Give Your Container Garden An Upgrade With A Clever Pool Noodle Hack

Raised garden beds are a great place to grow your vegetables. They offer superior drainage and minimize foot traffic over veggie sprouts, which can compact soil and squeeze roots. But what happens when our vine vegetables break loose from their confines, and heavy fruit hang over wooden edges, threatening to break the stalk? A simple pool noodle hack will keep your vines intact, and your zucchini or cucumbers happy.

There's a whole list of vining vegetables that can overgrown your container garden, and heavier ones such as melons, cucumbers, and squash can grow fruit or vegetables so large that if they're bent over the wooden or metal slats of your raised bed, they might put undue stress on the stalk or vine. And while you should plant squash plants about 2 feet apart, sometimes the plant grows quickly, and winds up pressed against the wall the planter.

This is especially true in smaller raised beds, and dealing with overcrowding can just be part of the pros and cons of growing your own fruits and vegetables. You can prevent crowding or annoying breakage by a simple pool noodle hack. All you'll need is a pool noodle from your local store, and a pair of scissors or a box cutter. You should have your pick of all kinds of colors for pool noodles, which should run about $1.25 a piece at your local dollar store.

A pool noodle can be just the thing to save your vining plants. We might love cucumbers, and they can definitely be among the best things to plant in raised vegetable beds, but they can also sometimes grow outward faster than you can contain them. You can always try growing vining vegetables vertically by installing trellises or wire frames to encourage them to go up instead of out, but if you're trying to save a stem or vine now, then a pool noodle could work.

If you worry about vegetables growing out of the box or being squished against the frame, then grab a pool noodle. Cut it to fit the edge of your raised garden bed, across the spot where the vine is growing. Slice the pool noodle with a box cutter or your scissors, and then fit the noodle over the edge of the planter.  

A pool noodle can also protect your fingers against sharp edges of your vegetable container. If you're using corrugated metal as part of your dividing wall within your raised bed, then a pool noodle can cover any sharpened areas of your raised bed walls so that they don't accidentally cut you when you're gardening. If you have a leftover noodle, you can use it to make a makeshift sprinkler for your bed. Just poke holes in it and attach a hose to one end and block the other with an empty plastic bottle.