Up, Up and Away !

I am learning lots of new lessons in my small gardening adventure.  If you recall, I built a trellis for my plants that need some vertical support.  I couldn't wait to see them all start climbing !  When I compare the pictures from the above-linked post, I am shocked !  As you can see, they are really filling out !  I think all the rain we had last week helped a lot.  

In the back of my box, I decided to try a little experiment and plant some sweet potatoes.  I actually purchased these 6 little ones and  thought that I would be putting it in my Square Foot Garden box.  It was an impulse item.  We love sweet potatoes and when I saw it at the store, I couldn't resist.  Poor planning.  When I got home and read a little bit about growing them, I realized they wouldn't work in my box. They CAN be planted in a SFG, but would take up a few boxes at least...and I had decided to start with one box and had limited space to use.  I didn't want to waste them but I didn't really have any great spot for them.  The ground on the side of the house here is pretty sandy and the articles I read stated that they would do well in hot, sandy areas.  My dad gave me the idea to put them behind the box and see how it works !  They are really growing great.  I should have spread them out more but I wanted to keep them looking somewhat neat.  The other problem is that the south side of trellis is shading that half of the sweet potatoes.  I am not really certain that is a problem, but I am noting it as a potential issue.  

Speaking of potential issues regarding shading.  You will notice the large leaves on my cucumber plant ! They are growing like monsters.  I had NO IDEA how these grew !  I am really new to all of this.  Add to this ignorance the fact that we didn't have to go out to water for a few days in row...and this means that I didn't head out to the garden on those days when we had such yucky weather.  It didn't take long and the cucumber vines are taking over everything !  I think that if I was out there during those first climbing days, I could have trained them up a little straighter - and not over to the sides.  It's amazing how they send out those little thin "viney" things that grab the trellis and start spreading out !  You can see the my tomatoes are on the two boxes to the left of the cucumbers in the pictures and are REALLY being shaded and overshadowed by these huge leaves.  I don't think they are getting enough sun at this point.  Sophia's pole beans are also getting really crowded - they are on the right side of the cucumber plants.  A few of those vines have found a spot on the netting, some are climbing up the cucumber vines too !   I don't think there is much I can do at this point, but we will chalk it up to lesson learned.  We are enjoying the whole experience !