Now that we have the fence posts up, I'm thinking about what material we're going to use for the mesh for the climbing beans and the tomatoes. Lots of options, and of course the sturdier and easier to use options don't come cheap.
I would really like enough cattle panels to do four 70-ft. rows. They are sturdy and re-usable. They are also fairly expensive - about $500 to do what I need. Nix that one for now.
We have some old hog wire - probably not enough to do four 70-ft. rows, but it might do the tomato rows. It's rolled up and tossed onto a trailer that is probably infested with wasps and snakes. Assuming I can get it out of the tangled heap of tomato cages and fence posts, I'll probably need a tetanus shot after I mess with it.
After work today, I stopped by Home Depot to see what they had for the climbing beans. I saw some 50-ft rolls of orange plastic mesh fencing, but couldn't tell how much they cost, and they only had two. Not enough.
We could do a Florida weave for both the beans and the tomatoes. I've done it with tomatoes. Hint: use something that doesn't stretch or your weave will sag. Ask me how I know this. But I'm not wild about the Florida weave idea for the climbing beans.
I just did some web surfing to see what I could find to use for the beans, and I settled on some green plastic fencing from Walmart. $50+ bucks for enough to do two rows. It doesn't look all that sturdy, but it is taller than it needs to be, so we might be able to fold the excess down for a little extra support.
We plan on raising all of this fencing about 18" or so from the ground - enough to get a hoe between the ground and the bottom of the fence so that we can chop out the weeds.
I'm anxious to do more planting, but the cold snap we're having will probably delay the seeds from sprouting, so we might as well work on our fencing, eh?
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