Not quite Mittleider - Tomatoes and Beans

I came across the Mittleider Method, and was very impressed with the way it was used to grow vegetables. Unfortunately two things put me off. It wasn't completely organic, and sawdust and sand was the soil mixture.Also the fertilizer system is not available in Australia. The beds though were impressive being narrow and also the watering system. The crops also, have very impressive yields, being planted close together, with the use of a weekly dose of the special fertilizer. If you are interested in reading all about it this is their official site.          The Mittleider System

If I was starting again with a new garden I would definitely do the grow boxes like this. Narrow beds 18 inches to 3 foot wide if a double and a watering system hooked to each one.

    

Unfortunately changing an already established garden is a little hard,  being  an odd shape, and  with good soils established. So as best we could, we have organized a watering system using conduit with holes drilled all the way down, and made walkways between 3 foot  beds with pavers or sleepers, and one high post system to try the method of growing up string.Also allowing the rest of the garden already planted to keep growing and then" fixing" the area after it is  finished growing and eaten.

Putting up Poles for Beans and Tomatoes.

 I have then planted climbing beans and tomatoes after connecting string from the top and tying to the bottom. The idea being that you can drop the string down as the plant gets taller.

Climbing Beans Giant Stuttgart

As you can see, the irrigation pipes in the middle of the beds . The poppies are one of the things I have to see finished growing before I can fix this bed properly. Also a great tower of sweet peas on the RHS still to flower. Why don't I ever see these things when just renewing the garden as a whole and not 1/2 way into the Spring growth?

Tomato plants note pipes behind .

The water is turned on every day for 15 mins. and I feed down the channel every week or so with  chicken manure that's had extra added. The idea is either side of the pipe is a row of plants, closely planted. The climbing frame is on the path side due to the sun and the shade will be on the path and not on the plants. It will be interesting to see how this garden progresses, which is also our front garden.

While I am at it about tomatoes here is a photo of the 3 I planted out the back with the fish bits. Its been 7 weeks since the last photo.

 

Purple Climbing beans and Camp Joy tomato

Other side.

The weather is now warming up quite quickly and this weekend we go into Daylight Saving, so looks like getting up early to beat the weather will begin. The first week of Daylight Saving is always the hardest.

Happy Gardening.