Handy Garden "Thingies"-Milk Crates,ETC.

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Hi- You work so hard to grow the plants and harden them off and then finally get them in the ground and then sometimes they just get too much wind or sun or just go into shock and die on us. I am in a warm climate and I deal with the fact that If I plant in the morning OR evening - I will have a shocked plant in full sun by the afternoon or the next morning. Here are some ways that have worked for me to help avoid losing too many plants.Please add to this list and tell us what  tricks work for you. Cold frames are great but when it is 80 degrees in March and windy it is another kind of problem - If I put plastic over anything rightnow for too long it- would cook it.!  In my veggie as well as my flower garden I find that I use milk crates an awful lot- as little lattice houses for just planted  things- if they need a bit more protection I lean a piece of fiberglass awning against them- have cut up a couple of old 8 footers and find that they are great to lean  against things to give shade and shelter . I've used the plastic juice bottles with the lids off as cloches until the plants get too big and then I have a few of those  big water bottles that go on water coolers that work pretty good as bigger cloches. I made a couple of Mel's frames but I found that I really like MILK CRATES.Course I am in zone 9 and have a long growing season so I am not battling the elements  in quite the same way as some others are- and timing here is not quite as critical as it is where the growing season is very short.   I use the milk crates for so many other things- I like them because they are so portable. When I am transplanting something- I can put a plant-Like a bush or clump- of Herbs( just did this with  Rosemary) or whatever- into a plastic grocery bag with it's original soil and some extra soil and a little water. Stick it in a milk crate and haul it into the shade for a day  or two while I decide where it should go- Then when I plant it I-just turn the crate over on top of it for a day or two and it protects it. In the veggie garden- I carry out my  plants and tools in a couple of them - plant and then cover with them . I stand on them to tie my trellis,Pick fruit,Wash the top of the car, Gather and wash my veggies BEFORE I bring them in. I have even sifted compost through one that is particularly finely meshed.Stack my pots in them . Store my bottles and boxes of lime and B-1 and Rootone and bonemeal,etc.in them and stack them up.Line them with garbage bags and use them to "heel in" plants that I have not prepared a place for yet.Last year I sunk two of them into the ground and planted Asiatic lilies and the gophers didn't touch them. Where did I get them? I don't know.Had them for so long.I think I filch some from behind the supermarkets in my college days when I needed something to hold up the planks for my bookshleves.Others just trickled in over the years. I have about 12 and in seems to be enough since you don't use them all at once very often.( I shall eat those words -I am sure of it now) Some are regular milk crates and some are store-bought. I have also draped plastic over them and plopped a rock on top. They are 1 foot by 1 foot.Also have used round and square laundry baskets when something needs to be babied, propped pieces of broked latticed near them with a big stick and propped a wood shingle in the ground as a litle windblock.Strawberry basket turned upside down. Boy - you get the little buggers in the ground and there is nothing like losing a plant to a windy or sunny day or transplant shock after all your hard work.any other variations on the theme of how to protect from wind and sun?What are you favorites for this or other gardening dilemnas???-Teri
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