The photo below shows how I solved three different problems.

The first problem was: how to keep my trellis’ from blowing over to Nebraska. Last year I played around a bit with tent stakes and cinder blocks. This year, using the same materials I may have perfected a way to keep a trellis in place on windy days, like today.

If you look closely in the photo, you can see where the front legs of the tripod trellis go into the cinder block holes.  These two legs are also held down by metal tent stakes.  The third leg is staked also.

Today has been quite windy, and so far they have not budged. See below for another photo of the trellis and a photo of the tent stakes. Do not use wimpy aluminum stakes! Invest 8 bucks in the good ones. They last a long time.

The second problem was: how to keep newly planted seeds from drying out so fast, and being breakfast for the birds? Once again, floating row covers came to my rescue. Since we can’t let anything “float” around here, they must be weighted down.

First, I covered a series of beds with one long length of floating row cover. I weighted down between the rows with old fence posts I found in an alley. I then placed bricks on the boards to keep things in place. Water and sunlight will go through and I hope things come up well. Here is another photo.

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Third problem was: how to move perimeter of garden IN a bit so I don’t need so much water. The alley side of the garden is very dry, and to get that thoroughly watered, I get overspray into the alley, which is not a good thing in a drought year.

Here is the first picture again, so you can see the former bed next to the alley, only visible still in the right edge of the photo, in the center. It was a long bed, from the top to the bottom of the photo.

In the foreground you can see that I “flipped” the soil in the bed  to the left, making hills under the trellis.  The hills are now about two feet in from the alley. They are butted up against the short, left to right beds, but that is not a problem. I can access a trellis from one side, and the bed from another. There is more space between everything than is visible in the photo.

I will probably use the remaining bed to fill more pots, which are working out great as a drought solution.