I used to always prune and trellis toms but it is a lot of work and I'm tired of it. For the last few years I have been letting them ramble unpruned in large cages. I get the 10'x5' concrete slab mesh (I guess that is what they are calling CRW) from the lumberyard. All one has to do is roll the two ends together and hook the wire and you have a large cage of six-inch mesh heavy wire 5'high. The diameter is big enough that I just set the cage on the ground and that's it. If it will be exposed to possible high wind with a big plant on it then I put a couple stakes at the bottom to prevent flipping over. They cost about $7 apiece around here (probably cheaper most places) and will last a long time. It also comes in 100' rolls, which may be cheaper and in my experience is a heavier gauge and is a bit difficult to deal with. You need heavy bolt-cutters to cut it and the snap-back can be dangerous. Unroll it a bit at a time on a large flat area and pin down one end with heavy weight and stand on the other end while cutting.

Ceilings are the most difficult to paint; sometimes you can do your best work, but still end up with a so-so looking ceiling because the sheetrock installations wasn't done well. I've painted some really ugly ceilings, but I've picked up some really good tips over the years from pros that produce better results. Sheen A dead flat ceiling paint is best as it is non-reflective, thus will not show as many imperfections in the ceiling. I prefer white for the ceilings, but that is just a personal preference that developed after I painted some really ugly colored ceilings :o Kitchens and bathrooms require a sheen for stain and moisture protection, but technique and equipment (speed and a longer roller) will help give you a will give better result. Too Dry a Roller The most common mistake we DIY painters make is we wipe all the paint off the roller after we dip it in the paint tray. Go figure! In order to paint, we must leave paint on the roller. DIY ugly roller marks are more often than not from a dry edge due to our applying too thin a layer of paint. DonÂt be afraid to load that roller. Too much paint on the roller and it will splatter all over you; not enough and you will roll a relatively thin layer and need to re-load almost immediately. Size of Roller & Speed Use an 18â³ roller cover instead of a 9â³ cover--the more space you cover with each roll, the better. Besides, why anyone would torture themselves by painting a ceiling with a 9" cover is beyond me. For best results on a ceiling, you need to work in a FAST and SMOOTH motion; you want to cover your roller tracks and even out the paint before the edge dries. Speed is of the essenceÂpaint quickly. Direction of Roll is Extremely Important! ALWAYS roll the paint in the direction PERPENDICULAR to the MAIN SOURCE of LIGHT FROM WHERE YOU ENTER THE ROOM. If you have two sources of light pick the light source you see as you enter the room and paint perpendicular to that light source. My best tip: shop at a real paint store run by a paint dealer who actually knows something about paint products and tools. There are many people on this site who think that paint dealers are overpriced and not worth it--I don't agree. Many paint dealers are very knowledge about the products on the market. I may pay $2 more for a brush or a tool--but what I gain in knowledge and receive in assistance is worth a lot more. When I have questions about paint products, problems, techniques, etc. I just go in or call--questions asked and answered. When I ask the kid at Home Depot a question about paint products, I get a "I'm not really sure about that." All of the above tips come paint dealers--dealers who actually spent years as painters! Besides, I would rather support my local paint dealer than the big box corporation.

We had a real cold night (forecast was 32) late last week and everything planted out survived, but I only put out the cold-hardy lettuce, kale and peas (some transplanted, some direct-sown, both kinds doing fine.) And my three tomato plants, started inside and put in the Walls o' water seem to be thriving -- one is even developing a flower :) I hope your plants recover. If they've been outside for awhile a little cold shouldn't do them in. It probably only got down to the low for an hour or so. Sorry about the tomato plant. I don't understand why the stores even put out tomatoes before the LFD unless they warn people that they need protection until then.

I am in zone 5b and had some similar weather. Half way through March all of my roses were putting out buds and I was really happy they survived the winter so well. By the end of March there were lots of new leaves and they looked really good. I thought to myself, they're really going to be off to a good start but I knew it was a little too early. Then we had a few nights of late freezing in the 20s. I expected I would have some problems. Most of the roses had some degree of foliage damage and are coming back from that okay. I did have 2 roses, though, that had some pretty severe cane damage. Issac Perreire and James Galway both had to be pruned pretty much back to the ground. I thought Issac looked like it was in the worst shape, but it's already putting out new canes and seems like it will come back okay, although definitely set back from where it was. At first James Galway didn't seem as bad, but over some time it became apparent that the cane damage was more severe than I thought. I haven't seen anything coming back. It's too bad because even though both were just bands last spring, they both grew a lot in there first year. James Galway particularly was about 5 feet tall, had several good canes and a very nice vase kind of shape to it. Now I'm not even sure if it will survive.