We've gone vertical in the garden this year with lots of trellises for the pumpkins, cucumbers and zucchini to climb up. And climbing is what they are doing! With all the rain and now sun they are growing at a rapid rate. The trellises are working well and I reckon they are a great way to grow rampant vines like pumpkins if you don't want them to take over all the ground space. Ours are nothing fancy - just some twine strung between nails in the fence and pergola for the smaller squash and zucchini, and thin wire for the heavier pumpkins like the Queensland blue (too thin and there is a risk of the twine breaking under the weight or cutting through the vines). The cucumber trellis is a gate that we found on the side of the road and we are even using the chicken coop as support for a pumpkin!
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| Gem squash - we've been harvesting lots of these |
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| Trombone zucchini |
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| Queensland blue pumpkin |
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| Butternut pumpkin |
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| Another Queensland blue on the back fence with some corn in front |
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| Compost pumpkin (trying to encourage this one up the tree) |
Can you see the holes in the the leaves of the bottom picture? This is the result of the huge hail storm that hit us on Christmas day. We actually got off lightly compared to some. Poor
Phoebe's garden was completely trashed. :( LittleFB is very happy that we are growing so many interesting (and big) zucchini. In fact, he was so taken with this giant trombone zucchini that he wanted to sleep with it last night. We compromised and it spent the night on his bedside table, "as decoration".
How are your pumpkin/zucchini/cucs going this year?
Great use of space going vertical, it probably helps with preventing mildew etc. too. x
ReplyDeleteI love your photos of climbing curcubits so much that I think I'll have to plant a few (despite my defeatist attitude that the rain in Sydney would wreck them!). I think that you are right Zara, that it probably helps control mildew.
ReplyDeleteThey look great!
ReplyDeleteI've grown pumpkins and melon both vertically, but I did find it helps to reinforce the vines every so often with a soft tie to keep them from slipping off in bad weather. And it's really worth putting a "sling" of bird netting or other flexible mesh around the fruits as they grow. I've had a few instances where they've fallen off if not supported.
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