Good, cheap or easy -- you can have cheap.

I know that's not the exact quote, but close enough.

We are not shoppers. A has genetic, shading into pathological, cheapness (and a scarily complex understanding of the relative value of everything), whereas I'm more too lazy and have finally developed the realization that NOTHING is as exciting or interesting in your house as it is in the store. I also really enjoy creating makeshift solutions to problems using found materials and trash. Thus, our cloches:



I know making cloches (or hats as we call them here; "hats for plants -- keep plants warm") out of milk jugs is not revolutionary. And I guess in the rest of the world just sort of pushing them into the dirt is sufficient to anchor them down. But we have blowing-over-chicken-coop winds around here.

In our past gardens we had a more-or-less endless supply of bamboo poles about 1/2 an inch thick and four feet long. Those things were dead useful and I wish we still had them. To anchor cloches with them, you just cut a segment about a foot and a half long, pushed it into the ground next to your plant, and threaded the milk jug over it (without the cap). This worked perfectly, and if you have a supply of something similar, I highly recommend it.

Without bamboo stakes or anything similar to hand, I came up with the above solution which, while not nearly as elegant, cost a total of $.99 -- the cost of 208 feet of twine. Two foot-and-a-half lengths of twine are tied together at the ends in such a way to make two long ends with a loop in the middle that tightens when you pull the ends. This goes around the spout of the milk jug. The two long ends are held down with the scrap ends of two-by-fours, which we have an abundant supply of.

By the way, there's broccoli under there. We also set out 60 Spanish onions (the sad fellows from previous posts -- wish them luck) and eight Italian parsley plants, planted two plum trees, one rhubarb plant, some thyme, tarragon and a bunch of peas, and up-potted all the tomatoes, eggplants and peppers this weekend. There's a ton more we were hoping to do -- set out lettuce and cabbage starts, plant more potatoes, beets and spinach, plant some carrot seeds, and other stuff I'm not remembering. There is really a lot to do.