The Best Veggie Cage Uses
There are many options for Veggie cage uses other than as vegetable cages for tomatoes, including cucumbers, beans, berry bushes and flowering vines.
More Than A Tomato Cage
The Veggie Cage makes an excellent plant support or trellis for your garden vegetables and flowering plants. Convenient, no-tie support of tomato plants is not the only way to make great use of the Veggie Cage! Many types of vegetables, including eggplant, peas, and flowers will grow beautifully and be supported wonderfully well by our Veggie Cage tomato cages.
VEGETABLES
ssnow Peas! Grow a row of snow peas using the Veggie Cage, and you’ll never again grow them any other way! Install 2, 3 or more Veggie Cages close enough that the bottom rings are almost touching, then sow your seeds all around both the inside and outside of the ring, just slightly thicker than you normally would. Within a few weeks, you’ll have a virtual tower of snow peas, compact, upright, and extraordinarily easy to pick.
Pole Beans
Pole beans work beautifully on a Veggie Cage. If you’re growing a row, we suggest positioning your Veggie Cages in a triangle or circle, depending on how many you’re using. Just keep the Veggie Cage bottom rings right next to each other and sow your seeds the same as with growing snow peas. Sow your seeds all in and among the rings of the cages. The beans will climb up both the Veggie Cage rings and each other! Don’t want to grow that many? You can grow just one nice, healthy little crop with a single Veggie Cage.
Cucumbers
Cucumbers are great for growing up a Veggie Cage. You can grow more cukes in a smaller space by growing UP, rather than OUT. Hint: If you’re growing one of the smaller, bush-type varieties, you can keep the height of your Veggie Cage lower. It’s designed to be extended as high as 7’, but it works just as well when left lower. The extra rings that stay on the ground won’t hurt a thing. And next year, you can use that same Veggie Cage at its full height for tomatoes and other potted plants, if you like.
Melons
While we don’t recommend the Veggie Cage for growing full-size melons, some of the more petite melon varieties, like the Minnesota Midget, can be grown quite successfully, growing upright instead of out and staying clean, dry and rot-free.
FLOWERS
Need flower supports or trellises? A variety of flowers will look marvelous grown inside a Veggie Cage, including: Dinner Plate Dahlias Those giant blooms on what is commonly known as a “dinner plate” dahlia make it imperative that the plant receives the support it needs to show off those show-stopping flowers to their best advantage. The bushy growth habit of a large-flowered Dahlia makes the Veggie Cage an ideal flower support. Just as the leaves of a full-grown tomato plant will make the garden-friendly green coils of the Veggie Cage virtually disappear among the foliage, large-variety dahlias will stand tall and proud, allowing their spectacular blooms to be the focus, rather than a typical wire tomato cage. Remember, you don’t have to use all 7 feet of the Veggie Cage. With dinner plate varieties reaching an average height of 3-1/2’ to 4-1/2’, just pull the Veggie Cage up to the height you need, then cover the unused rings at the bottom with a beneficial layer of mulch.
Trellis Flowers
Need a plant trellis or cage for climbing flowers, such as Sweet Peas, Morning Glories, and Moonflowers? What could be more enchanting than a sweet-smelling tower of flowers? Proper support is essential for climbing flowers and vines,eagerly searching for something to wrap tendrils around as they pull themselves skyward. Why not sow them in and among the rings of a Veggie Cage? Pull the Veggie Cage up to its full height, sow your seeds slightly thicker than if you were growing them up a wall, and let the flowers climb to the top, with a few strands spilling sweetly over the top, like a flower fountain. Line a walkway or driveway with a row of “Veggie Cage Flowers”, supported in the ground or in large containers, for a stunning welcome to your home.
Clematis
Clematis varieties that like to be pruned hard in early spring can be grown on a Veggie Cage. While it takes a few years for a clematis to reach dense growth above ground (they spend their first few years developing their roots, rather than in flower production), they can be supported beautifully in the meantime. When the clematis is pruned in late winter or very early spring, the Veggie Cage plant support can be removed and stored, if desired, then replaced when growth resumes in the spring.
CONTAINER-GROWN PLANTS
Limited growing space is no reason not to grow many of the vegetables and flowers you love. Did you know that a Veggie Cage can be used quite effectively in a large pot for container gardening ? Using the space-saving Veggie Cage plant supports allow you to grow patio tomatoes, snow peas and many types of climbing plants and flowers on a patio or in a small-size garden plot. Just be sure to use a container large enough to accommodate the plant’s growing root system, with several drainage holes for good drainage. For a larger view of a container-grown tomato plant off to a very healthy start, click on the photo at right. For tips on container gardening, visit Garden Guides.
There are many options for the Veggie Cage other than as vegetable cages, but no matter how you choose to use them, you’ll find yourself producing taller, healthier plants season after season, making one of life’s most treasured pastimes all the more enjoyable for any gardener, even if you have limited garden space or are planning your first garden!
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