Tomato Cages, Trellises and Dry, Dry Weather                                      

Sunday, July 15th... 

Today I made tomato cages to support the tomato plants.  I bought a roll of 5' wide, concrete reinforcing wire at the local Home Depot for this purpose.  Concrete reinforcing wire is like heavy gauge wire rolled fencing.  Each grid in the wire is 6" square... which is important when using this for tomatoes... you have to be able to reach in to pick the tomatoes.   Using a pair of bolt cutters, I cut a 7 foot length of the concrete reinforcing wire.  

Then I overlapped the edges to make a cylinder and fastened it together with plastic zip ties.  

Each cage is approximately 24" in diameter.  

Then, I cut the very bottom ring off, leaving 6" wires all around the bottom to poke into the soil.  

Then I lifted the cylindrical cages up and carefully lowered them in place so that each tomato and tomatillo plant was contained in its own cage.  Then I pressed the cages firmly into place....  the six inch wires, sinking all the way into the soil  

Here's what they look like finished, and in the garden!  

The cucumbers and Zucchetta rampicante squash were rambling rampantly all over the place!  I bought a galvanized fence panel from the local Agway farm supply store and placed it in a nearly vertical position along the length of the row.  I supported it with three 2"x2" stakes which I pounded into the ground.  

So far, it is working well as a trellis.

This last week the weather has been hot and dry.  The lawn is starting to turn yellow and crispy and the garden looks wilted.  So, I got the sprinkler out and began to water. I fastened the sprinkler to the top of the trellis and was able to get about half the garden watered.  Then moved the sprinkler to the other side to water the rest!
  


 The peas that I planted in March and April were pretty much gone by.  The vines were looking kind of raggedy.  I picked the rest of the peas and pulled out the pea vines.   The lettuce is starting to bolt so I cut it all down.  I removed the tender leaves, washed them and drained them and then put them into a paper towel lined plastic bag and into the refrigerator.  They will make great salads for a while!

Friday through Sunday harvested
13 cups of raspberries
5 pounds of snap peas
3 pounds of lettuce
4 pounds of summer squash