The Tower of Tomatoes

For months I had been looking forward to this day. I passed many cold January and February hours reading books and blogs for inspiration and solutions, sprouting seeds, and working my compost pile while dreaming about picking fresh produce from my backyard garden. After many wintry days spent thinking about my garden and what will go in it and how I can make it produce more, I had quite a few ideas to implement this spring. 

The most important ( but let's be honest, not quite the most exciting) endeavor was prepping the soil. This process actually started about 7 months ago, with a trip to the ranch and a truckload of horse poop.  My Sweet Cowboy helped me shovel, transport, and till it into the fall garden beds last October (that’s how I knew he was the one for me!).  When I started digging into the soil this spring I found earthworm metropolis, and thus, I am taking it the horse manure was a hit.  

I have never seen so many earthworms in my garden as I have this year.  Big ones, small ones, it's like a fishing bait shop exploded in my garden. I am pumped!

Yet, consider the manure of last fall as merely poop: round one.  And now for the double deuce. I got a pretty great deal on some "llama doo" at my favorite tomato farm, The Tomato Man's Daughter and so each new planting this year got a whopping scoop of fresh manure goodness.  Oh yea, if I ever needed any confirmation that My Sweet (borderline OCD clean-freak) Cowboy is head-over-boots in love with me, it is that he let me put 20 lbs. of llama doo into the back of his car. That's true love, baby!

The most significant soil project this year has less to do with putting nutrients in the soil, as it does with controlling the nutrient thieving of greedy weeds. *fist shaking!* After years of “whatever grows is cool” attitude and lazy weed control efforts, I am fighting back. I have been reading some good things about lasagna mulching, and trying my hand at a version of it.  I put down a layer of paper grocery bags that have been multiplying in my pantry, by opening the bottoms, and flatting them out and laying them like tile across my garden bed.  On top of this I placed a thick layer of grass and leaf clippings several inches deep.  I actually planted my vegetables directly into this, by cutting a whole into the bag, dropping in my llama doo, planting the plant and then pushing the mulch up around the base of the plant.   For extra measure, I spread a very light layer of wood mulch over the top.  I paid extra attention to the edge of my garden where grass loves to shoot up under the edging and attempt to convert my garden into a mini Tall Grass Prairie.  I am hoping that this multiple step approach will help stop weeds before they have taken over my garden.

You can see the grocery bags lined up with leaf and grass clippings piled on top and ready for plants.

However, the biggest under taking of the day was constructing two six foot trellises that will give tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, and maybe peas or green beans (if I get them planted soon), a lovely space for sun seeking.  I am thinking of adding some nasturtiums too for some pretty, but also edible, floral action.  The idea came from my desire to grow more of my own food with the space and resources available to me. Vertical Gardening by Derek Fell inspired the trellis construction. The book really has empowered me to just think more creatively about using vertical space instead of horizontal space. I decided that I wanted to try a Skyscraper Garden trellis and see if it really would increase my harvest.  If nothing else the vision of towering tomatoes just looks so cool in my mind that it is worth a shot.

The Cowboy very sweetly assisted in the design and provided the majority of the manpower necessary to complete this project.  Only two Band-Aid- required-accidents and no fights- in-the-middle-of-two-trips-to-Lowes later, we had two six foot trellises.  

I am not sure if there is much more attractive than a man working with his hands to make something for you

Oreo supervises trellis construction

The completed trellis frame, ready to go into the garden

We had to improvise on a few of our materials, and the Cowboy only had to walk away from the scene to regain his cool once after the second trellis fell apart during installation. I didn’t mind one bit, I was just impressed that something I had thought up in my head was becoming a reality. The Cowboy called the project “pre-marital counseling”.  I think I would take building things with my man any day of the week over talking about budgets or chore charts.

You see 2x4's and chicken wire, I see pico de gallo.  And Oreo sees a stick pile feast (gotta get some cayenne pepper sprinkled on that soon!)

At the end of the day we had built our two trellises out of 2x4x8s and chicken wire and a few stakes and dug two foot holes to secure the structures in the ground. We were well under budget for what we could have bought similar structures for at the hardware store and we got to bond over manual labor.  WIN.  We celebrated with an awesome celebration meal and then fell asleep on the couch.

Whole wheat pasta with grilled chicken and asparagus with lemon herb goat cheese sauce.

The night we finished building the trellis a huge line of tornadoes and thunderstorms swept through Oklahoma.   So while I should have been worrying about my own safety, I was mostly stressed over whether or not the trellises would hold up to some feisty Oklahoma spring weather. And they did! Hooray! 

This German Johnson tomato plant is ready to climb this trellis, I like to grow these tomatoes in honor of my Grandma Johnson whose started this garden. This heirloom tomato was also parent of the "Radiator Charlie's Mortgage Lifter" tomato and my Grandpa was called Charlie, so this is one way that I honor them.

So, what new projects do you have schemed up for your garden this year?  I'd love to hear what you are doing, and maybe borrow some ideas for my own little urban prairie homestead.