Growing UP

How to vertically grow Cukes, Pole Beans and Tomatoes

Growing vertically is one of my favorite ways to save space in an urban garden - and it is attractive - which is definitely something to consider when your space is limited, and your garden is your urban oasis and/or sacred space in a concrete jungle.  I love my visually pleasing walls of green plants, and I'll explain here how you can have them too.


Cukes:
One of the easiest (and most space saving) things to grow up are cucumbers.  I"m not sure why anyone grows them on the ground. Although I haven't really managed to get squash to grow airborne, the cukes LOVE to climb up a single vertical string.   Using the fence as a support, its a very low-tech project (the trellis-thingy in the background is leftover from last year's project).
You'll need:  

Some twine

Some tent stakes for camping

Nails.
a hammer,
& a fence. 

How to:
When the cukes are about a foot long (and starting to take over your walking paths), pound a nail into your fence as high as you can.  Tie some twine to it and measure down to the base of the cucumber.   Measure out another 6"-8" and tie the end to the tent stake.  Insert stake into ground so that the string makes a triangle with the fence and the ground.  Wrap any extra string around the top of the stake.   Gently guide the cucumber around the string a few times.   Check again in a few days, and re-wrap if it falls off.  Within a week it should be climbing. Helps save the cukes from bugs, too.

Pole beans:
First step, make sure you buy seeds labeled "pole beans".  I've found unlabeled beans to usually be "bush beans".  Bush beans grow quickly and compactly, can be planted as little as 6" apart, and produce their beans all in one big harvest.  They were developed by bean growers for easy growth and harvesting.   Pole beans, on the other hand, need to  something to grow up, but they also make beans all season long.   I've used the same "bean teepee" for three years.   Here's how to make one:

1.  go buy the longest, thickest bamboo stakes you can from your local home store.  (or I guess you could build them out of tree branches or something if you're a hippie :). You can have as few as three - I've got six on mine.  Decide where you want the feet to go - mine is a little lopsided because the right side of my plot gets the most sun.
2. Push them into the dirt, angling them toward the top of your pyramid.  (a friend might help with this part).   Hold the poles together, grab a piece of twine, and start wrapping it around (and through) the tops of the poles until they feel secure.   tie it tightly.
3. Plant a few bean seeds at the base of each pole.   As they start to grow, guide them around the pole a little until they get the hang of it.
Before you know it, you'll be pulling beans off this thing all season.   I think the beans are sweetest when they are small, and in August sometimes I'm harvesting every day so that they don't get too big!

Tomatoes:   Well, here are my "baby" tomatoes that I co-planted with a crap-ton of peas.  They are starting to grow on their own, finally, but they are still mini.  Although tomatoes can be grown on the plain old ground, most people prefer to grow them "up" to keep the fruit away from bugs, rot and disease.  However, there are as many ways to support tomatoes as there are gardeners, I think.   I'm starting these with plain old tomato cages - although these ones are the new, 54"-ers from Home Cheapo.   We'll see how long it takes to outgrow them.

 As for the main bed of tomatoes....Well, that was going to be Dawn's project last week.  And then she broke her collarbone, and the garden took a backseat for a little while.   In the past I've used bamboo stakes, string, cages, and wire fencing.  Now she's got some new hair-brained scheme, and since she's broken I'm going to have to be the carpenter.     We'll keep you posted on how that goes.

um, there are peppers and a zucchini plant under there.  Somewhere.

Until then, I encourage all you urban gardeners (and even some suburban ones) to grow UP!