Some of the veggies we are growing this year will require a little help staying upright under their (hopefully!) prolific growth so this morning I started making up some supports. The melons, cucumbers, and tomatoes will need these supports. They are simply a frame made of electrical conduit held in place by some rebar buried in the ground and sticking up into the conduit. This was my first solo attempt at using a conduit bender, so the first one is a little crooked, but the others went much better! I was sawing through the 1/2" rebar with a halfway dull hacksaw blade when our neighbor, Mark, came out and offered to let me borrow his electric grinder. I was very grateful for his offer because it cut down an hour long job to about 10 minutes with much less effort on my part. Putting up some sort of netting is all that is needed to complete the supports.
I also put up a shade frame for the peas made of 1/2" PVC pipe held in place by more pieces of rebar. We'll be able to drape a piece of shade cloth or plastic over it to protect the peas from too much sun and keep some moisture in. We had some success last year with a little pea container garden, but this should be much better for them.
All told, it took me about three and a half hours when you take into account the trip to Home Depot. Not really that big of a deal and working in the morning allowed me to avoid the hot sun, which is always a plus when you have to go to work again at 5:00.
-Jacob
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