Organic Gardening

This will make my 4th year of non GMO organic gardening. I won't get in to the subject of genetically modified food here but will only say ...I won't eat it!

That said, my previous residence was in a residential neighborhood. I had a small back yard...fenced with chain link (hurricane fence as some call it) that was used by my 3 dogs. I did some research and learned about vertical growing. Each year, I planted tomatoes and cucumbers which I trained to climb the fence along with pole beans. I also grew various peppers, zucchini, squash and herbs. It worked out quite well and also gave me some much needed privacy as by summer, the entire fence was filled with leaves and veggies.

Cucumbers growing up the fence at my old house

Now here in the mountains, it's allot different! Every place I tried to dig I hit solid rock. I built my first raised bed from 4 pieces of 10"x10' wood and some wood screws. Add some lining and lots of good soil and presto! I was ready to go! My son sent me some non GMO organic seeds for Mother's Day and because of weather, I was unable to get them into the garden until the 2nd week of June. Now most people said it was a few weeks too late to plant but as luck would have it, our weather has been unusually cool up here and the garden is thriving! As long as we don't get an early winter, I think I'm good to go. I planted limas, bush beans and black eyed peas. Next to them, peppers and cilantro. The next few rows are cucumbers, water melon and cantaloupe.

3 weeks after planting

Corner poles are to help keep the corners from
detaching. I also planted giant sunflowers
in those corners to attract the bees :)

I use twine as a lattice, running it from poles attached to the side of the bed. As the climbing plants grow, I simply ad another layer of twine. So far, this seems to be working out quite well. I have to go out every few days and "train" them to stay in their little rows of twine but it only takes a few minutes.

I purposely put the vines on one side together. As they grow, I will lead them outside of the bed to continue their journey atop some garden sheeting to keep the insects off and stop rot from overly wet soil. They are almost ready to move now but it's been a rainy week so I will wait for the next sunny day and get it set up. More pics after I get this accomplished.

This will be a running post, showing the different stages of growth, harvesting, re-seeding and storage. Stay tuned!