Backstrap, Depending on where one lives, the moths go way beyond early in the season. I had moths as early as May all the way through to late August. They might even be around beyond August but by then I was done and so were my plants. It's not a matter of the pollen being able to get out but a matter of insects managing to get to the flowers to spread the pollen around. Bees/other insects get covered with pollen while visiting the male flowers then when they visit a female flower, the pollen on their bodies gets rubbed off into the female flower fertilizing it. Your idea of a screen, for the most part serves the same function as a row cover. So far row covers have been the only thing that has allowed me some success against this particular pest. Screen or row cover, one will still either need to hand pollinate or somehow let the good pollinating bugs have access to the flowers. But again, good bug access is also a window of opportunity for the pest.

A little of both, depending on the year. ;) If you're going to try the plastic, make sure none of the leaves touch it. In the fall when we cover for frost, we don't care if we lose some of the outer leaves because at that point the plants can handle it. In the spring, though, you don't want to lose any. Make sure there are no gaps where frost can get in. Cover before sunset while it's still warm out. Chilly only makes the plants sulk and slow down. It doesn't damage them. Frost kills. If there's not a chance of frost and you just want to warm them up a bit, wrap the plastic you have around the cage, but leave the top open for ventilation. If you have a bunch of empty 2-litre pop bottles, you can fill them up with water and make a circle around each plant (homemade wall-o-water). Both of these contraptions would be left on 24/7 as long as needed. Yeah, it *is* a lot of fussing. I opt to grow super-short season varieties and just wait out the weather instead. Sometimes I use hot caps (plastic cloches), but quite often my transplants are too big for them. They do last many years, though, if you treat them well, so it's not money wasted. I have about 30 of them or so. Small cracks happen sometimes and I just tape them up. :)

Hi Chris, here are my thoughts on these questions. Direct Sowing & Veggies: You can direct sow anything, save for tomatoes and pepers as stated above. Other things that are best/more easily started earlier -- squashes, cukes, herbs. I used to direct sow everything save for these. The ones that really should be direct sown are any and all root crops (carrots, beets, etc) as they tend to deform if transplanted. I also direct sow all legumes. All this said, I do less veggie gardening now, but I would now WinterSow lots of non-root crop/beans/lettuce (though I would WS some of the lettuces too, but it's just too easy to direct sprinkle - they don't earn more than one container from me). I can't stand the room indoor starting takes up. Wintersow or Dirct sow for me now. When veggie planting, I always plant in "blocks" not rows. More food per square foot (there is a Square Foot gardening forum, but I use a different method) -- lettuces in, say, a 2ft x 3ft solid block area; Tomatoes planted closer together than recommended so they form a hedge, or farther apart but with the 3ft x 3ft of spinach beneath them; solid 3ft x 3 ft of bush beans, etc. Less area for weeds, more conservation of water, shading/cooling of the spring greens. (This large squarefootage is why I wouldn't WS alllll of it.) Wintersowing - Veggies & Flowers: Oh, the joy. Instead of having to bustle around 8 weeks before the last frost, like a chicken with my head cut off....I get to pace it out all through the winter and garden when I couldn't garden before. The seeds do the rest, they know when to sprout, etc. As said above, no damping off problems, no having to harden things off before planting out. (I've got 130 seed types sows outside in jugs already this season.) Multi-Vendor purchasing: Agreed, it's nice to get the specal things you want from others. by looking at vendors listings, you can decide which is your best bet as your Primary vendor (depending on what your priorities are -- varieties you want, seed counts, price, shipping, etc). Saving Seeds: Rule of thumb -- hybrids may not grow true from seed, but they may grow something interesting anyway. I haven't done much veggie seed saving, but tomatoes and cukes need to be fermented (rotted) or the seeds won't grow. OP seeds (open polinated) may crossbreed, I think this is a problem particularly in all squashes/cukes, tomatoes, peppers maybe. Look into this more with forum searches. For flowers, I save anything really. If the same flowers of different varieties are growing in the same area, some crossing is possible. See the FAQs in the Seed Saving Forum. Finding the seed for each kind of flower is a learning process, just poke around - usually in the middle "somewhere"!** Everyone has different preferences for how they dry them -- I pile the torn up flower heads/seed pods into coffee filters and dry for a week or two. Then they go into lg ziplock bags and seeds get seperated from the chaff. Seeds get parcelled into little 2"x3" ziplocs for trading (some use paper evelopes). There are entire threads devoted to Storage Systems for seed stashes. Generally includes some kind of filing idea, grouping by seed types, and envelopes or baggies. Storage / Viability: Most seeds I'll sow until I'm out. With certain things I get less germination as the years progress, so I sow heavier with those. I always indicate the year collected on each stored seed (see my trade list), so that traders know what they're getting and can decide for themselves. Generally I don't ever keep anything past 5 years, but this is not by some rule, they're just used up by then. Keep the seeds in a reasonably cool and dry place. I don't use the fridge, some do. Just don't sick them on top of the fridge (warmer), right in front of a sunny window, or on the dash of your car. :) Group Swaps / Round Robins: fine to trade gathered or commercial seeds, sometimes even seed you traded for as well (again, see my trade list structure; traded seed -- these I mark as from Trade, so others know I can't be 100% certain of the proper seed ID). I mark the seeds as G/C/or T for my records, and for other traders' info. The rules for each group swap will usually indicate any parameters for that swap. Come by the wintersowing forum, I can't believe the hords of benefits to this method. --Tina

I like my eggplant "Little Fingers" - purple flowers, cute little 6-8" fruits at a nice pace all summer. They have been fairly resistant to bugs (a few flea beetles) and the foliage stayed nice. I cut off a few yellow bottom-most leaves. You might want prettier stakes than the old broomsticks and slats I pounded into the ground. I grew it next to Ivory sweet peppers this year. Next year, my daughter-the-cook has requested orange and purple sweet peppers - should be colorful! The pepper foliage has also stayed good-looking and bug-free. I have a nice gold-edged thyme next to it, with a robust sweet potato vine running around in between (real sweet potato, not the ornamental vine - I'll dig up the taters after the other stuff dies back, right after the first frost). I think Zucchini looks tropical and I like the huge orange blossoms - but it went down under an onslaught of squash bugs and squash vine borers after giving us about 6 medium and 3 huge fruits. I plant sedum groundcover under it, so I don't have to reach into the spiny leaves to weed so often. I have a half-a-dozen couple pots of coleus and herbs that I move around to fill in holes as things die back. I think the romaine heads looked nice back in the late spring and summer. I don't think I would go for Tomatoes out front - maybe a pot on a patio? Tomato plants can get really messy-looking just when they are producing the most tomatoes. I have a very small urban yard, not in a "development" with picky neighbors, but I understand what you mean. I keep my eyes in my own yard, so I don't have to "see" what is on the other side of the fence in less-tended yards. But it would be different in a front yard on a more upscale street. If looks are important, I would only grow a few veggie plants, mixed with flowers, to avoid the more "agricultural" look of a vegetable garden. And, as someone else mentioned, pay attention to how cute your trellis, stakes, and edges look. I like flowers and herbs to soften the big producing veggie plants - I used hostas and coleus, and there is actually a rose to the left in this image, that will produce a second round of salmon-pink color not long after this photo in late June. I planted the marigolds too close to the tomato, and they were covered completely by July. I like the lacy dill flowers, and the patterns as the seed heads develop - I pulled them out after I harvested the seeds. The basil flowering is nice, too - I like to put some in cut flower bouquets for the spicy scent mixed with the sweet.