The tomatoes are getting tall, they have needed something to support (and cage) them for a long time. I couldn’t decide whether I wanted to put cages over them (which makes them hard to pick, but is quick and easy) or tie them to stakes (which is a lot of work and needs constant pruning and tying, but does allow access and looks really professional), so of course I did nothing. Until I happened to visit some friends last week; they had built a tomato support out of sticks and it looked really pretty, made picking easy and was quick and cheap to put together. I didn’t take a photo of theirs, but trust me it looks whimsical and natural. So…armed with a vague idea and some zip ties I ventured out to the garden. I  found some long sticks in the tree line around the humpy and dragged them into the garden.

This is the unruly tomatoes, busy crowding out basil and bush beans

As you can see in the photos I just stuck some sticks into the ground and zip tied yet more sticks to them to create a fairly sturdy support for the tomato plants and allow the beans some room to grow. This was so quick and easy to do I even had time to harvest some basil and make pesto before the day got too hot to work.

It doesn’t look as pretty as my friend’s version, but it will do the trick. It will hold the plant and fruit off the ground and allow air flow to lessen mould problems, it will keep the tomatoes off the beans and semi confined and it will be easy to pick fruit from the vines. What do you think?