In which I attempt to sing and frolick about in spring-ish weather glee...

In the first month of gardening the big box stores gave to me:
One whiskey barrel
Two hog fence panels
Three rosemary bushes
Four window boxes
Five bags of organic soil

and a few more things too, but none of them work as 6-10 and I don't think Hubby would appreciate me buying anything else in those numbers, just to finish off the song...

Today was gorgeous. And by gorgeous, I mean a bit chilly with mushy, wet, post-drizzle soil, and a slightly overcast "blah-ness" with an occasional glimpse of "oh hey there Mr. Sun".

Perfect weather for turning over the earth with nothing but a pitchfork, hoe and back muscle...

...For those of us who cannot convince our Hubbies that we need to have tillers. Because they point out how we manage to get it done every year without. To which we reply, "ow my back" and "look at my un-girly callouses". To which they again respond that we seem to have managed without. And we DO get it done, cause girly or not, Gardenistas are a fierce breed, and some Hubbies are just too tight-fisted (er um, frugal).

Okay, not that tight-fisted, because mine took me on a shopping spree.

And he's never going to let me go shopping on my own ever again.

Last year, I bought hog panels and bent them into arbors and grew squash over them. It worked out really well so I thought I'd get more. And Hubby went with me.

I don't know what he was or wasn't thinking last year. Maybe he thought I wriggled my nose and the hog panels just appeared in our yard. But when I tried to explain how we should load them into his truck this time around, he gave me this arched brow that almost disappeared up into his hairline and a loudly proclaimed "You did it HOW?"

So after much "debate", we loaded the panels 'his" way and got them home.
Just like I got mine home last year.
But let's not belabor the point because I got more panels and I'm glad for it.

And I plan on using them as Tomato Arbors!

I dug trenches at either end, filled in a mixture of compost, a bit of manure and organic soil and blended it all together.  My lower garden is slightly sloped and I'm hoping the trenches hold all the good soil in place. I'll plant the tomatoes in the rich beds of soil and let them grow up and over the arbors. Hopefully, I'll get a bunch of tomatoes hanging down for easy picking. The last few years, my tomato plants have grown so large, I'd run out of space to tie them back and ended up foraging about in thick walls of leaves and stems for hidden tomatoes.

I'm looking forward to seeing how this turns out.

What are you doing with your tomatoes this year? Trying anything new? Using the same old time-tested tomato cages? Share, Share!!!