I have developed a gardening concept that is extremely efficient and productive. I call it CaveGardening because I run vining plants up two sides of an arbor which cross over and create a "cave." It is cheaper than raised gardening without the hazzles that come with vining plants becoming tangled, bug-infested, and mildew-proned "dreadlock" messes. (I use dreadlock in a positive not disparaging sense.) My garden, as the following pictures show, produces 2.5>3 times the produce per sq.ft. which is about the market dollar value generated in produce.

I believe it would benefit your viewers with green thumbs to consider the cavegarden approach if you did a small segment. The more people grow at home, the lower the grocery store inflationary pressure as well as fewer divorces and rehabs.

CaveGarden is located 3 houses behind Crossroad Coffee at 3600 Forest Hill Avenue.
(Please note the golden pumpkins growing along top of cave with one in the distant left.)

My main pride and joy is my tomato production. My big tomato cave (as oppose to a separate pick&eat cave with numerous cherry varieties) is 16'x8' with almost 60 plants. The cost of the supports and concrete blocks was about $50. If you bought cages, it would cost you $300 with an inevitable mess of tangled, diseased-proned plants. Can you get the "cave" flavor. I could have called it skyscraper gardening.

This is a picture taken Sept 17, 2015, of the cave from Anne Street. You are more than welcome to come by. I trim the lower leaves as they brown-out. On Sept 8, 2015, I counted 180 1.5 pounders in the left half either ready to pick or having just fruited with many, many blooms on top. Each tomato would have a $5 value at Elwood Thompson organic food store.

Another person asked if they were still juicy. "Yes," I said, "juicier than your first kiss." I also think that my tomatos are better than so-called "Hanover" tomatos.

The above picture of sandwich seducing beefsteak tomatos has a market value of $40. This does not show the other tomatos on the same plant above nor the higher blossoms. One can expect a pod every 12" to 18". Below are Romas that weigh up to 2 lbs with little juice as the bulk is pulp for canning salsa and sauce.

My average big tomato plant produces 40 to 50 tomatos during the season for a cost of about 50 cents per plant (seed, water and fertilizer 10/10/10). That is $200 to $250 per plant. With drip irrigation I am able to plant three plants where two are suggested. Again, notice the clusters as well as the drip line on the ground. A problem is using a string strong enough that will not break under the weight of 20 or 30 tomatos. Below are ripe Romas.

I expect to pick one or two bushels of green tomatos just before the first frost. They will gradually ripen over six-eight weeks. I have had a fresh, juicy tomato as late as January 10 of the following year. These are the Christmas Day tomatos, one year, ripening at different rates.

CaveGardening is great for sweet potatos. Below is the cave which becomes impassable as the vines take on King Kong's personality: Where do the vines go? Anywhere they want.

This image shows one big benefit of the cavegarden approach: Plants get more sunlight for stimulating veggy growth: Morning from the east, midday overhead, and evening from the west. The below picture shows part of the harvest from the 16x8 cave in 2014: 320 pounds from 128 sq.ft. However, the sun exposure area ended up being 16'x35' which echos the claim of getting 2.5 to 3 times the produce: The sun has over 4 times the leaf surface area to create sugar for storage in the tubers. (The pear-shaped fellow in the picture shows why he gives away about 2/3's of what he grows.)

You should not go into my cuke cave if you are prone to headaches. Record vine length was almost 40'. My tomato record is almost 30'. In 2015, I have one that is pushing 20' which would be more if I had not been 6 weeks late in planting, June 1 instead of tax day.

If you like either eggplants or summer squash, vertical is better than horizontal, plants below are 6' and 7' tall. I've given away 100 eggplants from ten plants with another 40 still on the plants as of Sept 17, 2015. Where's Waldo? Can you find the twenty egglants? Eggplants are a chameleon food. I like to take a mushroom recipe and substitute diced eggplant.

Cavegarden evolved from a simple pragmatic consideration: Skyscraping gardening is not for the faint of heart: This image appeared in the Washington Post garden section of the an old fool picking tomatos from a 19' tall plant on a 20' ladder.

The most productive one seed plant in my garden is the green pumpkin from South America. Below is a picture in which one can see four hanging pumpkins from one seed as well as all the big leaf foliage below the fence. Between 12 and 15 basketball sized pumpkins will be harvested that will winter over until spring with soups and pies made along the way. The actual plant is in the center of the garden with the two golden pumpkins in the middle of a vine that is 50' long. And, at the beginning over two weeks, I cut off 200' of collaterals from the vines on top of the cave frame. From the same vine grows the hanging pumpkin to lower left of circled owl (right side of image) and the hanging pumpkin between and below the two golden pumpkins. Amazing amount of calories from one seed.

In summary, preparing for next year's garden begins this fall. Pound for pound, cave gardening takes up less space than ground level or raised gardening. As noted on my website www.Cavegarden.com, it has many benefits. In addition, one should visit the website that offers more tips. Be sure to view the seven minute video, "Chatwell 2014" for why gardening is cheaper than a psychiatrist, a rehab or a divorce.