My first square foot raised bed garden - my trellis ideas.

So I am planning two 4x8 raised beds for this spring.

In one box, I plan on growing 6 types of tomatoes, and the other one I'll be growing peppers, herbs, carrots, and summer squash.



So my plans for trellis/support-
I am thinking about making (six) tomato cages like these for the tomatoes:
http://www.mysquarefootgarden.net/how-to-build-tomato-cages/

For the peppers, I am not sure if I should do a flat trellis with cattle panel or with electrical conduit
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2217/2423446298_3c66c9980d.jpg
https://i.servimg.com/u/f46/16/56/77/71/trelli10.jpg

Or if I should stake them?

I also have some smaller tomato cages which is prob too dinky for the tomatoes but maybe I can use them for peppers instead?

Another idea would be to do a hoop with cattle panel like this and just grow tomatoes on the sides of the two boxes?
http://www.deeprootsathome.com/building-strong-trellis/

Also, same with the summer squash - should I build tomato cages like for the tomatoes, or use the cattle panel or the electrical conduit, or stake them?

Any ideas?

Welcome to the forum.

As a rule, Peppers do NOT need any cages or supports. If they get too tall and top heavy, just twist a bit of twine around them to hold them up and tie it. Or stick in a couple of bamboo posts and wrap around some twine.

Are you putting the tomatoes in one of the boxes with nothing else? That's a waste of space if they are being trellised. You have plenty of room to grow crops on the front side of those tomatoes.

As for tomato trellising in your part of the country, I'll leave that to the southern experts. I string mine in the far north.

quiltbea wrote:Welcome to the forum.

As a rule, Peppers do NOT need any cages or supports. If they get too tall and top heavy, just twist a bit of twine around them to hold them up and tie it. Or stick in a couple of bamboo posts and wrap around some twine.

Are you putting the tomatoes in one of the boxes with nothing else? That's a waste of space if they are being trellised. You have plenty of room to grow crops on the front side of those tomatoes.

As for tomato trellising in your part of the country, I'll leave that to the southern experts. I string mine in the far north.

For the tomatoes, I've heard that it's betterto give them space so I'm giving each a 2" by 2" square. I'm thinking of just doing all tomato cages in the box kinda like this
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/__AsfTc7bdZo/SZjSiVbgTNI/AAAAAAAAALg/exw_ULPPmQ0/s400/tomato4.jpg

OK, gotcha. I know that 2' square is better in the south. Your tomatoes grow for a longer period, thus get much bigger than us in the north.
I personally like only one row of tomatoes on the north side of the bed with sometimes a couple on the west side of the bed to form an L of toms.
Maybe someone who grows two rows side-by-side can pop in and help you with their pros and cons, if any.