Suburban Gardeness: A Weekend of Gardening

I spent the entire weekend in the garden, trying to get all of the cool weather crops planted and the 4th raised bed finished.

After picking up some more compost the bed was finished and then the square foot grid was added. I didn't quite stick to my plan, but I actually think this layout will work better. Since making the plan I decided to grow more cabbage and after reading more about companion planting the onions were moved further away from the peas. I tried to keep in mind where the earlier summer veggies would be planted and either left them empty or they were planted with the fastest growing varieties.

The peas are up! So I also decided it was time to add the trellis support.

I pre-sprouted all of the peas this year and it seems to have paid off. I'm growing 3 types of peas. 2 are bush varieties so the only support they need are some sticks, stuck into the ground to prevent them from falling over in the wind.

I'm also growing a row of vining peas. For the vining peas I constructed a bamboo and twine trellis.

Rabbits are plentiful in our yard but they seem to be lazy rabbits. Because my raised beds are already 11" high and rabbits typically won't go over a fence 18" high; I needed to find some kind of rabbit fence that was at least 7" tall. It also needed to attach to and be easily removed from the bed (by me and not by the rabbits!)

I've seen on several websites that others have had success with plastic fencing on raised beds. While I'm sceptical because I know rabbits can chew through plastic, I decided to give it a try. If the plastic works it will be easier for me to disconnect the fence from the posts and bend down the fence when I need to harvest and replant.

When I bought the pvc pipe for the hoops I had them cut to 8'. The pipes were 10' before so there was a 2' section of each pipe left over. I used these 2' sections as my fence posts. The plastic fence was attached to the bed with galvanized staples every 6 inches. The fence was attached to the post using twist ties. I'm only 1/2 way finished with the fence but you can see what it looks like here: