Seeds and plants come in all shapes and sizes, requiring different conditions to be able to grow. Some of our plants may grow underground and others above the ground too.
Many of our bean plants, such as runner beans, french beans, and broad beans are climbers which mean that they need tall and sturdy supports to be able to climb up. We can also get dwarf varieties of these plants which you may prefer if you have less space in your garden for taller plants. Other plants such as tomatoes, cucumbers, and many flower species like to climb too so we need to support them with this. At this time of year our plants are rapidly getting bigger and taller, and we need to get our support structures ready for them!
These climbing plants can grow up different structures in our gardens, such as trellis, fencing, or wigwams. To create our wigwam structures, we can use wooden canes (which we can reuse each year) and twine. If we plant our climbers at the base of each cane then we are able to train them to grow up it by tying the plant loosely to the cane with twine!
Wigwam structures:
Below is a video showing different ways to support your climbing plants:
Can you think of any plants in your school garden which may be climbing plants?
