Select the best garden supports for your plants…
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Adding garden accents can be a great way to give your outdoor space some extra flair. But picking the right accessories for your garden can be tricky. Here are a few of our favorite garden accents that add both style and function.
A garden structure is an essential piece of equipment for any gardener. Not only do they add style and function to your ornamental garden, but they can also be used to support climbing plants in the vegetable garden as well. Plant supports keep plants healthy by keeping them off the soil where most diseases start and also serves as an efficient way to conserve space. Additionally, since trellises provide shade on the ground and protect against wind, all without blocking the sun for your vegetables, trellises ensure that your garden will have fewer weeds. This makes them a must-have for any gardener who wants to add year-round beauty to their garden. Here are a few things to help you select the best type.
You can use arbors to anchor your space, create a magical walkthrough, and support climbing plants such as indeterminate tomatoes, cucumbers, vining squash, melons, and loofah. Growing climbing vegetables over an arbor will also save ground space and can provide shade to crops that prefer less sun. I love to use two arbors in a 4’x 8’ bed as seen in the image below. Plus, by incorporating climbing vegetables into your home garden, you can add crops that offer a lot of harvests!
A-frame trellises are another great way to maximize your garden space; they take up far less room than traditional, vertical trellises and let you get creative with your vegetables. I personally feel like they are superior to tomato cages since they are aesthetically pleasing and serve a multi-purpose. I like to plant my bush tomatoes inside the A-frame, and vegetables like tendril climbing peas on the outside of the A-frame for a combination of height and companion planting. Through my own observations and loads of research, the peas provide the much-needed nitrogen boost at the start of the season for the tomatoes. Then, as the peas near summer and die off, the tomatoes are able to get large and fruit like crazy! You don’t really need to tie up the tomatoes either. They just fit in the space and the top growth gets support. The garden below is an old one of my personal garden. You can see the tomatoes, peas are on the sides, and there’s still tons of room for everything else!
Bamboo poles are another excellent choice for vertical gardening – they look great and come in a variety of sizes, plus they’re lightweight and easy to move. I use 8’ bamboo poles in my vegetable patch each year to keep pole beans like the Kentucky Wonder off the ground, so I get bigger and healthier yields. The bamboo poles also provide handy support for peppers and other climbing vegetables, ensuring I have a constant supply for salads or stir-fries throughout the summer months. You can also see my bush beans on 4’ bamboo poles in the photo above, next to the tomatoes and peas. Growing vertically can open up a world of possibilities in the garden, protecting climbers from disease, pests, and competition with other plants.
My personal favorite statement piece in the garden is the obelisk. Growing vegetable varieties for small spaces like mini melons and edible nasturtiums have become increasingly popular over the last few years. But many gardeners don't have enough vertical space for these vegetables to flourish, so the creative solution is to create obelisk structures for them. Obelisks are triangular-shaped frames that can be placed in a pot or even your garden bed, and act as trellises for vegetables like melons and nasturtiums to twine around and grow upwards. Once built, you can easily train the vegetables to spiral up the structure, providing adequate support without taking up too much horizontal space. Who knew healthy eating could look so good? Here is another example in my own garden below.
If you're looking for a way to easily spruce up a boring garden bed against your house or wall, consider installing a flat panel trellis! Not only will it provide an eye-catching aesthetic, but it also gives fruits such as grapes and hardy kiwi ample vertical space to climb toward the sun. This trick can be used to create lush plant walls that are both useful and beautiful. You can see this exact trellis climbing the side of my house, which will support a quick climbing clematis and also a slow old-fashioned rose that will take time to meander up the wall. If you need more ideas on vegetables that grow best on this style of trellis, reach out and we can create this look in your garden.
The right trellis adds aesthetically pleasing structure and form to a garden, while providing unique support for climbing plants. We’ve explored the various ways that trellises can be used to help climbing plants flourish: through arbors, bamboo poles, a-frames, flat panels, and obelisks. While they all have different advantages, based on the space and type of garden, they all serve the same purpose - creating beautiful focal points within your garden design. Even if you’re starting from scratch or just looking to spruce up an existing area. Don’t be afraid to experiment with your trellis designs – create a garden that speaks to you. And remember, it doesn't have to be complicated! What is your favorite garden structure to use for climbing plants? I would love to read all about it in the comments below, so let me know - I'm always eager to hear from my readers!
Just a reminder that our seed-starting workshop is quickly approaching! We will meet live on March 10th at 6 pm EST, where we will cover dates & timing for starting seeds, equipment options, prepping your space, watering techniques, indoor starts vs. directly sowing outside, potential problems & solutions, along with our tried and true process to maximize success! I hope to see you there!
