It seems to be the week for getting trellises up in the garden. My first chore was the trellis for the plum tree. I originally was going to make a fan shaped trellis with my bamboo. But then I decided it would be too close to the fence and I wanted more airflow. So I got two T-posts. I wanted to attach them to the fence with some U-brackets. But no one seemed to sell what I wanted. So I bought some L-brackets and bolted two of them together. These brackets were to hold the T-posts away from the fence and provide that needed circulation. Putting them up wasn't as easy as I thought it would be. One side had concrete coming in from my neighbors brick. So I had to move it over a bit, but it just fit. And the close side that you see had the latch for the fence gate. If I attached it normally it would have blocked the latch. So I twisted it slightly at the bottom. It isn't quite as strong of an attachment to the fence, but it works.
Now I should have gotten this in last year when the tree was planted. But did I? No of course not. Supposedly plums are hard to trellis. I guess I'll find out. Just what I need, a hard to train plant and me not knowing anything about it. I figured I'd just try to let it go fairly naturally in a fan shape, but keep the tree linear. But it would be so easy to follow the horizontal trellis line. I'll have to think about it. Oh and I'm keeping it way shorter than it grows naturally. I couldn't find a dwarf Green Gage plum. This gets to about 16' naturally. I'm letting it get about 6' here. It might be hopeless, but I won't know until I try. Its roots are constricted on one side by the rock wall. Maybe that will help to keep its size down. I could root prune it too. I've heard of people girdling it too to keep the size down. That sounds very risky.
Then it was on to the peas. I had the T-posts in, but I added the string. This is my old polished hemp string from last year. I don't like it as much as the new jute twine. Hemp is too rough on the plants. Jute is much softer. And in the photo you can see the three sizes of pea plants. The largest were planted in February. The next ones down in March. The last part that is just coming up - not that you can see it - was planted in April. Will I get different harvest times for them? Or will they all give me peas at the same time anyway?
OK the spinach isn't getting trellised. This is my spring planted spinach before I thinned it out. There are two sowings of it here. The first was in February. I couldn't do the whole bed then as the rest was still frozen since it was in the shade of the my neighbor's house. So the smaller plants were sown in March when I got back from vacation. I harvested the thinnings of the bigger plants. It was a lot more than I thought it would be. Oh and the winter sown spinach that I have been harvesting, well some of it is starting to bolt. That is about three weeks early this year. It seems like nature in general is about three weeks earlier than normal too. The flowers, the plants, and of course the weeds.
Though there weren't many weeds in the earlier sown spinach. There were a lot in the later sown ones. I wasn't thinning so much as weeding that part.
I read about your plum trellising with interest - I was thinking of espalliering an apple on my fence but I do like the idea of trellising it in front of it instead, the air flow in our garden is pretty limited so I suspect its probably not a good idea to compound that by putting it directly on the fence.
ReplyDeleteI was expecting T posts to look like, I dunno :-) Ts. I don't see that in your photos or in the images I found on the web...
ReplyDeleteSometimes they are called U posts too. The T part is for the underground part that goes crosswise to the post (hence a T). It helps keep the post steady. It is sometimes called a U post because the metal that is the post is in the shape of a U all the way up and down its length. It makes the post much less likely to bend.
DeleteI love T posts and use them for everything. Cheap and easy. I'm curious about the peas and harvest times.
ReplyDeleteHi Daphne, Did you use the jute twine on the plum tree trellis too? I have those T posts for a trellis for growing pole beans and another one for cukes but we used green wire. It stretches tho. do you have to replce the jute twine every year? Thanks. Nancy at Cozy Thyme Cottage
ReplyDeleteNo I used a galvanized wire for that. The permanent trellises always get wire. The jute only lasts a year so I use it for things that get taken down. It and the plants go right into the compost pile. That is the reason I like jute over nylon. It is easier clean up.
DeleteYour tree support looks great. I hope the tree cooperates with you and the project grows out beautifully. The pea supports look efficient and tidy too.
ReplyDeleteI think your plum project will work out just fine, tho you might have to prune a bit more to keep that tree as small as you want it. I have two apples in a very informal arrangement on the back garden fence. One started two years ago and one this spring. So they are nothing spectacular yet. What I would dearly love the right spot for is a fruit tunnel; they just look so cool in English garden books with all sorts of apples, pears and such growing in a tunnel shape. Of course someday I want a belgian fence too!
ReplyDeleteI have figured that our weather is about a month or even six weeks ahead of schedule, now the question is will fall come that much earlier or will it come later? mmmmm
I am so jealous of your spinach. I chitted my seeds and planted them out and tiny sprouts came up but nothing else has happened. They have stayed tiny.
ReplyDeleteYou will be busy harvesting in a few weeks time. The johny's-jump-up will give you plenty of volunteers if you let them seed.
ReplyDelete