My Fall 2013 garden got postponed to a Spring 2014 garden got postponed to this past weekend and I finally got just a few things planted. Four raised beds are now filled with sunflower, cantaloup, pumpkin and watermelon. And all of that hopefully will lead to an actual Fall 2014 garden. So, since I must be the brownest thumb on the planet, any and all advice for those four plants is appreciated. The grasshoppers are horrible here this year, been thinking I’ll need to build some kind of netted frame to put over my planters to keep everything from being eaten up. I guess the sunflowers will have to fend for themselves.
Oh, I should add that in our small orchard area we harvested our first peaches off one of our tiny trees. Guess we should have pulled a bunch off before they matured because we had maybe 5 lbs of golfball size fruit. Very good flavor and juiciness though.
To make a quick frame for my raised 4x4 beds, I used 18 inch rebar stakes at the corners. Placed 2 10 foot pvc plastic pipe over the rebar diagonally so that they cross in the middle of the bed. Tied the pipes together with fishing line.
Cover with net and fasten however you want. I have lots of split wood, so I just used a bunch of logs to anchor the net down.