Thoughts on tomato cages

As the winter digs in, I spend this time of the year pouring over seed catalogs and garden equipment catalogs - making a shopping list of the things I need for spring.  If you too are contemplating what kinds of garden accoutrements to purchase for your spring gardening adventures, let me say that this last year convinced me of the importance of sturdy tomato cages.  Not because they hold the tomato plants up better.  Yes, they do that.  They don't topple over when the indeterminate heirloom plants reach over 6 feet tall.  But the sturdy square cages I purchased from Gardener's Supply do more than that.  These cages served to protect my tomatoes from complete and utter destruction. 

A severe storm came through one morning, and as I watched through the picture window overlooking the back yard three huge maple branches came crashing down on top of my tomatoes.  Here's what it looked like:

I had such high hopes for a great tomato season - I had planted 7 tomato plants at the top of the garden bed, which was now completely covered in maple branches.

I was devastated.  That was half of my tomatoes under there!  The branches were so big and heavy I had to ask my neighbor (we have wonderful neighbors!) to help me move them.  I was expecting all the plants to be completely crushed.  But we got the branches off, and lo and behold the cages had saved the plants!  Every single one of them.  They were a little worse for the wear, but mostly intact.

Look at this photo taken immediately after we got the branches off the garden (I straightened the cages, and put them back into the ground where they had come up so I could inspect the plants, but otherwise this photo was taken right after the branches were moved - you can even see some maple leaves on the ground in front):

The cages were a bit bent but they were salvageable, and most importantly they saved the plants.  So when you're contemplating what kind of support you want for your tomato plants, don't just consider how you keep the plants off the ground - consider how you might protect those babies from the vagaries of mother nature!

Happy gardening!