From Greenhouse to Bean House

   With limited level gardening space, one must become creative when expanding the food plots.  The steep slope that radiates from the Little Bayou House in all directions leaves very little flat areas in which to make rows for plants.  Even putting up the little metal-framed greenhouse that my sweet sister-in-law sent me presented a problem.  Son decided to go with the slope making the tunnel head down the hillside to the Bay.  Since it was to be a temporary fix to keep the potted plants from freezing, I had no qualms about letting him do whatever he pleased as long as those night-blooming cereus plants stayed warm.  Surprisingly enough, they all survived our temps that plunged much further down than we ever expected.  The plants did ok and I was satisfied.

  A couple of weeks ago, that summer garden-planting bug hit and that is where things went amok. I had more plants and seeds than garden.  Even though people claim to want a garden, it is hard to give away plants once they are seeded. So, the problem of too little space had to be fixed with a bit of ingenuity.  As Son and Mark were taking down the greenhouse before an impending wind storm, it hit me that the large (now) empty space was usable for something!  Mark built some nice sized boxes to run along the sides of the (once) greenhouse and we filled them with soil and compost.  A bit of sisal twine was laced between the metal pipe framework and our greenhouse was now a bean house with two rows that are twenty feet in length! 

  The bean plants seem to be happy in their improvised home and this freed up a bit of space for another twenty or so tomato plants and about that many more pepper plants.  It is purely a case of make do with what you have by repurposing.  By the time the framework will need its top reattached for the winter, the beans will be long gone. Now that is thinking!  Double duty gardening!