Tomato Towers

June 4, 2010 · Filed under design, vegetables · Tagged tomatoes

I have never pretended to be a veggie gardener. Ornamentals have me by the heart, but I do love a good tomato. Actually when the tomatoes are in season, I give myself canker sores by eating them so often. The season is so short, I have to satisfy myself. Greed, is my middle name (along with, Does my bum look big in this?)

Every year I plant tomatoes and stake them with a 6 foot pole, and every year they get to the top and fall back down. Next thing I have a tomato jungle on my hands and have to fight my way through the foliage to find the tomatoes. (I am probably supposed to pinch back the top and keep them to a manageable size, but what did I say my middle name was?)

But not this year!

I was reading Martha Stewart magazine a couple of years ago, and found a very interesting article on plant staking. But it took a couple of years, before I could convince Ian to build me the tomato cages.

The plan called for 6 foot lengths of wood, but they go a foot into the ground. Did I not just tell you that my tomatoes get up to 6 feet, plus! I am a bit of a size queen, so mine had to be bigger, we bought 8 foot lengths. This way I figure, as the bottom (that is inserted into the soil rots) we can cut it down. By the time I am eighty, it should be about 4 feet high, just the right size!

The start,

why go natural, when you can stain your wood “Kilbourne” blue!

 And they are up!

If I get tired of using them for tomatoes, (or I can sweet talk Ian into building me more), I could use them for clematis, morning glories, all kinds of climbers.

As Martha would say “It’s a Good Thing”.