Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Stupidest garden plan EVER? ->Use the Leftover Seeds

Mystery beans.  Attacking my feet.
What do these have in common: cucumbers, luffa sponges, mystery beans, indeterminate tomatoes, watermelon?
 
Answer: They are all high maintenance.  They are runners and climbers.  That's probably why I didn't plant them and the seeds were leftover in the many little boxes of my cabinet.  But THIS YEAR  I came up with the stupidest garden plan ever! Use the leftover seeds!
Cucumbers overgrowing their trellis.


I'm going to give yoga lessons with my new mantra:  "It's a blessing.  It's a blessing.  It's a blessing."   Alternating with: "Waste not, want not," "Use it or lose it," and "WHAT WERE YOU THINKING??!"

"Let the sky rain potatoes," Shakespeare wrote.  As the people underneath no doubt chanted, "It's a blessing.  It's a blessing.  It's a blessing."  Did they have yoga back then?

If you are blessed enough...

to make this mistake, here are the next steps that will save you time:

  • Order a bundle of 100, six-foot bamboo stakes from your local nursery.  They will cost you, but not more than a week's worth of groceries and you are going to get SO much more produce than that.  And they last for years and years without painting.
  • Get some zip ties.  Dollar tree has them in the tool aisle if you want to start small.
  • Take a group of 3 bamboo poles and zip tie them together about 4 inches from one end.
  • Spread the bottom out into a teepee shape among the running plants you have too many of.
The bamboo teepee won't work on the tomatoes or watermelon, but you have just reduced your summer gardening work by 25% by getting the plants off the ground where the fruit can be picked and by making the world's fastest trellis!

Tell us how this worked for you, if you were as shortsighted as me and planted hundreds of climbers this year!  They always produce well.  It's a blessing.

Luffa, the zombie of the gardening world.  Nothing can stop them.

2 comments:

  1. Or you can also just harvest fresh bamboo stakes for free from my mother's yard as her next door neighbors were thoughtful enough to plant it in their yard ;)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Let's do it! When's the bamboo party? I'm in!

    ReplyDelete