My Cement Block Garden Beds Redo Part 3
The cement blocks garden beds redo is done. We are finished! Done! Done! Done! Happy dancing can now start, followed by printing out my garden bed planting pages for plotting out what and where will be planted next spring. I am like a child when it comes to planning the next year’s garden, even using colored pencils at times. laughing…
Strawberry Garden Box Area
This photo of the strawberry boxes is before we added soil, put the netting hoops up and replanted the strawberries. We added hoops inserted into the cement block holes for hanging the netting over to keep the birds out. The turkeys had wiped out most of my blackberries and an umbel or two of my elderberries. The netting is a must. The turkeys would really love the strawberries. Too bad for them.
This is the strawberry boxes area now after a storm with most of the strawberry plants going into their fall/winter slumber already and pine needles all over. When I replanted the strawberries, I sat comfortably on the bricks while working. I added a garden pad to put under my bony backside for extra comfort. I could also sit on a small stool easily. Working next year in the garden is going to be very easy on our bodies.
Garden Bed with Trellis Arch for Tomatoes
The tomato plant area was slightly changed. If you look at Part 2, I had tried to put 2 hoops as braces to bend the fencing over to make a trellis arch for the tomato plants. Once we wired the fencing to the hoops, we saw they would not be strong enough. We tried the rebar electric fence posts. Nope. We left it yesterday to mess with today.
About 12am last night, the perfect solution popped up in my head. We removed the fencing from the posts. I slightly widened the base of the hoop. Then I slid the hoop over the rebar posts to use as a stronger arch to support the tomato plants. We did the other side, then used baling wire to attach to the fencing, the posts and the hoop(s). Perfect.
It will hold a good load of tomatoes with ease. We will only be planting 4 tomato plants instead of 6. I could add two determinate tomato plants in the center. I probably will. I like to have a lot of canned tomatoes on hand. I may add garlic to the cement block holes. I have not decided yet.
Trellis Arches for Back Garden
This is what the back or side garden looked like after we took out the fencing, leaving planting humps we tried to grow potatoes in back in May. They did NOT like it back there. We got very little from the harvest. That can happen any time, of course. The plants did not thrive the way they do in their normal area. You do not know what works until you try and the seed potatoes needed to be planted before we finished the garden beds area we normally plant the potatoes in. See part 1 of the garden redo.
This is the finished area, except for getting more soil for the one green bean box and all of those cement blocks you see with the trellis arches on them. The arches are for peas. Lots, and lots, and lots of peas. Did I ever mention how much I love peas? laughing… I may use one trellis arch for pole green beans. Maybe.
So how does this set up work? The soil goes into the holes of the cement blocks and the seeds are planted in the cement block holes. Peas love to be “crowded”. I can plant 6 to 8 peas per hole. The trellis arches are to support the pea plants, of course. The determinate peas will go in the front kitchen garden area. They need 3′ tall trellises. The back will be for the indeterminate pea plants that need 6′ + of trellis to grow.
I used leftover cement blocks, and old 5′ and 3′ fencing cut into 12′ lengths. We got some rebar electrical fence posts to connect the fencing to, lining up the bricks in a way to form an arch with the fencing for the trellis and for it to be tall enough for me to get inside without crouching to collect pea pods.
For the 5′ wide fencing, we added an old t-post in the middle and tall bamboo poles woven into the fencing, placed in-between a rebar post and t-post for stability. All of the fencing is attached in 3 places with baling wire to secure and I tied hemp string to the bamboo poles and fencing to snug things up. Peas are not heavy, but wobbly arches may not work well.
…And there my garden is. I will finish putting the rest of the area to bed for the winter. Next spring, it will be a pleasure to work in the garden. No splinters, no back and knee aches. Win-win. Using some stuff on hand and adding the cement blocks and the rebar posts kept the cost way down for the final garden area. We will never have to replace the beds again. Yea!
Take care and hugs!