Green Bean Fort

Our new garden is about the third of the size of our previous one.  This has is pros and cons. (One pro I am so happy with is less weeding.)

The biggest con is that it is not big enough to grow everything I want to.  One way to solve the lack of ground space was to plant vertical.

In the spring I worked very hard building my plant growing A-frame out of 1 x 1/2 boards; I screwed it all together, stained it and then it tipped over and many of the 1 x 1/2 broke!  I had a feeling that the 1 x 1/2 were not strong enough. So I re-built it with 1 x 1's; I screwed it together, stained it, nailed wire netting to it, and... It worked!  I was worried it was too tall and that my little baby plants would never grow all the way to the top making it feel like a fort.

See picture below:

Little did I know that not only would they reach the top, but they would also start growing down the other side!

On the east side I planted green beans. They did great and produce the most in my history of gardening.  They were also easier to pick this way.

On the west side I planed cucumbers, squash, and a cantaloupe.  I didn't mean to plant the cantaloupe on the A-frame.  I produced a few cantaloupe, but it didn't like being vertical. 

The fact that it created a fort for the kids was fun.  It also provided shade in their sand box in the after noon.  Hannie loved crawling under it to find green beans.