Could you build a "crib" around it without shading the surrounding plants too much?? Even in my large garden, I sometimes build a little fence to gain a bit of control. At times, this is a single string on short posts to hold bush beans out of a pathway. Or, I will drive 4 posts close together so as to fit boards between them - creating a "retaining wall" to keep cucumbers from overrunning nearby ground. looking down (posts o, boards -, planting .): _o____________o_ ..o........................o Additional horizontal boards can be added just by dropping them in place if the posts are tall enuf and as the plants grow. Perhaps, you would only need to retain the plant on 1 or 2 sides. Steve PS always have trouble with my diagrams - GW doesn't like the space bar . . . . .

Yea i had heard about the tomato ring idea as well. I just think itd be very easy for my 1 yr old son to grab em & yank & then bye bye zucchini. Do u think they could take that kind of abuse? Im hoping the nylon netting im going to surround them w will do the same thing, but be a lil harder for my son to destroy. My garden is a very odd layout so if i let my zucs run free they will be resting on concrete. Would that be ok? So far i havent had any problems w any bugs. I do have a mass amount of slugs though, ewwww. Ive been handpicking & killing them. & cinch bugs, but i dont have any grass (which ive read is all they damage, is this true?) So ive been letting them live. But i also would like to attract some predatory insects, bc within the 3 months ive been working in the garden i have only seen 2 ladybugs & no other bugs in general. I have a shady spot that i could plant things in. Any suggestion on flowers i should use? Hopefully the svb isnt too bad in ur area this year keski. Thanks for the idea. I might try it next year, i always loved to experiment! Sorry for all the questions, i just kept thinking of them as i typed lol.

Regarding the "pants on the ground" problem I can comment as follows: I must confess,indeed,it has happened to me on one or two occasions. Both occured when using thinwall conduit the electrician left behind when wiring our house. So, I stopped using slick stakes. The stakes I use are ripped on my table saw from 2 x 4's down to 2 x 2's. I cut off a foot from the worst end of the 2 x 4 x 8's before ripping to yield a 7 ft finished stake. The rough edge of the rip cut, plus using strips of torn rag (as from an old sheet) provide plenty of friction to hold the plants up. Actually, I think the torn rag strips are the biggest contributor to holding things up. I haven't done the "pants on the ground" trick for as far back as I can recall. Archerb, you need not trim so severely to a single leader. You can get greater yields of nicely shaped tomatoes by doing double or triple leaders and then thinning away any misshapen/incorrectly pollinated fruits before they sap the strength from the plant. I usually start allowing suckers to develop into secondary and then tertiary leaders starting at twelve or so inches above the soil, then a space of a branch or two to go to #3. Takes a sharp eye to keep up, but eventually you'll get the hang of it. Also, you'll discover how to treat different varieties through experimentation. For example, Black Plum is one of my favorites for snacking. I find I can just about allow those critters to run up to 6 or 8 leaders and every leader will still yield big! The problem becomes keeping up with the tieing and shaping where you finally end up "hanging" rather than tieing back to the stake several of the many leaders. So far as stake length out of the ground, here in zone 6 I find 6 ft to be ok. If they get so lush as to want more I just screw on an addition with my battery powered drill and a piece of 1/2 x 2 by maybe 30" long. Comes off easy for next years use too. Larry

You all are cracking me up! dlm I had a mental flash of you being assigned as "royal knot tier" for the upcoming wedding. ;) And there's golddust, her DH fidgeting and grumbling, she's standing on the bed ala Amy, remote in hand, repeatedly hitting Play & Pause while flipping a tie this way and that. "Knock if off dearest, or I'll have to go back to 2:17 and start over." haha ;D