I’m reusing last year’s bamboo tomato teepees (assembled and installed Martha-style last spring) to support my tomato plants. Bamboo supports are natural and biodegradable, cheap, and a lot nicer in appearance (in my opinion) than metal cages. This year I added jute twine to provide side support for the plants as they grow in the center of each teepee, something that Martha’s gardener did not really discuss but something that I definitely could have used last summer. I tied one end of the jute to the first pole, wrapped the twine around the second and third poles, then returned to the first pole and tied it off. I added enough layers of these “triangles” to hopefully let me weave the growing plants in and out for support.
Other garden notes:
–> Killed my seedlings that were started way too late by overfertilizing them. Too much love, hyper-vigilance, overparenting, the story of my life. But I found some lovely heirloom transplants at my friendly neighborhood garden center and adopted them.
–> Lettuce is growing and I cannot wait for the first homegrown salad of the season.
–> Peas, melons, peppers, cukes, herbs, they’re all growing away, but this time I am determined to avoid a jungle mess, and so am studying pruning techniques.
–> My garden is child’s play compared with the restorative agricultural work being done by my Regrarian heroes, but we all must start somewhere.