Tomato supports, stairs, lower garden
Next order of business was some way of supporting the tomatoes before gusts of wind blow them over. In the past we have tried those round wire tomato cages from hardware stores only to find them not up to the job: they don't provide enough support for the plants, they are too small and they tend to fall over.
Instead I built a frame out of lumber and ran light plastic rope vertically for the tomatoes to climb. Now we need to gradually wrap the plants around the rope as they grow, but at least they have a full six feet of scope for growth. We will see how this works as the summer progresses
The lower garden was sort of an accident. We had ordered two cubic yards of rotted mixed manure but due to miscommunication at the farm and they delivered nine yards. About two of those yards went into the bottom of the raised beds, but what to do with the rest? Leaving it pretty much where it was, Andy formed it into beds for planting larger items. Foreground right is two pumpkin plants, started by Victoria. The rest of that bed and the next is a mixture of zucchini, winter squash and cucumbers. The third bed, apparently empty, has just-sprouting potatoes while the fourth and final bed is strawberries.
Although accidental, we like this area and plan to expand it a couple of beds each summer.
The lower garden
The poor old lower garden, being accidental and all, doesn't get as much respect as it might but in fact it is doing very well indeed and now is probably a good time to give it some attention. The first two photos below show it's progress over a period of three weeks and one day. The pumpkins, squash and cucumbers in the first two beds have progressed well while the potatoes in the third bed have gone from nonexistent to spectacular foliage to the point that they totally obscure the strawberries in the fourth bed.
The next two photos show the beds end on. The strawberries on the far right are nowhere near as amazing as the others but are progressing nicely.