The Modern Victory Garden

Harvest Monday Recap                          

Each Monday, Daphne’s Dandelions hosts “Harvest Monday” where everyone submits links to their blog posts summarizing their harvest for the week.   It’s fun to see what everyone else is harvesting from gardens in so many different regions.    Check it out and join in!                

The only fresh harvest this week was a small bit of lettuce that did not round up to ¼ lb and therefore is not included in the harvest tally, and some more fresh mushrooms.                                    

Currently, we are using a lot of stored, frozen, and canned items for our meal preparation.   Sunday I brought in a colander full of potatoes from storage to use in a large potato salad.   I estimate we still have about 40 lbs of potatoes left in storage after pulling these out.            

It is almost February and the potatoes are still in really good shape and the amount we have left should easily keep us fed until April, at which point the potatoes usually are sprouting too much for good eating anyways.          

We have eaten the last of the stored pumpkins and it was timely as it was starting to show some signs of softening.   Also in storage are the onions. I use onions in absolutely everything I cook (at least it seems that way!).   Sunday, I gathered up the remaining onions and picked out the ones that are starting to sprout or go soft.   All of the bigger onions have all been used up and I am now down to the small ones.   Some are no bigger than “pearl” onions.   They are still quite usable – just takes longer to peel and dice these small ones.                                         

If I use these judiciously, they should last me through March.   By then, the green onions growing under the protection of a grow tunnel should be ready for use and pick up where the stored onions leave off.                  

Harvest totals for the week of January 24th through January 30th (rounded to the nearest ¼ pound).                                

• Mushrooms 0.75 lbs

Total For Week 0.75 lbs

Total Year To Date 4.00 lbs                         

Eggs harvested this week - 38                                

Second Generation Horizontal Pea Trellis                      

It’s been a busy weekend.   On Saturday morning my husband and I headed out to Point No Point for a walk on the beach.     This is one of our favorite local beaches to walk because it is a really long stretch of beach, has a wonderful lighthouse at the point, is beautiful, and there is always something to see.   On this day, we were pleased to be able to watch a group of seals fishing just off the point.                              

On the way home we stopped in Port Gamble and enjoyed some barbeque for lunch at Mike’s Four Star BBQ.   We got home around 2pm on Saturday and I used the rest of the afternoon to work on the second-generation horizontal pea trellis project.                      

In 2009, I created a horizontal pea trellis using some nylon netting and bamboo poles that I had on hand and some minimal purchases of some wood posts and screw eye hooks.   Here is the first generation horizontal pea trellis as initially set up...                  

....and later that same first season as the peas were growing happily up and through the support netting.                                 

I have used this first design for two years now and I am totally in love with it because it allows peas to be planted in a full bed block planting – providing much more plants per square foot of garden area than a traditional vertical support would permit.   After living with it for two years though, I have noted things that could be improved on from the original design and choice of materials.      Specifically:

• The trellis structure needs to have a hoop or peaked top to it so that when draped in the early spring with clear plastic it will not puddle water on the top in heavy rains – causing breakage of the supports from the weight.
• The supports need to be made out of a material other than wood.   Each year the wood supports would swell from rain and be almost impossible to remove from the metal support brackets.
• The nylon netting used worked very well but was prone to tangling up when unrolled after having been stored for the winter.

With all these objectives in mind, I formulated in my head a second-generation horizontal pea trellis that used PVC pipe and a wire mesh fencing material to replace the nylon netting.     On Saturday afternoon I was able to get the lower posts all positioned with connector fittings and the side arm supports and cross supports for the first layer cut and installed.   I then laid out and cut the first piece of fencing material for the bottom layer.                        

This is where I quit for the day and went inside to fix dinner and do some other indoor tasks.                                     

On Sunday afternoon I picked up where I left off on Saturday by securing the wire fencing to the end cross supports using tie wraps.                 

Then the second tier of posts, connector fittings, side arm and cross arm supports were installed and another layer of fencing cut and secured to them.                                   

The next step was to cut some short pieces (1 ½ inches) from the scrap PVC pipe to use for connecting the top elbow fittings to the top post connectors.                                 

The peaked top was then installed using another elbow connector at the top and 2 ½ foot pieces of PVC pipe on each side.                     

That’s it!   I will (of course) have to disassemble this to actually plant up the bed later this spring, but the design and construction of the second generation horizontal pea trellis is done.                              

Laura

kitsapfreedomgardener