Tomatoes.
You either love them or you hate them it seems. I am on the loving end, maybe a little too much for some people. Tomato sandwiches anyone??
The hubby falls somewhere in the middle, not a huge fan of a tomato by itself but add it to a salad or make it into salsa and he sold.
If you happen to compare yourself with either one of us then you know that nothing compares to a ripe tomato right off the vine. It’s even better if it is your own tomato vine in your own garden.
This is our first summer in the farmhouse and we were both very excited to plant a big garden. At our previous house, we had enough space for one raised bed so we really only could plant one tomato. This year we have 10. And about 4 different varieties. To say we are serious about our tomatoes this year is an understatement.
My experience with tomatoes is that they normally grow very tall and robust. The tomato cages at any local store just never seem to work for us, our tomatoes usually outgrow them and end up swallowing the cage itself. This year we made our own cages and wanted to share with everyone how we did it.
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Materials Needed:
- Reciprocating Saw or Bolt/Wire Cutter
- 16ft Cattle Panel-each panel makes about 3 cages (these can be found at any local ag supply store)
- Shoat rings
- Pliers
The first step will be to cut your panel. In order to get as many cages out of one cattle panel as possible, we cut the panel horizontally for each cage.
Each cage side was cut so that it was 18″ x 36″. You will want the bottom of the tomato cage to have legs so that you can poke them into the ground. There will be leftover small scraps at the end.

The hubby found shoat rings that worked perfectly for attaching the corners together. This way the cages can be folded flat for storing in the winter. Each corner had 3 rings attached, one near the top middle and bottom.


Now all you have to do is unfold and place over the tomatoes! So simply and yet so sturdy. And if your Spring was anything like our’s here in the Pacific NW then there is still time to plant tomatoes that you find at your local garden store.


I came across you me blog while searching Pinterest for garden ideas. We are also in the PNW. Excited to read more!
Yay! Such a great place to live! I hope you enjoy reading!