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Supporting tall plants across a bed
BedsNotForSleeping
Posts: 1
Hello all
Absolute rookie gardener here looking for some help please!
We recently had some raised beds installed and had an absolutely fantastic summer with vegetables like courgettes, cucumbers and potatoes in one bed and tall things like sunflowers and tomato vines in the other.
But as you may be able to tell from the picture, we struggled to keep the sunflowers and vines straight up, even using tall canes. The beds aren't deep enough, and the soil isn't strong enough, to keep the canes standing straight up - especially not with heavy tomato vines. In the end I jerry-rigged a system where the canes were tied to a string that ran the length of the garage. But it didn't work especially well, resulting in leaning sunflowers and tilted vines.
Does anyone have a better idea for what I could do for next year please? I don't really want to attach anything permanently to the garage and would much prefer something free standing but really am open to any bright ideas.
Absolute rookie gardener here looking for some help please!
We recently had some raised beds installed and had an absolutely fantastic summer with vegetables like courgettes, cucumbers and potatoes in one bed and tall things like sunflowers and tomato vines in the other.
But as you may be able to tell from the picture, we struggled to keep the sunflowers and vines straight up, even using tall canes. The beds aren't deep enough, and the soil isn't strong enough, to keep the canes standing straight up - especially not with heavy tomato vines. In the end I jerry-rigged a system where the canes were tied to a string that ran the length of the garage. But it didn't work especially well, resulting in leaning sunflowers and tilted vines.
Does anyone have a better idea for what I could do for next year please? I don't really want to attach anything permanently to the garage and would much prefer something free standing but really am open to any bright ideas.
0
Posts
Attaching to the wall would be easier - vine eyes and wires are almost invisible
You could possibly think about trellis instead though. A couple of horizontal battens on the wall, and then attach it. That gives a good airflow round it too. You could paint it and that would be a feature in itself when there's no planting.
It'll also be worth adding lots of organic matter to the beds for over winter. That'll give your plants a head start next year.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Edited to add you would need at least 7-10 inches of soil to work so if your beds are only one sleeper deep on slabs it won't work