Trellising

I had plans to write about growing plants on trellises last year, but I never got around to it.  We have some latticework hiding our garden storage area and I was thinking about growing vining vegetables on it this spring.  Those plans changed when we decided to expand the kitchen into the garden storage.  We haven't done that yet, but I'm giving up on using it as a trellis.  I've decided to add trellises to each of my  raised beds to increase the varieties of vegetables that I can grow.

During the past several summers, I had constructed some sort of trellis for supporting pole beans, but it was always temporary or very last minute - it never lasted longer than the season and I would do something different the next year.  This year I'd like to do something I can use every year, but also, so that I can put it away in the winter.  There's a section in the "Square Foot Gardening" book about building garden structures, but I think I donated my copy during a recent decluttering.

While I'm curious about growing interesting vegetables, I'm also practical.  Recently I started growing only vegetables that I knew we would eat and growing as much as possible.  Some of the plants I plan to trellis are either curiosities or untested as to whether we will eat them.  I saw a photo accompanying an article on trellising and they grew pumpkins - they used stockings to support the fruits as they grew larger.  I want to do that!

So, my trellising - I'm definitely going to plant pole beans and cukes in the spring.  As it get later into the summer, I'll be planting more experimental plants.  In my search for vining plants, I've decided to try winter squash.  It's just another variety of squash that takes longer to mature, but will keep for a lot longer - good for use as a winter storage vegetable.

I got a dried apple gourd from a recent plant swap and at some point I cracked it open and collected the seeds.  I planted some last year, but they never made it out of the seed flats.  This year I think I'll plant some on a trellis and hopefully get some apple gourds of my own.