Although I was thrilled to pieces last year when we found the Hidden Treasure trellis, the plant I chose to use it with was not the best option.
I actually planted Grandpa Otts in two different places and placed two different trellis in each place. One, was the Hidden Treasure trellis which I placed so I could have something other than old wood fence and neighbor’s window to see when I glanced out our east kitchen window, as seen below.
The other was just under the window of our office where I snap all my Office Window Views, where you might recall I had tried unsuccessfully in the past to train the low creeping wild blackberries up a section of the green coated wire fencing we had gotten for free along the side of the bulky walkout nearest the window. My thinking was the morning glories would add some nice color pop when I took pictures for the series that year. Sadly, that spot seems to get less sun than I thought it did and/or I wasn’t vigilant enough to keep the blackberry creepers nearby on the ground in that bed from blocking out the sun so the Grandpas could have a chance to break ground.
All the Ott seeds I planted last year, I had water germinated indoors. I wanted the best chance of seeing results from seed I was putting in the ground. It did help, I think, but my follow through really was part of the problem.
Getting back to the Otts on the Hidden Treasure Trellis, I didn’t think that particular spot was all that sunny, so maybe that would slow the Otts’ growth. I planted them late, and they were slow to take hold so I thought I was on track. This is what they looked like roughly two weeks after they had started to develop leaves.
There was so much growth in the whopping one month and two weeks between what’s immediately shown above, and the photo at the beginning of the post I can only imagine how out of control things would have been had that been a full sun spot. Not only were the Grandpas quite ready to keep going up as is seen in that image, but they also were infiltrating through the cracks of the fence. I kept weaving them downwards and pointing them back up, and they still would breach the top which is why you can’t even see the top of the Hidden Treasure trellis in the first image. More work than I wanted to do, though my neighbor was very kind about how I was “sharing” my flowers.
Yet one benefit to planting in both locations is that I learned that one set of sun/shade mapped shots is not enough to go by. Even when my brain inherently had already learned that we have a fairly diverse offering of sitings on our property, I was completely wrong on understanding both sitings. So this year, I have taken more shade map pictures focusing on other spots, though those I’m holding onto because I’m not sure how to organize them for folks reading the blog that might never visit our property so they’d have a hard time fitting all the pieces together in their head. Best to stick with one basic of the biggest patch off yard we have for now. And speaking of shade mapping, so focused was I on getting the back done on time this year…that I totally forgot about the front.
But back to trellis thoughts…I saw a few neat designs I’d like to try this year, but given I’m still shouldering more chores overall than usual given my partner’s schedule, I don’t know how many of them I’ll be able to try this year. I am thinking to use the Hidden Treasure trellis out front this year with some beans that although sold as decorative due to the purple hue are actually edible. They’re not a pole variety that is supposed to grow very tall. We’ll see how that goes. I am going to try some different things for beans in the backyard, though I will likely still do one of my usual natural tree limb teepee style just because it’s what I’ve used successfully in the past.
I’m hoping to add at least three new trellis types this year. Wish me luck!
If you have a favorite style of trellis or one you want to make/try, feel free to say so below.
