The giant edible trellis project suffered a bit of a set-back this week with the huge winds we had on Tuesday evening. The snow peas were all battered and torn away from the trellis. We’ve tied them back and hopefully they’ll quickly bounce back. We’ve been inundated with snow peas lately and are sharing them with family and friends.
The runner beans are finally running, although it is hard to spot them in amongst the mass of snow pea leaves. There’s even a few flowers on some of the beans. Hopefully they’ll be ahead of the snow peas soon and free to fill out the top of the trellis.
The leafy greens have completely covered the garden bed, inside the trellis. They’re making a great living mulch, as well as providing more than enough leafy greens for salads.
We’re now down to two giant tree tomatoes after one died in a hot spell we had a few weeks ago. They’re looking strong and healthy. We’ve started to tie the tree tomatoes back against the trellis and are pinching out all the lateral shoots to encourage the plants to grow taller.
All but two of the cucumber plants have died. They are now being swamped out by the snow peas. In future it might be best to sow cucumber seeds earlier, or further out from the base of the trellis to lessen competition and give them room to become established.
The watermelons are starting to vine, so we’re training them up the trellis with some baling twine. The leaves of the plants are spotted yellow, which we weren’t expecting. Although, this variety is called ‘moon and stars’ due to the yellow spots on the fruit.
The pumpkins are growing well, and will begin “vining” this week. In general the plants on the north side of the trellis are doing far better than the south side. I think the snow peas are proving too much shade for the south side at the moment. Within a few weeks the pumpkins and tromboncinos should be growing up the trellis and getting more access to light.
The companion flower bed is looking amazing. There are blue cornflowers flowering and the sunflowers are growing some massive heads on them. They should be flowering by Christmas and making a great display.
For more information on the inspiration behind this project and the rough plan, check out our original Giant Edible Trellis Project Blog Entry.
