2009 “Get It Garden” Challenge – Texas Tomato Cages Have Arrived – YAYYYY!!
In the short video above you can see my daughter helping me open and install my incredible, wonderful, fabulous, beauteous, Texas Tomato Cages. I am so excited!
Four months ago when I was planning the “Get It Garden” Challenge, I realized I did not have a strong enough tomato cage. First thing I did was call my favorite veggie gardeners and ask them where they found their super-strong cages. When I discovered they had crafted the cages on their own with concrete reinforcing wire and a blow torch, I got nervous. Where was I going to get a blow torch?
Less than two days later a friend on Twitter announced that her “Texas Tomato Cages” had arrived. I sent her a note, “Why are Texas Tomato Cages so special?” Her answer, “Texas Tomato Cages are the best!” That was enough motivation for me to contact the company and order a few.
In the photo you can see the cages are made from 1/4” reinforced galvanized steel, so they never rust. Each cage folds up for shipping and storage in the fall. Most importantly, you do not need extra ground anchors, so they do not blow over in the wind. Keep an eye on the cages in the “Get It Garden” challenge – I will let you know if they perform as well as the Twitter claims suggest.
What are you using for your tomato cages and how are they performing? Send me pictures and comments!
Remember, as you follow along and build your garden, please send photos and details to me, Shawna Coronado, and I will post your successes – and your failures – so we can all learn how to make a difference with a garden. Please send anything you can – what do you do with all the vegetables you harvest for instance? Will you sell them for additional family income? Will you give them away to local food banks? My readers want to know ALL the details.
Let’s build a garden together! Please join the 2009 Casual Gardener “Get It Garden” Challenge today and help make a difference for yourself and your community.
Shawna Coronado says Get Healthy! Get Green! Get Community!
Great day to put some tomatoes in the Ground. Can't wait to see what they do for you.
I am so glad I got to meet you this past weekend. Your blog is fantastic and you're the cutest!
We were gifted an old roll of concrete reinforcing wire, although rusted, is 1000x better than those dinky cages you showed that we've been using forever.
I like that these cages do not rust – kinda cool!
S
Hi Shawna, those look pretty interesting. I have lots of the old broken tomato cages, and my thought for this year is to put the tomato in the ground and then put three cages around the outside of the tomato….making a cage with the three cages. My tomatoes get so wide as well as tall, thought this might be a solution.
I've battled the cheap cages as well. We actually have a lot of rocks and asphalt down in our veggie garden, so it was hard for me to sink those as far down as necessary to actually make them stable.
This year I'm trying some triangular cages from Lowe's that I like so far (sturdy and don't need to be sunken in so far) and a setup I kind of made up myself with a trellis and bamboo supports in front to make a little pyramid. That one seems to be working well, too. I'm documenting my trials at my blog. Hoping I can come up with the best solution for next year for me!
If only the cages kept aphids away. What do you use for tomato pest control? I'm growing an organic garden and have read about Safer Brand Tomato and Vegetable insect killer. It looks like it would work well!
I have not had to be concerned much about tomato pest control yet, so have not done anything organic or non-organic – – any suggestions out there?
My advice is to go to http://www.gardenweb.com for some ideas.
Shawna
I just got my tomato cages too. They're awesome. They'll really do the trick her in Southern California, where the tomatoes are monster sized.