One of the most surprising ways to use garden trellis netting is in vertical gardening situations. Tomatoes, beans, cucumbers, and even melons can be grown up a trellis, allowing you to isolate and limit these larger plants to a smaller area. A properly designed garden using trellis can allow you to grow plants you never expected possible in your confined space.
Square foot gardening is one of the systems that frequently uses trellis netting for vertical gardening. The concept with the square foot garden is that all of your plants are grown in 4×4 boxes separated into 1 square foot spaces. Most plants are allocated 1 square foot for growth, while some of the larger vine plants are given 2 square feet.
In order to grow a melon vertically, you must first establish a sufficient trellis structure to facilitate its growth and support its weight. A pipe or wooden structure to mount the garden netting will be sufficient for most types of plants. As long as the trellis is sufficiently strong to hold the weight, your plants will have little difficulty holding its own fruit.
As the plant grows, you will simply want to assist it onto the garden netting. Weave the vines in and out of the net grid, and watch as the plant grabs hold and ascends the structure. Once the plant has established itself and begins to fruit, you will want to check the trellis for stability. If you feel the plants are having a difficult time with the fruit, you can wrap old pantyhose around the fruit and attach it to the netting.
Watering your vertical plants is actually considerably easier without the large leaves on the ground. You can directly water the root structure and avoid the disease problems of having the fruit and leaves on the ground. This can also help to lessen the infestation problems of bugs attracted to this type of vine plant.
Once you have made it past your initial reluctance to try vertical gardening, you can begin to enjoy the variety and uniqueness that trellis netting can add to your garden. And remember, you needn’t restrict yourself to just melons, virtually any types of spreading vine plant can be grown vertically with success.
Comments on this entry are closed.