Going "Solo" in an Emergency

So the wind blew yesterday.  Boy did it blow.  Had I known we were in for this, I never would have done transplanting over the weekend; everything got battered in those stiff, punishing 40 mph gusts (some higher).

Solo cups at a tomato party

Sometime in the early afternoon, I ventured outside to see how everything was doing, and I was dismayed.  5 of my heirloom tomato transplants were gone, all snapped off at the base by the wind.  The beans were looking like they would be the next to snap, and all the ground was dry as a bone, scoured and removed of any water at all by the same culprit...the blowing, arid, unrelenting wind.

So I came inside and noodled on the problem, then went into my husband's old Boy Scout camping supplies for the solution -- the Solo Cup.  I cut the bottoms off and placed each one around my remaining tomatoes, then secured each with a rose stake.  The cup effectively protected the seedlings from the wind, and the stake held it in place.  Voila.  Happy baby tomatoes, once again.

Happy baby tomatoes

Having never lived on a hilltop or tried to farm there, this year has certainly been a steep learning curve for me.  But now that I know what I'm facing, I can keep these cut up cups around, and use them in years to come, knowing the winds will return.