{"id":717,"date":"2012-05-07T13:58:06","date_gmt":"2012-05-07T17:58:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/?p=717"},"modified":"2014-09-03T22:01:20","modified_gmt":"2014-09-04T02:01:20","slug":"how-to-build-a-cucumber-frame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/?p=717","title":{"rendered":"How to build a cucumber frame"},"content":{"rendered":"

So as mentioned yesterday, I built a frame\/trellis thing to keep the cucumbers from growing everywhere and taking over everything. \u00a0 There are so many different options from cheap DIY to crazy expensive. \u00a0Here is an article<\/a> that gives a few different ideas on what’s out there. \u00a0 I took a pulled parts of a few things and made what worked for me.<\/p>\n

First, look for what you have available. \u00a0If you have lots of long sticks or bamboo poles you can make a teepee shaped frame. \u00a0I however had neither of these things. \u00a0Instead, I went to the store and \u00a0walked around looking for inspiration. \u00a0I chose 1″x2″ furring strips. \u00a0These are just rough pieces used for support behind plaster or tile and are not high grade finish wood. \u00a0This is good since they are 92 cents for an 8 foot board. \u00a0And because you don’t need anything fancy. \u00a0For real long term durablity you could go with cedar but its a lot more expensive.<\/p>\n

I made mine 4’3″ high and 2’8″ wide. \u00a0This is kind of a random size because I was trying to not waste any wood.<\/p>\n

1. In the picture below you can see I have laid out the pieces of one half of the frame. \u00a0The long side pieces are 4 feet long so that I only had to cut the board in half. \u00a0The top and bottom pieces are 2’8″ which is the finished width. \u00a0The side pieces will be fit inside the top and bottom, thus the 4’3″ total height, which you can see on the top left and bottom right corners. \u00a0(The other corners haven’t been put together yet.) \u00a0The middle section was 2’5″ (total width of 2’8″ minus the 3″ of the side pieces – \u00a0although the strips are said to measure 1″x2″ they actually measure 3\/4″ x 1 1\/2″) I made two of the exact same frames and hinged them at the top to form an A frame.<\/p>\n

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2. To attach I pre-drilled the holes so the wood wouldn’t split and used 2 1\/2 inch exterior screws. \u00a0Since I don’t have the hand strength to hold all the pieces together perfectly while drilling and screwing, I clamped the pieces to the table to keep them still.<\/p>\n

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3. \u00a0Once you have built both frames and hinged them, It’s time to add something for the vines to climb up and I chose to make a lattice look out of string. \u00a0I had a roll of exterior cloth line string laying around for some reason so I used that. \u00a0If you used cotton string you could compost it at the end of the year. All around the face of the frame (top, bottom & sides) I screwed in small screws down the middle \u00a0every four inches. These are wood screw I had laying around that are about 1\/2 long. \u00a0Half inch exterior screws with flat heads would work best but I used what I had. \u00a0Just put the screw in a little, not all the way in.<\/p>\n

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4. \u00a0Start at a corner and tie a knot around the screw. \u00a0Then tighten down the screw to secure the string. \u00a0Pull the string across and wrap around the screw on the other side and tighten the screw. \u00a0Continue doing this back and forth pulling the string tight and then tightening the screw.<\/p>\n

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5. One you move up the whole length of the frame you will have this. \u00a0When you get to the last screw, tie a know and tighten the screw as you did at the start.<\/p>\n

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6. \u00a0After all the horizontal part is done do the same thing going up and down to make a lattice. \u00a0 Every time I went under and over I also wrapped the string around the horizontal piece of string to give more support and to stop everything from sliding around. \u00a0When you move on to do the second side, remember to open the frame up so you don’t accidentally weave your string though both sides so you can’t open it.<\/p>\n

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7. \u00a0And here it is all finished and installed in the garden. \u00a0I originally was going to set the bottom board up the sides a few inches so the bottom of the sides could act like spikes for stability. \u00a0I remembered I wanted to do that after I had already put both frames together this way so I left it. \u00a0Sometimes I get so excited to get started I forget things that I should write things down.<\/p>\n

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The cucumbers were then planted in long hills that run parallel to the bottom board (no hills here since I planted after this was taken). \u00a0Once they start growing I will suggest that they should grow up this frame. \u00a0They have these amazing little arms that grab onto everything so they should love this.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So as mentioned yesterday, I built a frame\/trellis thing to keep the cucumbers from growing everywhere and taking over everything. \u00a0 There are so many different options from cheap DIY to crazy expensive. \u00a0Here is an article that gives a…
Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":726,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[19,20],"tags":[124,125,126],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/cuc-frame-7.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1J4KT-bz","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":840,"url":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/?p=840","url_meta":{"origin":717,"position":0},"title":"Mid June Garden Update","date":"June 21, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"The weather around here has been crazy. \u00a0It rains for a week straight then its sunny but in the 50s. \u00a0I went from a fleece at night three days ago to the middle of a 100 degree heat wave today. \u00a0While this is irritating to me, the plants seem very\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Garden"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ridiculousredhead.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/side-garden-view-6-20.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":707,"url":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/?p=707","url_meta":{"origin":717,"position":1},"title":"The seedlings have moved out!","date":"May 7, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"It's a big day around here! \u00a0The gardens have been planted and the seedlings have moved outside to their new homes. Just like high school, there are cliques or groups that stick together. \u00a0Some plants do not want to sit with certain other plants at lunch. \u00a0 Other plants like\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Garden"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ridiculousredhead.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/small-garden-day-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2369,"url":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/?p=2369","url_meta":{"origin":717,"position":2},"title":"Late fall garden update","date":"November 12, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"We haven't checked in with the garden around here for awhile so I thought I would give you all an update. Today it was in the mid 60s and that seems to be the end of the nice weather. \u00a0Some gargantuan storm is coming in from Alaska and tomorrow starts\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Garden"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ridiculousredhead.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/ridiculous-redhead-gardening-opie.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2533,"url":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/?p=2533","url_meta":{"origin":717,"position":3},"title":"What we’ve planted so far","date":"May 22, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"This spring has been rough on my garden in a number of ways. I was tied up with the furniture for Habitat for a solid month which left me little time for getting the garden ready. \u00a0My plan to take over the small triangle shaped garden by our patio for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Garden"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ridiculousredhead.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/Ridiculous-Redhead-First-Strawberry.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2404,"url":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/?p=2404","url_meta":{"origin":717,"position":4},"title":"It’s seed planting time again!","date":"February 6, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The holidays are over. \u00a0It's been snowing every other day for weeks. \u00a0The walls are starting to close in. \u00a0Summer seems so far away. But spring is not so very far away. February is one of my favorite times of the year. \u00a0After the fall clean up and the holidays,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Garden"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ridiculousredhead.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Veggie-Seeds-Ridiculous-Redhead-2015.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2551,"url":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/?p=2551","url_meta":{"origin":717,"position":5},"title":"Garden Update for June","date":"June 25, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"With all the trouble I had getting started this year I am so happy to see everything finally kicking in. Here is how the garden is doing. I pulled the shallots yesterday and hung them up to dry today. \u00a0They can be used right away but need to be cured\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Garden"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ridiculousredhead.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Ridiculous-redhead-shallots-6.23.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=717"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2186,"href":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717\/revisions\/2186"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}