By Request, I'm posting some pictures of my, "Stairway of Beans", only. The other pictures of my garden are in the Canadian Garden Forum.
I'll try to post them in order here from when they were first built, to today.
Edited to say: June 10th
This message was edited Jul 13, 2005 9:42 AM
June 25th
July 3rd
Today, July 13th
Fantastic! How tall does it stand? And is it difficult leaning in to pick?
My beans are covered in Japanese beetles.
Zeppy,
Sorry to hear you have Beatles. Sometimes it seems like if it isn't one thing, it's another. I don't know what you would use either, to get rid of them. Soapy water in a spray bottle?
My Beans are 5 feet high. And, no, I won't be able to reach the top row, because the first 2 rows of boxes are in my way. But......(read on) ;-)
Each row is made up of two, 8 foot boxes, giving me a 16 foot row with a total of 96 feet, for the whole thing. It takes up an area of 16 feet wide, by 5 feet high, & 4 feet deep or 4 feet from the front box to the back.
If I had planted this "ground level", I would have only been able to get 2 rows, 16 feet long, or a total of 32 feet of beans, vs. 6 rows, 16 feet long & the 96 feet I got by building the stairs.
Each box is removable and I will use either saw horses to sit the boxes on and pick the beans or put them on a table. You can see the corner of the table in the lower left hand side of the last picture.
But I won't move all the boxes over on the table, probably only the first 2 rows. I'll pick the rest of the beans right where they are.
Simply fantastic use of space !!
That is awesome. A couple of questions. Are you set up on drip irrigation? How often do you water? How wide and deep are the boxes?
Thank you, Dea and Kerry.
I water them every morning and, No, I'm not on any type of "drip system", but, I think it would be a good idea. There are times when lifting a 2 gallon watering can up in the air 5 feet to water with fertilizer, can just about break your arm off.
When I use plain water, I have a 4 foot wand that attach's to the hose and that reach's the top boxes fine. A drip system would be wonderful to have in a set up like this. I'd be very careful with a drip system however. You wouldn't want the soil to become "water logged".
The boxes themselves are 6" high, 6" wide, and 8' long. The beans are planted 2" apart.
i think you should patent the blueprints and market it as "the stairway to bean heaven."
brilliant design and i hope you can eat all those beans!
I just viewed your gardens in the Canadian forum - I am in awe.................
Thank you, naien. I'm going to try my hand at a road side stand this year. I hope to sell all of my beans there.
Thank you, Dea. (you made my day)
Darrell,
Not sure what kind of fertilizer you use but they do have a couple of contraptions that might work for you if you use the blue water soluble stuff (Peters, Miracle Grow etc). There is a container that hooks onto your hose. You fill it with the proper amt of fert and it does the mixing, fertilizing as you water. There is also a setup that connects to your faucet. It has a little hose on it and a connecter for your garden hose. You mix some fert and water in a 5 gallon bucket. The fert is syphoned into the stream of water going through your hose as you water. We used to use something like this about 20 years ago when I worked at a green house. I saw one in our local garden center for about $16 USD. I am guessing you could find it on the internet too. Not sure if it would work for you but it is a thought.
This message was edited Jul 13, 2005 10:12 AM
That system works for fish emulsion/kelp too.
Darrell, it's beyond cool. If you set up a stand, you should definitely put pictures of your system there.
Zeppy that is very good to know. I guess you would just do the math to figure out how much to use. I know the bucket syphon aparatus ended up giving a 1:16 (or was it 16:1) ratio.
