Morning Glory Tower

After reading about morning glory towers on The Coconut Palm as well as looking at photos of them on flick like this one I decided to try one. Basically you sink a big pole into the ground, plant morning glories under it and watch them grow. I made my pole fifteen feet out of two six foot and one three foot bamboo canes. Here are some photos of its placement in the garden and how I linked the canes together:

I placed it in the front garden and it is just above the potato bin. I sunk it two feet into the ground so the vines have about thirteen feet to climb.

The six foot bamboo canes were fastened together by creating a flat surface with a chisel were the two canes meet. I then drilled corresponding holes into the canes and bolted them together.

Then with the pole at a length of twelve feet long, I drilled a hole in the top of the cane and drove a three foot cane into the top with wood glue. This formed the full fifteen foot pole for the vines to climb on.

To end things off this is the variety I am growing. It should be fun to watch them grow and blog about its progress. The growth habit also creates great lighting to photograph the blooms.

More warm season crops planted

This week I decided it is time to plant all the warm season crops that have been in the poly tunnel. It has been unseasonable cold lately so I have been holding off planting them. I have since lost my patients so in they went. This is my pepper bed. Last year it took ages for the peppers to mature so this year I am trying black plastic on the soil. It is a pain to install and plant so I hope it was worth the effort. This bed consists of the following peppers from large to small, Jimmy Nardello's, Big Chile II, Ancho and Purple Peppers from Annie's Kitchen Garden. They will all get a bamboo stake soon, as I found out last year, it is easier to stake now then in August when the flop over.

To plant in the black plastic I cut an X and planted
the plant. The X will also help with watering the bed.

The first pepper, this one is a big chile II. It must have been pollinated
by one of the bumble bees that kept getting trapped in the poly tunnel.

This is a bloom on one of the Jimmy Nardello peppers. If you
look closely you will see a green aphid taking refuge in the bloom.

I have also planted my yellow eggplants. They certainly don't look very healthy at the moment but I am confident once they settle into the soil they will green up again. They are also planted with black plastic like the peppers.

The last of the warm season crops are the cucumbers, squash & melon seedlings. They have yet to be planted but will make it into the soil this weekend. Most are doing well except the armenian cucumbers. I planted two pots of them, one wilted and died at the seed leaf stage and the other pot is currently wilting and dieing. I will have to direct sow them and hope for better growth.

Thursdays Garden Meal

Things have been pretty slow going in the garden meal department. With the spinach done the only thing that is readily available at the moment is lettuces. In fact it is almost unbelievable how much lettuce has been harvested, about 5 pounds of mixed lettuce and close to 8 pounds of romaine lettuce. Needless to say we have had to share some and I think I might just be green inside after eating so much lettuce. Today's garden meal was a simply Chicken Cesar, here are some photos:

The Harvest

Here are two of the eight heads of romaine that have been harvested. They all weighed in at around a pound each so they are some hefty lettuce. There is currently 4 heads left in the garden but they are bolting. Not sure if they have gone bitter from it but it certainly would be okay with me if they end up in the compost.

The Meal

No need for a recipe here. It is simply romaine dressed with good ol' kraft dressing, grilled chicken w/ sweet BBQ sauce and topped with fresh cooked bacon & croutons. Anyone have any salad ideas for lettuce left in the garden?

Tuesday Photography

My Tuesdays photography post has been on hiatus for a while so I thought I would snap some photos well grilling dinner. I decide to only include ornamental plants around the yard this time and I will start will the potted plants.

Here is how the front urns & window box are planted this year. I am included these as requested by Susy at Chiot's Run. I was commenting about how I planted veggies in the front planters on her post about edibles in the ornamental garden and She asked if I could post photos of them. The edibles in the planters are Tuscano Kale and Cardoon. Also in the mix are Calibrachoa, Bacopa & Zinnia's all in orange, red & yellow tones.

Here are the back urns in front of the shed, how swank right. They have spring pansies and will be changed out to summer plantings soon.

This is a cement pot in the back shade border. It is planted with a mix of impatiens this year.

This is the first bloom on the marigolds I started from seed.
The seed is from Skeeter at In The Garden

Siberian Iris

Columbine

Hosta 'June'

Cimicifuga ramosa

Northern Lights Azalea

Bleeding Heart w/ Pulmonaria in the foreground

Chandelier Primula, this was just planted. As it matures it
will bloom in multiple rings up the stem.

Fuchsia in a hanging basket

Rodgersia & Hosta 'June'

Painted Fern

Melon trellis debut

Last week I finished the new melon trellis and it just so happens to be the last thing I have to build in the veggie patch for the foreseeable future. I'm happy that now I only have to focus on planting, maintenance and harvesting. I built it much like I built last years trellises except a few minor adjustments due to its placement and height. Here are photos of the new trellis and the changes I made this year to suit a difference area of the patch.

This is the new trellis that I am going to train melons up. I had 8' 2x2 to build it and lots of nylon trellis netting so I decided to just built it 8 feet high. It meant less cutting & waste. If the melons managed to climb that high I will just have to use a ladder to harvest them. Further building instructions can be found at the link above.

I build my trellises so they are removable due to the fact they are against the house. If any maintenance needs to be done they can easily be removed. Making them removable also has the added benefit of separating the main structure of the trellis from the ground so it should never rot. In this photo I just attached a cleet to the raised bed frame and then bolted the trellis to the cleet.

On the other side I ran into the problem that there is no place to bolt it to. I solved this problem by digging a whole in the ground to form a mold, I then added concrete and pushed the cleet into it. Once the concrete hardened I then removed it from the ground and placed in into the veggie patch to hold up the other side of the trellis. I could have poured the concrete right in the veggie patch but I didn't want to muck up my soil.

The last change from last years trellises was adding a top support because the trellis is so high. I just used a scrap piece of 2x2 and attached it to the brick with a 45 degree bracket and a tapcon fastener.

I then installed black plastic below the trellis for added solar heat. Melons love heat so this should greatly increase my melon yield by keeping the soil warmer in the early and late part of the season. To install it I really soak the soil first, I then tucked the back edge into the soil and secured the front edge with rocks. Now when I need to water I can just lift the front up and thoroughly soak the soil.

Well there you have it, now I hope it warms up enough to plant the melons soon. This week is running rather cool, with any luck it will be the last of the cool weather. Our average temperature this time of year is 22c(72f) and it hasn't been nearly that warm the past few days.