Golden Gate Garden

Early this year I started 4 chayote squash plants in the greenhouse at City College. Three of them grew, and I photographed them. (The photos appear in my blog on February 25th.) The construction class built us a beautiful trellis, and then, several weeks ago, covered two sides with nylon bean trellis mesh for the chayote to climb on. Then I put the chayotes in larger pots and moved them to the lath house, a structure built only with wooden slats, set several inches apart. Since chayote begins to resprout each year from its perennial roots in March, I thought it was time for the plants to begin to get used to life outside of a greenhouse.

I went off to deal with Dad’s house for a week, and when I returned, I saw that cold nights and strong winds had burned some of the chayotes’ leaves. The trellis is ready, the soil prepared, but alas, the days and nights are too cold for these tropical babies. So it’s back to the greenhouse for the time being.

Here is the trellis, all prepared for the chayotes. Looks kind of lonely, eh? (The fence on the left will come out eventually, so that the chayotes won’t climb on it. The goal, in preparing a trellis for chayotes is to have defensible space, so the plants can’t climb something you don’t want them to climb.)