On 15 Jul 2004 09:11:14 -0700, (Jay) wrote:

This year was my first attempt at vegetable gardening and I have
learned some lessons the hard way.

1. Tomato cages are only good in theory. I went with 6' tomato cages
because I live in Texas and wanted as much foliage to grow as possible
to shade the fruit. Yesterday, my 8.5' tall tomato plants fell to the
ground because the cages wouldn't support them anymore. Next year I
will get out the table saw and the brad nailer, buy some fence boards,
and make some super-sturdy 8' teepee trellises to hold them up. My
solution this year was to drive some cedar spikes in to give the cages
some support, then hack back the tops of the tomatos. I will maintain
them at 6 feet this year.

[...]
9. There is no shame in planting from seedlings. Our seed planting did
not turn out so good. Only the cukes and cilantro came up well. I'm
sure I could do the research and get better results, but one step at a
time. Maybe I'll build a greenhouse "wing" onto the shed I'm building
for doing seedlings.

The only thing I didn't see was a reference to zucchini the size of
bombs and still expanding. Do try some next year...