So, in the last big rain storm, the clematis trellis managed to detach itself from the supports. (I’m still not entirely sure how – two of the four pieces of twine were still intact – on the trellis at least). Since it was threatening to smush half of my Swiss chard, I decided to cut my loses and pull the whole thing out. (Goodness knows I\ve done it enough this time of year during some of my annual rose bush hacks.) Fortunately, I already know it’s the toughed plant I’ve ever seen, and will grown back next Spring. I guess this just means I’m using four of the thick supports next time, and seeing about getting some more serious way of attaching them.
I also had to attend to my largest tomato plant, which was threatening to eat my strawberry planter. For the most part, I like the new tomato cages I bought this year, but they are not easy to move with the tomatoes attached. I had the dang thing propped up (you can easily see one of the three supports in the picture above) for about two weeks. Once I got the clematis out of there, it gave me enough room to maneuver so I could get it turned around and leaning up against the house. Moral of this story – not sure yet. I’m not sure if I could have really gotten it to grow any other way, and I’ll still have space issues next year too. But, I’m also not planning on growing big tomatoes again, as the yield on this bush just wasn’t really that impressive. So, it’s really a moot point.
So here we are, empty corner in the front of the patch. Granted, it’ll look even emptier when I make good on the plans I have for the hosta there.