July in the Garden: Right Side Bed 4 — Cucumbers, Beans, and the Cattle Panel Trellis

Welcome back to my garden adventures. I hope you're growing and thriving right alongside me.

For this post I am skipping over Right Side Beds 2 and 3 to jump into the fun chaos of Right Side Bed 4. As I noted in the post Garden Notes: What's Growing On, I started my cucumbers in ground and protected them from spring pests (mainly slugs) and cooler temperatures with milk containers with the bottom cut off. If you have struggled with pests eating your seedlings before they get a chance to grow or cooler temps like I experienced this year, I highly recommend adapting a version of this protection.

After three attempts last year getting cucumbers to grow bigger than the first set of leaves before being eaten, I decide to try covering them. Instead of rushing to the store to spend additional money, I looked to items I had on hand to see what I could do to protect the plants and enable them to grow and thrive. The milk cartons were perfect. With the bottom cut off, I was able to place them over the soil where the seeds were planted. I also left the top off so the seedlings didn't get too hot if temperatures were warmer than expected. The milk cartons became an instant mini greenhouse - protecting the young plants from pests, creating some additional warmth while still letting light through.

After that great success of starting cucumbers last year, I knew I was going to do that again this year. To give the best possible start to the seedlings, I left the containers in place until there were two sets of true leaves. I was nervous taking the containers off the plants this year because our spring night time temperatures were definitely cooler than last year. But, I took the chance and the cucumbers did not disappoint!

Below is a photo from June, the cucumbers, beans and flowers were doing well.

I planted two seeds per section of cucumbers to ensure at least one seed germinated. This batch over-performed; I think every single seed germinated. I didn't thin any of the seedlings out because I wanted to maximize my harvest from this space. As you can imagine, with all these plants thriving, this bed is quickly becoming a wonderfully dense and productive jungle of vines and leaves!

To manage this vigorous growth and provide the necessary vertical support, I've integrated a cattle panel trellis at the top of this bed. You can see how it's aligned with the bed (and you'll notice it prominently in the full garden layout picture from my June post). These panels are incredibly sturdy and provide an ideal climbing structure for both my cucumbers and pole beans.

For extra guidance, especially for the cucumbers, I've also attached garden twine to the cattle panel, running vertically down towards the plants and horizontally to connect to the cattle panel aligned to Right Side Bed 1. This gives the delicate cucumber tendrils something to easily grasp as they begin their climb, helping them find their way up the panel. It's a simple addition that makes a big difference in preventing sprawling and maximizing vertical space.

While the cucumbers are certainly stealing the show with their vigorous growth, my 'Rattlesnake' pole beans in this bed are also absolutely thriving! In fact, their growth has been so prolific that I've found a clever way to manage their abundance and maximize my harvest. I'll be dedicating an entire post to these amazing beans and my solution for their outstanding growth very soon. Keep an eye out for that update!

We are looking at this bed with my back to the left section of the garden. The cucumbers are planted on both the left and the right side of this bed, but more plants are on the left side. On the right side, you can see a bottle standing upside down. Knowing cucumbers planted this densely were going to need more water, I looked into options for cheap (or free) watering options. That's when a homemade olla system came to be. 

So far, this combination of dense planting and robust vertical support has proven highly effective in Right Side Bed 4. I'm truly impressed with how these cucumbers and beans are thriving with the cattle panel and twine system, demonstrating that even with a 'jungle,' you can still achieve impressive growth.

Below are some pictures of the garden twine attached to the cattle panel running from Right Side Bed 4 to Right side Bed 1.

I can dive into a homemade olla system in a future post if anyone wants to know more.