Make your own Tomato Baskets

My daughter picking tomatoes. Summer 08.

Tomato baskets are an important tool for any garden. We use tomato baskets for lots of vegetables, including cucumbers, beans, peas, tomatoes, peppers, tomatillos or even just young seedlings in our orchard that need to be protected until they are a little larger. These are made from 4' tall, 2" x 4"pattern, fence fabric that is cut into 3-4' sections that are then rolled into cylinders. You can buy the 14 gauge, galvanized, welded wire fence fabric in 50' or 100' sections. If you buy a 50' section, you can make about 14 tomato baskets. I expect my tomato baskets to last about 10 years each. If you go with a thicker steel (heavier gauge wire) they will last longer, but they are much harder to cut and bend into baskets, and the fence fabric costs a lot more. With 14 gauge wire you can easily cut them with a simple wire cutter or pliers that have a cutting area above the handle.

The stubs where the fence fabric is cut (to make 3-4' sections) are bent over to attach the two ends to make a cylinder.

The bottom is then cut off so that there are 4" prongs that will stick into the ground to stabilize the basket anchored into the ground.

These prongs stick into the soil to hold the basket in place.

Young beans and okra growing up with the support of tomato baskets to pretect them from critters as well as support them as they get taller. They also provide the structure for vining peas, beans and cucumbers to climb.

A young Pecan tree with a tomato basket protecting it from deer rubbing in the winter.

I also place these around young Blueberry and other berry bushes until they are large enough not to be trampled by kids or dogs. Tomato baskets are a very important part of gardening at our house.

In the off season these stack well for storage.

Grow your own Food!

Edible Plants we Grow: Click on the links below for content!

Fruit Trees and Plant Propogation

Fruit Trees and Berries

Pruning Blackberries

Vegetable Gardens

Summer Garden

Nut Trees

Herbs

Indoor Tropicals

Other Edible Plants

Starting from Seeds

Composting

Pruning Trees: More on this later.

Pruning grapes: More on this later.

Nuts!

Nuts and beans are a great source of protein!

We have a lot of native Shagbark and Shellbark Hickories in our Missouri woods. I think that Hickories are the best tasting nut that will last through the winter without refrigeration. We are also growing 3 Chinese Chestnuts and 17 pecans. They are outstanding fresh and for about a month after harvest, but they go bad really soon because of their high oil content. Hickories and Walnuts will last a lot longer in their shell in dry storage. If you want to store Pecans and Chestnuts for long periods of time, you must shell and freeze them.

This is one of the best tools we have. You can pick up these nut crackers for about $20 in several nursery catalogs. I just ate these Hickory nuts 4 months after harvest and they were great.

We are not set up to process our own native Black Walnuts, so we take them to a country store where the kids can sell them. We are growing Carpathian English Walnuts, but have not yet had any nut production.

They utilize everything. The Walnut meat is sold for candy products and cooking. The shells are used as an industrial abrasive for many uses including oil drilling and polishing metals.