Peppers, tomatoes, and eggplants!

This 3x8 foot bed was an experiment in small-space gardening! There are 8 tomato plants, trained to a trellis, in the back of the bed. Eggplants in the middle, then peppers in the front. The plants seem to be doing well! Unfortunately, they were planted so late (we only got the bed built in mid July) so I'm not sure the eggplants and the tomatoes will beat the frost. But next year this should be great!

Trellising works great for the cherry tomatoes... for the larger, heavier tomatoes, the verdict is still out. One of the plants broke the twine it was tied to this week... and the plants are having trouble holding up the heavy fruit. If we try growing Dad's prized Brandywines, I don't think this system will work at all (his tomatoes are dinner-plate sized!).

They yellow pear tomatoes are voracious growers... if I miss a week maintaining the trellis, they have shoots in all directions! In another bed that is not trellised, the pear tomato plant just took right over and choked out everything except the pole beans. But since the tomatoes got such a late start, it is nice to at least have some tomatoes, and the yellow pears are tasty!