How Does Your Garden Grow?

Ours is growing vertically this year.  The pic below is from a couple of weeks ago and features our first-planting of cucumbers and canteloupes growing on trellises made of lightweight conduit and cord.

The meter man came by when I was weaving the net on this trellis some weeks back and he was kind of freaked out by the idea of growing cucumbers on a trellis.  So freaked out that I didn't even mention the melons -- let him see those for himself.  What I did tell him was that cucumbers are an awful lot easier to find and pick when they're growing up than when they're sprawled on the ground.  The vines seem to stay healthier, too, probably something to do with better air circulation. 

We've tried a lot of different vertical gardening methods over the years, but the conduit trellises are my favorite.  They're easy to build, cheap (25 feet of trellis cost me about $15) and the frames last forever. More on how to build them here.  Even the net, which I make of garage sale macrame cord, will last several years.  Cages made of 5 foot fence wire or concrete reinforcing wire also last a long time, but they have sharp edges that always bring me grief at least a couple of times per growing season and storage takes up a lot of space.  The conduit frames nest on hangers or lean against the shed wall in the off season.

We're growing pole beans the same way, on conduit, but still using wire cages for most of our tomatoes and peppers -- supplemented with bamboo stakes and other long, skinny objects.  We have a few maters growing up A-frame arrangements built of tall wooden rose trellises acquired for a completely different purpose 20 years ago.   Those work fine, but time is taking a toll on the wood and that sort of thing is prohibitively expensive to replace.  When the wood packs it in, we'll probably go conduit for those, too, possibly something like this.

The photo at right is doesn't actually have much to do with my garden --but I have to include it because I've never seen blueberries growing in bunches like this.  It came from my mother's blueberry bush (she only has the one) which is about 25 years old.  The plant is in full sun and is surrounded by grass.  This year it had a huge crop of blueberry clusters like this one.  The plant is 8 to 10 feet tall -- it takes a ladder to pick the upper branches -- and about 6 feet across.  As far as I know, all she's done to it this year is keep it watered, but it's sure a happy blueberry plant.  

What's growing in your garden -- or, if you don't have a garden -- what's happening in your neck of the woods?