I do have my muskmelons on a trellis, though – but the melons are starting to get weighty enough at this point that I’m going to be making little hammocks with old t-shirt material which I’ll be attaching to the trellis – the vine, however, once trained upward, will automatically grow in that direction and attach itself to the trellis.

There have definitely been some lessons learned this year (I’ve been doing it chemical free, so more than a few, actually). First is that I need to give the tomatoes more space (like 4-6 in the 16 square space instead of as many are there, and I need to use cages or stake them better. Right now, it’s just a jumble of tomato plants where I just reach in and pick if I happen to see something the color of a tomato.

And next year, I’m buying ladybugs to help keep other pests away. Or eucalyptus oil. I was really disappointed to lose those collards. Eventually, I want to expand the space to grow in a much larger portion of my backyard. With the current setup, I get at least a CSA’s worth of veggies every week, if not more.

I’m lucky enough to have had my mom’s boyfriend Joe to do the lion’s share of the work of getting it all together. Don’t know if I could have done all that heavy lifting myself.

Question: Did you buy or build your raised beds? I built mine, but I’m looking to expand on them in the fall and next spring and looking into what options I have. You can read the trials and travails of it here.