It's that time of year again. Over the last few days we laid plastic and set out tomato, pepper and broccoli plants. Here's the progression.
Plastic mulch with drip tape irrigation underneath
Straw in the alleys
Plants
Stakes and groundhog fence, which also keeps out dogs and free-range chickens (at least we hope so)
Close up of the tomato plants. We set out Pink Girls, Old Germans, Super Sweets (a cherry type) and an heirloom variety some family friends have been growing for years. 
It's later than we'd like to be setting out broccoli, but that's the way it goes sometimes. At least it looks healthy! 
We're trying something new to see if the cucumbers, cantaloupes, and zucchini will do better this year. We put the seeds in newspaper pots and set the pots inside our plastic. Maybe this will help the seedlings get going without getting fried in the concentrated heat under the plastic (yeah, that's the voice of experience). Time will tell...
And in another experiment (that's what happens when two scientists do just about anything) we tried a living mulch in the rows between our potatoes. So far it appears to be working. The potatoes got frosted twice, so we are happy to have at least a few still alive. We may replant, but we're going to give them a little more time to see what else grows. The living mulch is crimson clover, which will be beautiful when it blooms, even if the potatoes don't make it!
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