch increments starting from the top.

Constructing a Sturdy Trellis for the Vegetable Garden

AFTER I ran them through the table saw I picked my upright pieces and tapered the ends so I could drive them into the ground easier, then picked my top sections and drove in a 1” roofing nail at each 7” line, centered on the width, leaving about an 1/8” between the head of the nail and the wood to allow for the string.

I then laid out my top pieces in the area I wanted to make my trellises and marked the spots for the uprights; my longest trellis is 15’ long so it needed a center post. I drove the uprights into the ground about 18 inches using a fence post driver that you use for setting chain link fence posts (available at any big box home supply store), leaving about 6-1/2 feet above ground.

Then I put my tops on and secured them into the uprights with a 16 penny framing nail (NOTE: I made a simple lap joint where I joined the two uprights together for my longest trellis). Then started my string on the nail closest to the ground and worked my way across, wrapping twice around each nail and moving up a row each time; my horizontal string is one continuous piece of string.

When I got to the last nail on the highest marked row below the top piece I tied it off. I then began the vertical string by cutting 7 foot pieces of string for each nail in the top piece, put a loop at one end that I hooked around a nail on the top piece and then wound it through the horizontal string wrapping once around each horizontal piece of string and tying it off to the lowest horizontal string.

Teaching a Few New Tricks to the Gardener, Plants, and Pets

LESSON 1: After you wrap around the lowest horizontal string keep going and secure the loose end to a stake you drive in the ground. I didn’t do that with mine. They have held up just fine, but if you “ground” them they will be much more stable, especially if you live a windy area (like by Lake Michigan); my beans and peas have mastered the “hula”.

String: For the beans and peas I found a great bio-degradable string at my local hardware store (I think it was about the 4 lb. strength type) which has held up great, and can be decomposed into the soil in the fall. My horizontal pieces on my cucumber trellis I used yellow masons string which is rated much higher in terms of weight capacity and I’m glad I did ‘cause them cukes are getting heavy.

I have read that some people use wire for their cucumber trellises or even chicken wire on a slanted growing trellis which I think I may try next year…I have discovered that you can teach a cat to sit a lot easier than you can teach a cucumber to grow straight upright, and my cat still won’t “sit”.

A Perfect Place to Relax, Unwind, and Enjoy the Garden

I put my trellises in BEFORE I sowed my seeds so I knew where to plant the seeds and didn’t disturb any underground growth, planted the seeds per the package directions, thinned as needed and then let them do their thing.

Another thing I did in arranging my trellises was to create a “quiet space” in the garden that I can go to, pull out my tailgate folding chair, sit, relax and enjoy a cold adult beverage in amongst the beans, cucumbers, dill, fennel and carrots and you can even catch a whiff of the basil if the wind is right.

This little area was something that my wife helped me create… we haven’t used it as much as we should have, but when I have it is a fabulous place to unwind.

P.J. Scott is a beginner gardener who discovered the joys of a backyard garden this season and along with his family’s participation has managed to create a beautiful and productive new vegetable garden on his very first attempt. PJ writes about hockey on the West Michigan High School Hockey Blog and contributes occasional articles here at Veggie Gardening Tips.

In either of these cases The Farmer’s Garden may be the perfect solution for sharing or locating surplus homegrown fruits and vegetables. Today’s entry is a conversation with Maureen Farmer, creator of The Farmer’s Garden, a new website devoted to connecting backyard gardeners with families in search of high-quality, locally grown food!

Veggie Gardening Tips: How did your interest in gardening and growing your own food begin?

The Farmer’s Garden: Four years ago, I tried vegetable gardening in one 3 by 6 cedar raised bed to save money and become more self-sufficient. I was so thrilled with the results that the next year I enrolled in the Connecticut Master Gardener program. I had a new found passion for growing vegetables and wanted to become more knowledgeable about gardening.

To become a master gardener, one of the requirements is that you need to volunteer a minimum of thirty hours on a garden related community outreach project of your choice. I volunteered thirty plus hours on an urban nonprofit organic farm in my city, and for the past two years have been a member of their board of directors.

Veggie Gardening Tips: What do you enjoy the most about growing produce in the garden, and what are some of your favorite activities?

The Farmer’s Garden: Every year I have built another raised bed on the west side of my house. I grow more varieties of vegetables every year and even built a cold frame so that I can start lettuce and spinach from seeds for an early spring harvest.

I usually pick more produce than I can eat, freeze and give away. I soon realized that I really enjoy giving my extra vegetables away to my family, friends, and neighbors. People seem genuinely happy to receive a bag of mixed greens or a zucchini and their happiness reflects back onto me.

Veggie Gardening Tips: How did you come up with the idea for the Farmer’s Garden and exactly what is it about?

The Farmer’s Garden: My profession is web developer/project manager and this spring I taught myself the PHP programming language to supplement my existing skills. The more skills I have listed on my resume, the sooner I will be able to find a job in these tough times. To practice, I created The Farmer’s Garden (www.thefarmersgarden.com) website so everyone can have access to locally grown food.

The Farmer’s Garden is the place to post free classified ads to sell, trade, or give away your excess backyard produce. Individuals and food pantries can also register to post wanted classifieds. If you’re looking for fresh locally grown produce, visit The Farmer’s Garden website, enter your US zip code, select the radius that you are willing to travel and see what people in your area have to offer.

Veggie Gardening Tips: Is there anything else that you’d like to share about your new website focused on sharing and finding fresh garden produce or about backyard gardening in general?

The Farmer’s Garden: Eating healthy nutritious food, knowing where your food comes from and supporting your local community are important. Share your surplus harvest with your neighbors. You’ll be surprised how good a small act of kindness will make you feel.

Saving money or making a little extra is also good, especially in today’s economy. Many backyard gardeners also grow varieties of produce not found in your local grocery store. This is a terrific opportunity to taste new foods.

If you don’t know how to prepare something, ask the grower. He or she will probably offer you several tasty recipes to try. You might even make a new friend in the process. The Farmer’s Garden is new, so if you don’t find what you’re looking for at first, try again next week. We’re growing every day.

Veggie Gardening Tips: Thank you Maureen for stopping by to share your new project with us. I think it’s a great idea and hope that others register and that the listings really take off for you! I’m in the directory and plan to start posting produce from my garden as the summer goes on.

Maureen Farmer is a master gardener and has loved plants all her life. She enjoys growing most of her own produce in raised beds. She hopes to have a greenhouse someday so that she can grow vegetables year round. You can join in sharing the delights of a local backyard garden by visiting The Farmer’s Garden.

The lucky winner of the $200 gift card is Brenda Brown of Shongaloo, Louisiana.

New Edibles and Ornamentals Coming to the Brown’s Landscape

Brenda’s name was selected at random and she has some great plans for the Home Depot gift card as described in the comment that she posted to enter the contest:

“I would like to have the $200.00 Home Depot gift card for the purpose of adding more edible plants to my landscape and split it with my husband who loves flowers and plants. We would like to fence our space also, so it would come in handy.”

“The state came through our living room, so we relocated and have a new home, we are working to get it landscaped and it takes time and money we don’t have, I would also like a water feature of some kind, Thanks and take care!”

You’re very welcome Brenda, and you are also invited to return and share the results of your handiwork right here after you have completed all of your new planting and landscaping. I really enjoyed hosting the contest and reading all the comments of ideas and plans for the various backyard DIY projects.

The Most Wanted Home Depot Backyard DIY Garden Projects

Close to seventy guests participated in the contest and the most coveted Home Depot DIY garden projects were; building a raised bed garden for growing vegetables, laying fabric or pavers for garden paths, constructing an arbor to train fruits or vines, and the island garden bed project. I think I will take on the arbor and island bed DIY projects myself.

There were also some great tips and ideas submitted along with your comments. Kathleen suggested combining different colored pavers to create a unique and eye-catching pathway. Barbee posted the idea of using an assortment of perennial bulbs, annual flowers, evergreen trees, and colorful maples to design an island garden bed that would generate interest during all four seasons.

MFree sparked my imagination with the thought of a DIY landscape project that incorporated stone pavers along with a stacked stone fire-pit. And Heather came up with the idea of using the island garden bed as a place to grow fruit trees, that just might work with my grafted apple trees that are in need of a permanent home.

Valuable Perks and Rewards for Garden Club Members

Finally, Barbee added an excellent reminder related to the Home Depot Garden Club:

“When you visit the Home Depot site, be SURE to join the “Home Depot Garden Club”! I did last year and if you like advance notice of special sale pricing and COUPONS… as a club member you are gifted with periodical mailings (via snail mail) with all kinds of juicy stuff.”

“I, myself, am a coupon NUT and I love that added benefit. Thank You both, Kenny and Home Depot for affording us this fantastic opportunity”

Thanks again to everyone for visiting this site and participating in the contest! And big thanks to Home Depot for sponsoring the $200 DIY backyard project gift card promotion!

The Home Depot is ready and eager to help by offering you some great DIY ideas and all the resources needed to plan and create whatever home gardening project happens to catch your eye.

To make things even easier, the Home Depot is teaming up with Veggie Gardening Tips to offer you a shot at winning a free $200 gift card that can be used to bankroll the backyard improvement that you’ve been dreaming about.

$200 Gift Card Giveaway Qualifications

To become eligible for the gift card all you have to do is use the following link to visit the Home Depot’s Garden Club and browse the selection of cool DIY projects that are on display. Once you spot one that would look great around your backyard, deck, or patio, simply return here to Veggie Gardening Tips and leave a comment below describing the project that you are longing to create!

It’s that easy, and someone will walk away with a $200 gift card courtesy of the Home Depot and be on their way to adding a special new feature or improvement to their own backyard. So visit the garden club right now and then leave your comment below to qualify for this free give away.

The gift card winner will be chosen at random and selected on June 19th so be sure to get your comments in before then. Anyone can participate and visit the Home Depot Garden Club, but you must be a U.S. resident in order to qualify for the gift card.

Invitation to the Home Depot’s Garden Club

A few DIY projects that will be of special interest to the vegetable gardener include those covering; “Starting Veggies from Seed Indoors,” “How to Build a Raised Bed Garden,” and guidance on “How to Plant a Tree.” You’ll also find projects to help create lush lawns, care for flowers, entertain the kids, maintain garden equipment, and construct features that will make your backyard even more inviting.

In addition to the DIY plans in projects, did you know that you can get answers to all your outdoor questions within 2 hours at the Home Depot Garden Club? There’s also lots of valuable information about your growing region, gardening advice from pros, and updates on local gardening events.

Go on, head right over to the Home Depot’s Garden Club, then stop back here to submit your comment and qualify for the $200 gift card that will be given away. The winner will also be invited back to share their finished DIY project right here at Veggie Gardening Tips if they are interested in showing off their results. So good luck… and what are you waiting for?

The plants listed here aren’t intended as companion crops for particular plants found in the vegetable garden, but rather to benefit the garden as a whole. In some cases the incentives are as simple and obvious as attracting beneficial insects.

In other instances the benefits of companionship are not as clear and based on less objective reasoning. Whether you call it folklore, unproven science, mere speculation, or poppycock, don’t be so quick to dismiss the subtle relationships that take place between these plants and their neighbors.

•    Tansy – This bushy, ferny-leafed plant will grow to heights of over five feet before putting on a showy display of small yellow flowers the will just about cover the entire tops of the plants. The flowers attract and welcome a variety of bees, wasps, and other beneficial insects to the garden.

Tansy can be a bit unruly so place it in a corner or in an area outside of your veggie growing beds and be prepared to keep it staked and tied  as the season progresses to keep it growing in an orderly and upright fashion.

•    Comfrey – This herb is a great garden companion that has suffered through a bout of bad publicity related to health concerns and debates over whether or not it is safe to ingest this plant. In the garden it produces large leaves on an attractive plant and clusters of light purple blossoms. Comfrey is a perennial that can be cut down to ground level and it will regrow several times during the summer.

A long row of these plants can be grown along the garden’s border to form a dense barrier that will help prevent weeds from migrating from the lawn to the garden. Comfrey also makes a great addition to the compost pile and can be used to create a beneficial tea to spray on plants throughout the garden.

•    Stinging Nettles – I devoted a previous article to Stinging Nettles because I like this plant so much. Call me crazy if you want, but I don’t even mind being stung by this plant’s fine needles as I provoke it by running my fingers along its stem and leaves. The stings will definitely grab your attention but don’t cause me any lasting discomfort.

There’s also an air of mystery surrounding this plant and it has long been revered by some gardeners as a great companion that should be grown near the garden and also used in composting and to create homemade plant growth enhancement sprays. Just be sure to plant it in an area where this spreading plant can be easily contained.

•    Sunflowers – It seems that everyone loves sunflowers, and why not; they are attractive flowers that come in many shapes, sizes, colors, and varieties. They are great pollen producers and will attract bees and other beneficial insects to their huge blossoms.

The birds that frequent your garden will also be rewarded with a crop of delicious seeds as the flowers reach maturity. The larger sunflower varieties can even be used to form a screen along the edge of the garden, or as supports for climbing plants such as beans.

•    Garlic – I’ve yet to come across a bug that targets the garlic growing in my gardens so that makes garlic a good potential repellant to spread around throughout the garden. I often allow garlic bulbs that were missed during the previous year’s harvest to sprout and grow as volunteers in the garden.

I usually plant any small and unused cloves that begin sprouting in storage. These garlic plants may provide some level of pest deterrent when intermingled among other plants that are growing in the garden. They also provide a source of garlic greens and baby garlic for kitchen uses.

•    Mushrooms – Even Master Gardeners are at a loss when it comes to cultivating mushrooms as a crop in the home garden. That’s a shame because these neglected fungi contribute an unseen but essential component to the health of the soil, garden, and plants. Landscapers, vegetable producers, and orchard growers are all rediscovering the missing link between fungi and plant health.

Mycorrhizal soil, seed, and root inoculants are growing in popularity as plant growth enhancers. Another way to help restore levels of important mycorrhizal fungi is to set up an edible mushroom patch in the yard or use a spent mushroom kits to inoculate compost piles or to spread in between raised beds.

•    Insectary Mixes – This one is just what it sounds like, a mixture of plant varieties that are designed to attract and encourage insects to visit or live in the vicinity of your yard and garden. The catch is that the beneficial insect varieties (think bees, ladybugs, and lacewings) are the ones that we are trying to make comfortable here.

The insectary plant mixes offer shelter and a dependable source of pollen and food that the beneficials can count on throughout the season. One popular insectary mix combines an assortment of plants including: Fennel, Cress, Chervil, Chicories, Angelica, Amaranths, and rare Alexanders, but there are many flowers, herbs, and even weeds that can be used to create irresistible insectary mixes.

The list of synergistic partners could go on and on with the likes of Yarrow, Melissa, Borage, and a host of other excellent companion plants! Variety is always a good thing in the vegetable  plot and these garden companions will do well in attracting beneficial predatory and pollinating insects, diversify the plant life found in your garden, and even add some unseen or unidentified agents that will benefit the garden no matter what you are growing.

I especially like to learn about the edible gardening practices and crops that are grown in other parts of the world. Some of the accounts force me to count my blessings when I consider the challenges that many gardeners are forced to contend with; harsh climates, poor soils, shortages of seeds and natural resources, and severely limited space to even plant a garden.

High Altitude Gardening in Patzcuaro, Mexico

It’s inspiring and encouraging to get a glimpse of your gardens and over the next week I will feature a few of them here at Veggie Gardening Tips. Churchill lives in Patzcuaro, Mexico and gardens with Andrew on three acres of land at an altitude of 7,400 feet. Here is her report from the garden:

Much of the soil is “adobe” clay, which turns into soup in the rainy season, and serious hardpan in the dry. However, we have a knoll upon which we grow incredible roses and flowers, and have started vegetable beds.  The knoll is rock and mulch which is made from wild crabapples, blackberry vines, century plants, and who knows what.

Sizing up the Lay of the Land Out in the Garden

From November though February we have frost in the night, which nurtures our orchids (in the wild apple) during most of the dry season (mid-October through May). In this area, farmers grow tons of cabbage, cauliflower, corn, wheat, hay & other livestock grasses, Swiss chard, spinach.

I’d give my eye teeth for collards! No seeds here for that, and they probably never heard of it. Locally they grow apples, peaches, nut trees, at lower altitudes, avocados, citrus, bananas, etc.  Pomegranate does well here.

I can’t figure out what our growing zone is, based on US growing zones, because of our altitude. The local “soil PH” is considered a “medium acidity.”  We do have pines and oaks at this altitude.  Our linguistic Spanish (Mexican) is poor at best. I am “guessing” at what may grow, and plant what I want, on an “if it works, great, if not, try something else” basis.

Rainy Seasons and Sunny Days South of the Border

Climate: now, that is curious (remember we’re at 7,400 feet).  In the summer rainy season, it can get downright chilly when the rains set in for three or more days, hot in the sun on clear days, and great in the shade.  Autumn is perfect. No more rain, but the soil is wet down deep.

Winter nights can get below freezing, but the soil never freezes, and the frosts nurture the orchids. Spring is hot and dry. I was born and raised in coastal North Carolina, and Mama grew all our vegetables.

This all boils down to “can I grow artichokes?” Whew.

Churchill, thank you so much for allowing us a peak inside your garden. Regarding your question about growing globe artichokes; with the wide variety of crops that you mentioned I don’t see any reason that they would not grow for you. They are a challenge here in Pennsylvania because they struggle to survive our winters. They also don’t appreciate the heat of summer but usually rebound nicely as soon as fall rolls around.

Just follow your prescribed pattern and try the artichokes on a “guess at what may grow, and plant what you want kind of arrangement… then if it works great, but if not try something else basis” as you stated in your email! I love the way that you summed up your planting strategy and hope you don’t mind that I will be borrowing that line in the future.

Next up is a visit to spend a little time at a friend’s organic garden in Northern Virginia.