[Squashmania]

So Jersey Giant Chick is right with tunnels to extend your growing season at the “shoulders”, to start earlier and finish later.

Private Cluck is also right with trellis……To conserve space, I may have a thought to combine the two.

This will take some imagination, so come with me on the magical mini garden tour!

Imagine February and you start with the trellis curved into a tunnel with plastic over it. It will be a low tunnel with the plastic extending our over the ends and twisted and weighed down

Not like a greenhouse end wall. More like the twisted plastic wrap over the end of a loaf of bread. If you can gather neighbors’ veggie scraps and put a compost pile IN the tunnel, BOOM, heat for a better start. Think of your cold crops. Spinach, kale, chard, pak choi, etc. In a row at the back, plant some peas. When the weather starts to get better, mid-March, let’s say, move the “tunnel” and make it a trellis for the peas.

Meanwhile, you can start some seeds indoors and avoid the pricey plant starts. DIY garden. And you can even check out some local libraries that have seeds to “lend”. Don’t forget to put a marigold in for bug control, and because flowers make people happy. A tasty bug controller is a nasturtium as well. The flowers and leaves are edible and the flowers are beautiful in salads, and are reminiscent of wasabi. This incorporates Big Kidd’s interplanting. Later the peas will give way to a cucumber or squash or malabar spinach, all vying for trellis space. BE PICKY. Lesliensky is right on the $$. If you only have (—–) this much space, grow what you like. You may LOVE radishes with wild abandon, and they only take 20 days. Or you may not be able to live without X, Y, or Z. The longer the growing season (parsnips are around 100 days) the longer a bed space is “taken up”. You may also find new varieties that you never tried before (strawberry spinach or lemon cucumbers, vine peach cantaloupe) Then, in the fall, the summer trellis can stay busy as a tunnel to finish out cauliflower, or keep the pepper plants popping!

I hate to say it, but this topic has me SO excited to plan the garden for next Spring. We’ll just stop by to help 😁🤣

• This reply was modified 2 years, 1 month ago by  Squashmania.
• This reply was modified 2 years, 1 month ago by  Squashmania.
• This reply was modified 2 years, 1 month ago by  Squashmania.