Back in the depths of winter, I decided to try some new things in the garden this summer. It's been a few years since the small beginner's garden that I started in 2017. I was ready to branch out! So I read some gardening books, watched some YouTube videos, and did some garden mapping. I came up with two goals for this year:
- Start cultivating fruit
- Experiment with trellising/fencing for cucumbers and for tomatoes
Here's how it's been going!
Adding fruit to our mini-homestead
This year I focused on 3 types of fruit--wild black raspberries, peaches, and elderberries.
The black raspberries (which I grew up calling just blackberries) are small and crunchy and juicy and taste of pure summer. My method with these was to corral the wild brambles we already had. In the spring, I selected 3 plants to keep, and tied their canes to 3 stakes. Two of the 3 plants did not like this at all. They had small, stubborn flowers, stunted leaves, and tiny, inedible, seedy berries. But the third plant was a success. It leafed out nicely, had normal blossoms, and set sweet juicy berries that ripened in early July.
Notes for next year: I'm planning to leave the same 3 plants and hope that the angry 2 can establish themselves better and be more fruitful. I will probably do a bit of pruning and tying in the spring and then leave everything alone. I did put some cheesecloth over the berries when almost ripe to protect them from birds--it worked OK though I think the cloth was a bit too thick (may have kept out some sun).
The peach tree that I planted on mother's day has a single, somewhat mangy-looking peach growing. I love it nonetheless because it is my first peach-baby.
Notes for next year: In the late fall or next spring I will prune the inward-facing branches to try to encourage the "vase" shape recommended for peach trees. This will be tricky because my tree has almost all its branches on just one side (it's a real left-leaning Vermonter). I'll also look into fertilizing it somehow. The library has a good fruits & berries book that I will refer to.
The final fruit that I added to our garden is the Elderberry. According to Nourse Farms, the nursery where I purchased the plants (which I received by mail in the midst of the pandemic lockdown), you need two types of Elderberry plants so that they can cross-pollinate properly. So I got one Samdal and one Samyl variety. This first year they are just focusing on growing, but maybe next year we'll have some flowers and berries. Then I plan to tincture the berries to create anti-viral folk medicine.
The plants are about knee-high right now (which is great progress from the small 6-inch sticks that I planted back in May).
Notes for next year: Some 4-stripe beetles set up shop in June and wrecked a bunch of young leaves. I used some organic insecticide soap to discourage them, and things seem better now. Next year I'll keep an eye out for them. And I'll look into whether I should prune or possibly tie back the plants, since I need them to stay in a certain amount of space.
The trellis experiment: new techniques with tomatoes & cucumbers
YouTubers make everything look so easy. I watched a bunch of videos about creating arched trellises and fence-like trellises for tomatoes and cucumbers, and it looked simple enough. I decided to do a tall fence-style trellis for the tomatoes. (It's like a fence, except the bottom of the fencing starts 18 inches off the ground.) And an arch-style trellis for cucumbers, so they could climb up and around and the cukes would hang off for easy picking.
There are 4 tomatoes plants along this trellis, and they seem very happy. Two of them are already taller than the fence (and taller than me). I use a green, plastic-y tying tape that I found at Agway to gently attach the plants to the fence. We have 3 varieties of tomatoes that are slowly ripening: yellow pear, a larger slicer that will also be yellow, and 2 plants of the candy-like orange Sungolds.
Yummmmmm.
Notes for next year: Not sure yet. I like this method so far, but we'll have to see what happens in the "heavy" months as these indeterminate plants keep growing and growing. (I learned from Youtube that indeterminate tomatoes, which are the type I have, will keep vining and growing unless they are vigorously pruned and "de-suckered." I'm trying to keep up with them!) In the past I have found that September is the time when tomatoes get so excited and branchy that they start to pull down whatever I've used to stake or tie them to. We'll see if this fencing holds up. I may need to move to industrial cattle panel.
The cucumbers are less excited about my trellising. They do not put ANY of their tendrils around the metal. Maybe it gets too hot for them? I have ended up tying the plants to the fencing, but they seem a bit sulky about it.
The arch is a little hard to see in the above photo, but there are 2 plants in the foreground that are planted on one side of the arch, and 2 plants across from them that are supposed to climb up the other side. They do not want to.
Still, they're doing their best.
Notes for next year: I like the idea of trellising, but I need something the cukes will want to climb themselves. More winter research is in order. Or leave me a comment!
The rest of the garden
Apart from my 2 goals, I planted some other things. Like 4 squash plants which is QUITE ENOUGH. I gave them extra space this year, putting two in the regular garden, one in the herb garden, and one in the flower garden. They seem pretty happy so far.
I planted greens fairly early (mid-May) and they've taken a long time to mature, but they're now ready. I have 2 rows of kale and one of chard. An early two rows of radishes have already been harvested, and now I'm trying some beans as a second crop in that spot.
The garden is a nice refuge at the end of a day. I water everything every day that it doesn't rain. I give the peach tree 4 gallons of water 3 times a week to help it establish its roots in Year 1. I spend some time pulling up grass and examining the tomatoes. It's exciting to have a meal with our own squash, our own cucumbers, and our own chard. I'm looking forward to a bounty of tomatoes very, very soon.
