With no rain on the horizon and lower temperatures, I finally had a chance to work on the low raised bed with the logs in place. With the winter squash getting so big right now, it was getting to be a “now or never” situation!
These are some before and after pictures. I started on the side facing the high raised bed first. The vines needed to be lifted safely out of the way, and I was able to use the pea trellis to hold them.
I look forward to when we have our permanent trellis beds done. The temporary trellis is fine for beans and peas, but can’t hold the weight of squash vines. The permanent trellis tunnels will be built with the weight of large vines and heavy squash in mind.
Once they were safely lifted out of the way, I went over the path with the weed trimmer, then rolled the 18′ log towards the high raised bed. I did some weeding on the inside of the where the log was, then used a stirrup hoe to loosen and level the soil under where the log was. Then, cardboard was laid out so that part of it was covering the soil inside the bed, as well as under the log. The cardboard got a soaking with the hose, then the log rolled back. I have a couple of 4′ lengths of wood cut for the ends of the trellis bed that ended up not being used. I set them against the high raised bed and the log to both keep the path at 4′ wide, and keep the log from rolling out of place.
Then I took the wheelbarrow and forced my way through the overgrown grass – some of it reached to my shoulders! – to the wood chips. One load of wood chips was enough to lay on the outside of the log, using my foot to press them solidly under, so it won’t roll away, plus some on the cardboard on the inside, too.
Once that was done, I could take the vines down from the netting. The less time up there, the less chance of damage, though some did get damaged as I was doing this. When laying them down, I set them to train them to grow along the sides of the log, rather than into the path. Some of the vines were growing adventitious roots, and I made sure those were over the wood chips.
I had considered not doing the short ends at all, but in the end, I went for it. The squash at the ends are the largest, and there’s no trellis netting at the ends to hang them off of, so greater care needed to be taken to move them aside.
I did the south end, first, using the same process: move the vine, weed trim, move the log, weed by hand, cover with cardboard, soak the cardboard, then put the log back. With this one, I had a rock I could use to keep it from rolling away, as I didn’t have any wood chips left. When returning the vine, I worked it around so that it will grow along the side of the log I’d put the wood chips against.
Then it was time to do the other side. This time, I weed trimmed the path, plus the end, and moved both the 18′ log and the 4′ log at the North end, then hand weeded. This side required more leveling of the soil as there was quite a gap under the North end of the 18′ log. I had just enough cardboard left to place on the ground, then rolled the logs back. This time, I had a wheel barrow load of wood chips ready and waiting, and got that laid out on both sides of the logs. Last of all, the vines were laid down and laid out in the direction I wanted them to grow. It wasn’t intentional, but I ended up with the vines all running counter clockwise around the bed.
What I am not going to do is permanently attached the end pieces to the side pieces, yet. There’s too much risk of damaging the vines. We’ll do that in the fall, when it’s time to get it ready for the winter. Having the cardboard and wood chips down will be enough for now.
That done, I decided I needed to set up a temporary trellis for the melons. Getting the permanent supports isn’t going to happen quite yet, and the melons were starting to make their escape!
Since this was going to be a temporary trellis, I made it closer to the middle of the bed, rather than the outside. I had recently picked up more plastic coated metal supports at the Dollarama recently, in 4′ and 5′ lengths. I set up six of the 5′ lengths along where the melons are growing, then added 4′ lengths across the tops.
The netting I had was quite a bit longer than the bed. After setting the netting in place along the melons, with jute twine woven through along the bottom to hold it in place, the excess height was draped over the top. I didn’t open up the excess length, and wrapped it around the other side.
Once that was secured, the melon vines needed to be trained up the netting. If I’d had some, I would have used more of the 4″ square trellis netting. With the finer mesh, I wanted to make sure the melon vines were all facing the outside, so they can be more easily tended and harvested from. Some of them were so long, I secured them by fixing one end of some jute twine to the bottom, wrapping it around the stem of the vine, then securing the twine high enough on the netting to hold the vine up. Now that they’re set where they are, their tendrils will naturally start grabbing onto the netting as they grow, but until then, I’ll be checking them and training them towards the netting.
It may be a cooler day today than the last couple of days, but it was still hot out there. I’d considered doing more weed trimming around the house when I was done, but I was just too hot, tired and dehydrated by this time. So that will wait a bit longer. Tomorrow is supposed to have a high of 18C/64F, which will be perfect for the weed trimming. Most areas are still too wet, but we might be able to get at least some areas mowed. Unfortunately, the temperatures are supposed to start getting hotter again after tomorrow, but at least we’re not supposed to be getting more rain. We’re still waiting for the yard to dry out enough to finally be able to use the truck to get that tree off the outhouse!
I’m happy to finally get as much done in the garden as I did today, though. With the temporary melon trellis up, there won’t be any rush to get those vertical support posts in place, so we can take more time to do a solid job of it.
Little by little, it’ll get done!
The Re-Farmer
The Re-Farmer 