I hear ya. The weather person has as much chance of being wrong as right in our neck of the woods too. lol Ok, well I do hope that is the case with the SVBM. We've had an unusually large number of birds in the yard. Robins seem to have nested nearby and I counted about 7 adolescents yesterday. Then a flock of starlings, and a pair of catbirds. They all seem to be very interested in the vegetable beds. Flying in and out of the beds with squash in them, so I am hoping they are finding bugs to eat. I don't even have a feeder up, because I didn't want to attract squirrels. I do have a number of shrubs that fruit is developing on and I think they are here in anticipation of a feast. And I seem to remember reading that birds that are fruit eaters, also eat insects. So this has been an interesting development this year.

danciwaters, i have used cattle panels for years to trellis tomatoes and it works great.(i call them hog panels) i just put my on the ground with a couple of t-posts and keep them tied up. they will try to get taller than the 4 foot and end up just dropping down, nothing to worry about. i use them for cucumbers and green beans too. one year i planted giant sunflowers behind the trellis with cucumbers and the cucumbers climbed the sunflowers and it looked pretty neat. i had to get a ladder to pick them. another way you can plant on them is to bend them in an arch and secure with tposts. it makes a great special spot place for kids. i planted cucumbers on one side and green beans on the other.

Christie, it is the only way I grow beans; I don't bother with bush beans anymore. I use the 15' panels and if you make the arch 6 feet wide, it will be tall enough to walk under...that is my technique. I drive two steel t-posts in first. Then with help place the first panel up next to it, bend it and while it is being held in place on the 6 foot line, drive the second row of steel posts (2). From then on you can use just one post where the panels meet or slightly overlap. I intend to do one for the new garden next year.

I am amazed how difficult it is to find a good photo of this on the net. Anyway, here is a pic of cattle panel http://www.oklahomasteel.com/panels.htm Scroll down to "Utility Panels". That material has 4" openings, I recommend 6" openings for easier access. Alternately you can use steel remesh AKA concrete reinforcing panels. Same thing basically, but hardware stores carry it and might not carry cattle panels. Either one will do the same thing. A t post looks like this http://fencingsolutions.com/Adapterclick.htm All of the posts in the pics are t posts