For the past several years, I have been trying tomato cages for supporting my tomatoes, but these efforts have usually ended in failure. Last year, windy weather caused all my cages and plants to blow over. Since I am not an expert on staking tomatoes, I have been researching where I went wrong.

Tomato plants are a vine. When not provided with some type of support structure, they will grow along the ground. If left to sprawl like this, an indeterminate tomato variety can take up as much as 16 square feet of area. That’s a lot of space for just one tomato plant. Plus, many of the fruit that develop touch the ground, increasing the potential of fruit rot.

Maximize garden space and minimize fruit rot by providing vines with support and growing them upright. Before discussing caging, staking and trellising, let me explain the difference between determinate and indeterminate tomatoes.

Determinate tomatoes are varieties with bushier, more restrained growth. Vines are shorter, growing from 3 to 4 feet in length. The main vines develop numerous branches, which stop growing when the plants begin to flower. With the flowers and fruit developing at the same time, commercial tomato growers favor determinant tomatoes for processing. The varieties, Celebrity, Oregon Spring, Bush Early Girl and Rutgers, are popular determinate garden tomato varieties. Many early season tomatoes are determinate varieties.

Indeterminate tomatoes are varieties with vines that keep growing until frost kills them. Their vines can grow from 6 to 12 feet or longer. They flower and fruit during a period of two months or more. While indeterminate varieties typically develop mature fruit later in the season, they tend to produce more tomatoes during the entire season. Many of the heirloom varieties have an indeterminate growth habit.

So where did I go wrong? I used tomato cages, the 3- to 4-inch types, commonly sold to gardeners. These cages will work fairly well for caging determinant tomatoes.

The indeterminate tomato varieties that I have been growing are too big for these short cages. They require taller, more substantial support in the form of a wire cage, sturdy trellis or strong stake, especially when living in a region that can experience strong summer winds.

Indeterminate tomatoes can be “caged” by constructing a 2-inch diameter cylinder cage with 5-inch hog wire, or use a heavy gauge wire cattle fencing panel to make a square cage with 18-inch-wide sides. The cage must be anchored to the ground, especially in windy areas, such as placing a length of rebar inside the cage and pounding it a foot or more into the ground. Place cages 3 to 4 feet apart in the garden.

Consider making your own cages like these for growing indeterminate tomatoes. Caged tomatoes are unpruned (less work) and tend to yield more fruit per vine than staked tomatoes, but the fruit is smaller. Next week, I will finish up this “Tomatoes” series with information on staking and trellising tomatoes.

— Marianne C. Ophardt is a horticulturist for Washington State University Benton County Extension.

Hearths worthy of centerpiece status, even when they’re not ablaze. … Read the story»

Gardeners attack the spring with energy and enthusiasm, adding lots of color, bulbs, perennials, flowering trees and shrubs.

We wilt in the summer heat, and by fall we barely have the spirit for a pot of mums. Winter, we think, is for catalogs by the fire. It’s also when you stop working in the garden and just think about it.

Not so for Christine Killian of Annapolis and Alice Ryan of Easton. Both gardeners have made it a point to create winter interest in their gardens, if for no other reason than they want something lovely to look at from the warmth of the house.

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“When I worked with a designer 28 years ago,” said Killian, who lives in an 18th-century-style farmhouse and takes her cues from Williamsburg, Va., and Old Sturbridge Village, “I made it clear I wanted 12 months of interest. I wasn’t sure what that meant, but I knew I didn’t want to look at a barren landscape.”

When Alice Ryan purchased the 80-acre Knightly estate outside Easton nine years ago, of which almost 3 acres are formal gardens, she was intimidated by the work that the previous owner had done.

“Just make it your own,” a gardening friend told her.

Part of that process has been to create a “winter garden walk,” a path for her daily constitutional through and around the formal Edwardian gardens. It is a path lined with color, texture and blooms to warm the heart of the gardener on a cold day.

Ryan sees the color of the gold thread leaf cypress, the dynamic shape of the diadora and its upright cones, the spidery winter hazel, the swollen buds of the magnolia, a huge and rare round leaf ozmanthus and berries everywhere.

“The garden is hot as blazes in the summer,” said the longtime Easton philanthropist. “It is actually wonderful in the winter.”

Nancy and Pierre Moitrier of Designs for Greener Gardens in Annapolis began working with Killian about four years ago to refine her mature garden, one much smaller than the canvas Ryan has painted.

“I wanted to look out every window and see something,” said Killian, who would give directions from the bedrooms upstairs.

“You need to have collections and repetitions that are legible in the winter,” said Nancy Moitrier.

Even when snow covers everything, the evergreens that form the bones of both the front garden and the plantings around the water fountain give both a visible structure.

So does Pierre Moitrier’s hand-hewn fence. That’s because winter interest doesn’t simply include plantings and vegetation, but extends to structures like the obelisk on which Killian’s honeysuckle grows or an aqua metal bench that is tucked into Ryan’s garden near statues of herons. Arbors and brick walkways count, too.

Adding to the scene in Killian’s garden are pots planted with evergreens and violas that sit on a porch and huge stones in her rain garden. The browning tufts atop Killian’s Annabelle hydrangeas catch the snow and look like ladies in hats.

All of these elements can distract the gardener from the dormancy of the winter garden. “And birds,” said Killian. “I wanted trees and shrubs that would attract birds in the winter.”

There can be fragrance in the winter garden, too, with sweetbox, witch hazel and winter jasmine.

Summer’s abundant foliage can obscure the peeling bark of river birch and oakleaf hydrangea or the mottled bark of crepe myrtle, as well as the red stems of red twig dogwood. Clusters of red berries on winterberry and the texture of the aptly named leather leaf viburnum along with the twisted stems of Harry Lauder’s walking stick become dramatic features in the winter garden.

Killian has retired from Xerox after 35 years and she plans to spend a lot more time in the garden. And there is plenty to do in the winter.

Winter is a good time to do structural pruning because the forms of the trees and shrubs and ill-placed branches are easy to see. It is a time to check for heaving roots and press them back into the earth so they will not dry out. When the ground is not saturated and vulnerable to the compression of a gardener’s footprints, it is a good time to cut back the seed heads, pods and foliage from last season’s perennials.

best suited for small gardens and for busy people as it does not require too much time.

The advantage of growing cherry tomatoes is that this plant does not require a traditional garden. Experts say that cherry tomatoes can grow well in containers (pots) or even on a patio. This vegetable plant needs minimal amount of care and yields its best fruit when kept in good atmosphere.

HAVE YOU TRIED ROOT VEGETABLE PLANTING IN YOUR GARDEN?

If you are planning to grow cherry tomatoes, then you should be following some of these gardening tips. Welcome the summer season by growing these tasty cherry tomatoes in your garden.

Take a look at some of the gardening tips for cherry tomatoes:

Sowing the seeds
The very first gardening tips for cherry tomatoes is to get a soiled container or a clay pot (if you do not have a traditional garden). In the container filled with soil, sow the cherry tomato seeds about 1/8 inch deep.

Placement
After sowing the cherry tomato seeds into the container, you need to place the container where it will receive ample amount of sunlight.

When the seedlings appear
This is one of the most crucial tips for growing cherry tomatoes. It is said, when the seedlings have grown to an inch or two, place the container near a table fan on low setting for 5 to 10 minutes twice in a day. The breeze from the fan stimulates the tomato plant to develop strong stems.

After 3 weeks, follow these gardening tips for cherry tomatoes;

Transplanting
Transplant the cherry tomato plants from the container to a bigger container or artificial bed 1 to 2 days after they have sprouted. When you transplant, make sure to add in a natural fertiliser. At any cost, do not forget this gardening tip for your cherry plant. When you are transplanting, make sure to not touch the roots, as disturbing them could result in a transplant shock.

Finally, water the cherry tomato plant on a regular basis. But, you need to make sure to keep the water and moisture off from the leaves as much as possible as it can lead to bacterial growth.

These are some of the most important gardening tips for cherry tomatoes. It takes around 90 days or so to see a matured cherry tomato.