Project #6: Bean Tepees and Trellises

I decided that I wanted the pretty and productive Scarlet Runner beans:

So, I decided to build two tepees for them. I bought two packages of bamboo stalks (each pack contained 6 stalks for $2.49), arranged them tepee-like, and tied the tops together with extra wire I had laying around from my blackberry trellis project. Super easy - and they stood up through some pretty severe wind we had the other night.

You will notice a trellis in the picture as well. I plan to build another on the other side, as well. I tried first to make a trellis out of the bamboo kind of like this:

But mine didn't really seem all that sturdy or strong. So I scraped that idea and decided to build one more like this that is straight up and down:

To make my trellis, I used 3 5ft wood garden stakes. I cut the point off of one of them with a saw, and then nailed that stake to the tops of the two stakes in the ground. I bought trellis netting and tied it onto the posts and used three anchors along the bottom to keep it tethered to the ground. 

I planted 3 pie pumpkin seedlings that I am going to attempt to train up that thing and hang the pumpkins in a sling (ha ha!). We'll see how that works. I figured it was worth a shot though because I had these three little seedlings that despite all odds, survived in the dirt on the side of our driveway after the parent pumpkins were smashed and chopped for the compost pile. 

Here's one of the pretty seedlings:

I am interested to see how they will grow, or if they will grow. . .