Wow sorry to hear about the bad news. I work in the utilities field, and have run across this problem before myself, ie gardens planted or extensive landscaping in our easements. It sounds like they are going to be replacing their gas lines. So the not so bad news is that unless there is some homeland security issue you'll be able to have your garden again after the work is done! Also as someone mentioned, if you politley and reasonably explain your situation to the crew doing the work, we will usually go out of our way to help you out...scraping your good garden soil up and off to the side out of our way, and then putting it back in place when we're done. Also while the situation does stink bear in mind that the crew doing the work is just a group of normal folks trying to make a living, and they had nothing to do with the situation. One other piece of advice, call the gas company and speak to them preferably whatever crew supervisor is doing the work(get a name first and last of the person you s/w) you may not have to move your whole garden...gas easements are huge...but if the main isn't deep they may only need you to move what you have thats within 5-10 feet of the pipe. My crew has worked many an hour of overtime, putting back someone's garden all because that person politely asked if we could help them out.

I was cleaning the kitchen after dinner and rather than toss out the water that my kids didn't finish, I brought it outside to water my zinnias. And it was then that I noticed that two of the leaves, had that famous lacy pattern. I said outloud, I wonder what's been eating you. And I looked around and sure enough, two Japanese Beetles were munching away. I went into the garage and pulled out my neem oil, mixed up a batch and set off spraying. Dang, I hate these bugs. This will be my first year using neem, so I hope it works well. Oh, both buggers are no longer of this world!!!

You're going to have more trouble than the birds are. Birds are immune to the effects of capsaicin, unlike mammals (I figured out that the squirrel digging in my potted peppers was burying nuts in the nice soft dirt, he didn't nibble. But the turkeys were eating the peppers in the garden til I put the deer netting we'd taken down for Irene back up.). In fact, they often include dried chiles in parrot mixes. Too bad for your friend, though.

I agree with the above suggestion - start earlier. Mid-March at the very latest in your zone. You can purchase some row cover cloth and simply wrap it around the cage (like the one you have is fine) until the plant takes off. That will protect it from the winds while still allowing rain to penetrate. And if you put it over the top of the cage as well (for the first few weeks) that can also protect it from any late freezes and still get plenty of sun. But for now, if the winds kick up again just wrap any lightweight cloth around the cage to protect them (just make sure the cage is securely in the ground!), or around the entire garden. It also functions very nicely as a shade cloth when the sun starts to intensify too much. It looks like yours are doing fine, healthwise, though I don't know anything about your soil mix, sun exposure, etc.. I'm in central Texas (zone 8) and mine were already larger and staked to a cattle panel when the winds came, so they didn't even flinch. Also, it really helps to mix some worm castings (you can buy them or 'make them') into the soil of the hole you dig to transplant tomatoes. They love it. Add a little to the soil for all your plants and I think you'll see them respond nicely (health, productivity, etc.). It's also an excellent addition to the soil medium used to grow seed. Here is a link that might be useful: The Benefits of Worm Castings