Homemade Tomato Cages and Planting

Finally, at long last, Sunday was the day to plant! I had to wait until the sun was off the gardens so I didn't get started with the actual planting until 6 or so. In preparation for the planting I did the following:
1. Crush the 2 dozen egg shells I have been collecting to add to the tomato and pepper plants planting hole.
2. Made my tomato cages (more on that later).
3. Went to the hardware store to get soaker hoses and bamboo stakes (more on those later too).
4. Filled my deck boxes with soil for my herb boxes.
5. Talked to my Mother on the phone for 2 hours...I think a record!


The tomato cages are made out of Tomato Guard, made by GroTall. I purchased mine at Southern States. It is galvanized welded steel. It comes in rolls of 4x20 feet. We were able to make 3 - 6 foot round cages and I had enough left over to make my climber for the cucumbers.

This is a 2 person job, so have a helper. Wear gloves, there are lots of sharp ends. To cut, lay the wire flat to a 6 foot length. At one end you will have a flat edge. Cut the other end with tin snips so you create another flat end for your next cage and pointy ends to connect the edges (click on the photo for a better look). Let the fencing roll back (careful not to let it fly back and hit your legs) and use the rough edge to attach to the flat edge (you can see what I mean in the picture). Then clip every other section of the bottom so that it creates stakes when you set it in the garden. I also used 6 foot lengths of bamboo to weave top to bottom and then pushed it down in the ground to hold them in place. I will probably need to do something stronger when they get bigger, but for now they should stay.

I planted the tomatoes by trimming the branches and leaves on the bottom two thirds of the plant. Dug a hole deep enough to get them that far down. Sprinkled my crushed egg shells in and around the hole and plunked the tomato plant in there. Filled in with dirt and put the collar on. The collar, I read, is supposed to keep cut worms from coming along and clipping off your new tomato plants. It is also supposed to slow down the slugs, we'll see. I'll be putting beer bowls out if I start to see slug activity. We do have a lot of them so I image they will make it to the backyard. I made sure I put my plant labels in the ground next to all the plants so that I will remember what I have.

I planted the peppers with some of the crushed egg shells also but didn't do collars. I also did cages for the peppers because, I read, they can get heavy with fruit (I hope) and can fall over from the weight.

Anyone know what is already eating my pepper plant? I just notice the holes in the leaf when I was planting.



So here is the freshman class of the left garden:

L to R back: Red Grape, Yellow Grape, Beefsteak

L to R front: Yellow squash, Zucchini









Here is the freshman class of the right garden:

L to R in the back: Cucumbers, Black Pear Tomato

L to R in the front: French Green Bean, Mini Red Bell, Yellow Bell

Wish us luck! Send advice if you have it!