Tomato Trellis and Floating Row Covers

I had read I should avoid the standard tomato cages so I decided to create something in the fashion of a trellis I saw on The Victory Garden. Using some stakes I already had, I bought some cobalt blue outdoor paint for color and, using twine for the sides, installed the trellis. Two mistakes were immediately apparent, the stakes are too short and I placed the front and rear ones too far apart! The 2nd part is easy enough to fix, but the taller stakes will have to wait until next year. So far they're doing an okay job of holding up the 'San Marzano' roma tomatoes (the other tomatoes aren't big enough yet to need the trellis.) The white flowers mixed in are cilantro that self-seeded from last year; they small yellow flowers front, right are 'Lemon Gem' marigolds.

Once my 'Sugar Baby' watermelon, 'Earlisweet' muskmelon and 'Gold Rush' yellow squash seeds began to turn into plants, Simon and I dug out the floating row cover recommended by Sally Jean Cunningham in Great Garden Companions and Edward Smith in The Vegetable Gardener's Bible. Of course, I forgot that Smith had detailed directions on how to install your row covers; the picture above is NOT what he recommended. Instead, I tried to find something for support in my local box store, struck out and in the interest of time, cut the pieces what I hoped would be extra large. I used landscape fabric pins (these resemble pins my mother used with her hot rollers when I was a child--I wonder if she still has those? The pins that is, not the curlers) and rocks to hold it down. After my weekend away I returned to see the plants bulging up under the row cover. Here's what I saw when I peeked!

No flowers yet! So I let them breathe for a moment, then bunched up the row cover so that it would "grow" along with the plants. Hopefully, I didn't let a bunch of thug insects in at the same time!

Next year, I think I'll actually follow his advice to use wire to raise the pieces and wrap two thin slats of wood in the sides to hold it down. Much more attractive then my little shrouds! I'll keep checking for flowers and, as soon as they appear, take off the covers so pollination can occur!

This is my "control subject." An acorn squash that I decided to leave uncovered (read was too hot and lazy to cover.) So far it hasn't been invaded yet either. I bought this already growing from a big box and planted it the same weekend as my seeds. Notice that their size is almost the same!

You may have noticed in some of these pictures, my next big project to tackle in the kitchen garden. The grass.

I thought it would be nice,and just fine, to have grass paths until I was able to install brick ones. Unfortunately, that just made me naive twice! There is no brick in my immediate future and the grass grows quickly. My husband kindly trims it, but that just spits grass pieces into the beds which quickly grow into weeds; and it's only a matter of time before he hits a plant. It's also messy! Now, I can stand a little bit of messy in the garden (I have a bed to prove it), but this is ridiculous. You can barely tell where the beds begin and end in the above picture. So I've decided I will remove the grass and cover the paths with pine needles. I love walking on pine needles and they're the same color as bricks so if I only get bricks a little at a time, I could install them in sections and the difference wouldn't be glaring.