Here's my umbrella. notice the decorative duct tape!
Pole Bean and Cucumber Support Ideas
Are all the patio umbrellas made with wooden ribs?
No, I think the wooden ones are called "market style". I happened to have this old broken one that I used sometimes when doing work outside. My other one is metal.
Oh! I forgot - I also have cucumbers on an old trellis... the plants are still small, so I'm not sure how they will do... I pushed three of those green metal stakes into the ground about 18 inches, then used zip ties to afix the trellis to the stakes.
Good Grief does THAT look nice. look at that drip irrigation!
Why THANK you... no wonder I wasn't on DG for months...
The good news is that next year, I will simply need to move the legume watering scheme (looped soaker hoses) to the brassica bed (drip), and move the brassica watering scheme to the curcurbit scheme (as you can see - looped soaker hoses).
I was actually SO determined to never have to deal with watering again, I build all of my beds to accomodate the same size hoses. They all look different, but they are all the same length!
It will be so fun to just unscrew the hoses from one bed and move them to the other!
That's really quite impressive.
Happygirl, I'd love to hear more about your looped soaker hoses. I'm with you and want to never have to deal with watering! Where did you get your drip hose?
When I lived in the PNW I always grew my pole beans with my corn. It always worked as a great trellis. But since moving to Texas, I think I better take some notes here. lol I don't know if beans and corn grow at the same time here. I'm growing my 1st vegetable garden (in TX) this Fall.
Saving this thread for future reference!
Bump!
Did ya'll have any AFTER pictures of the beans and cukes growing ON the trellises above?
hmmm,
Well mine took off all over the place; I had to put extra fence support. I'l have to go taller this year somehow
But I don't have a final picture, but this was it mid way.
This will be my first year on my new homestead to plant lots of beans. Money is kind of tight after paying cash for the new place. I wanted something similar to the cattle panel tunnel trellis, so I used a roll of cement strengthening wire and lots of rebar (both of which I already had) to make a similar trellis. It's 35 feet long and 8 feet high. Beans were planted on it 3 days ago, and are already popping out of the ground. I planted several different varieties, and the Chinese long beans and the red yard long ones are already putting on their first leaves! (I soaked all of the beans in water with H2O2 before planting them.) I'll try to get a photo posted soon. I am so far out, that my only connection is a very slow dial-up, and it takes forever to upload photos. ~Diana
For the cukes this year we plan on getting the builders mesh at Lowe's or HD, since they're the same price. The panels are 42" by 84", so we'll have them standing 7' tall. With a 6X6 mesh, we should be able to reach right through and pick'em pretty easy, and using 5/8 or 3/4 inch rebar pounded into the ground that should be sturdy enough to hold everything fairly well.
I also plan on using this mesh for the tomato and bean plants we plan on growing in the 5 gallon bucket containers. We have some other old storage tubs that have served their usefulness and will be new bean & tomato containers. Has anyone though of using these old tubs for this type of project???
my sister has a very tiny yard. she grows her tomatoes and other plants in big rubbermaid tubs an has them on wheels. She's pretty successful with that.
Lot's of folks use the cattle panels from TSC or some other farm supply store. One of these days I'm going to get around to doing the same thing!
Janet
I think any strong support that's at least 6ft tall with another 2ft or so in the ground is good for pole beans.
One problem with weaker supports is that when the mesh/netting is coverd in beans, it can act like a sail on a windy day!
I used rabbit fencing for my small area with beans. It worked well. But there was lots of room on the back side (2+ feet) to get my hands in there. I ran some cardinal climber up the fence with it for the hummingbirds.
