trellising tomatoes

This year I am trellising my tomatoes. I planted the seedlings very deep, then added 1-2 inch collars (for cutworm protection).

The trellis stem is made up of two upright posts set into the ground 6 feet apart. Each post has a hole at the top. Through the two holes, I thread an 8 foot metal pole.

Twine provides the support for the tomato plants. To set up the twine, I cut a length twice the height of the pole from the ground and laid this over the metal pole with the middle of the twine resting on the pole. I then tied a knot next to the pole to hold the twine in place.

For now, I have loosely wrapped the ends of the twine around the little plants. When they are bigger, I'll tie the twine loosely to the stem of the plants. As the vines grow, I'll wrap the twine around the stem of the plant so that it stays upright and off the ground. I'll also trim off any suckers so I get a tall straight plant with lots of room for airflow.

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compost screen

My husband made me a compost screen today. It is a big frame that fits nice on top of a wheelbarrow. The mesh is made from doubled chicken wire. I've seen many ways to make a compost screen. The main thing is that the wire mesh is well supported by a frame and the mesh size is not too small.

Over the years, my compost bins have been accumulating things that don't compost so well (branches, avocado seeds, Christmas trees, oyster shells, plastic plant labels...) Instead of returning them to the bin this year, they went into the trash.

We screened about 10 wheelbarrows full of fresh compost and piled it onto my garden beds. I spread it and turned it under. The beds are ready for planting now.

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today's garden work

On our first hot and muggy summer-like day:
- Eggplants transplanted: Kamo, Tiger and Classic
- Tomato supports set up, bar and string set up this year (is there a better name for this method?)
- First rhubarb harvest of the season
- Weeding
- Harvested a big bunch of dill weed that had volunteered in the squash bed prior to preparing the bed
- Prepared squash bed by bringing in a wheelbarrow full of compost and digging it in
- Transplanted winter squash and summer squash
- Transplanted sunflowers and pumpkins
- Bought chicken wire to cover my strawberries
- Distributed Agribon row cover and Sluggo to community gardeners

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Egyptian walking onions

I was given a single perennial walking onion three years ago. I planted it, then didn't pay much attention as I didn't really know what to do with them. The onions didn't have a specific time when the needed to be harvested and they had these funny topsets bulbs.

But I've gradually become braver and have been pulling up a few plants now and then. They look like scallions or bunching onions, but the flavor is unique and pungent - similar to a shallot. They tend to disintegrate with cooking, so I like to add them to a stir fry or an omelet as it finishes cooking.

I haven't yet tried eating the topsets. I hear some say they are tasty and some say they are not. My walking onions have multiplied fast, and without any help form me. Sometimes I move a venturesome topset from a path and put it back in the bed. In midsummer, as new shoots come up and old ones die back, I clean up the clump by pulling out the dead onions. Mostly, they do their own thing. I have quite a big clump of them now and am growing quite fond of them.

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