Industrial Strength

I once had a rustic, handcrafted wisteria arbor that my husband and I built from raw cedar logs collected on our land.  The arbor stood for about 15 years before time and the wisteria tore it asunder.  

When it came time to rebuild the arbor, I wanted it to be industrial strength.  The new arbor needed to be bigger and stronger, so the second time around I had a metal arbor built.  This arbor is solid.  I sometimes mentally taunt the wisteria that lives on the arbor.  Ha! Tear that one down.  I dare you.

   

This well-mannered climbing rose named Felicia would be fine without a support, but I love the look of obelisks.  This metal obelisk was built by local metal craftsman, Bob Pool.  Bob is also a blogger at Gardening at Draco.  Another example of Bob's work, a steel wall planter, can be seen on Pam Penick's blog Digging.

An obelisk isn't necessarily industrial strength, but it can be.  Look at this huge obelisk also built by Bob Pool.  This beauty has prongs that sink far into the dirt, which is a good thing because the tiny little rose in this photo is Peggy Martin.  I started this rose from a cutting, but it will someday grow up to 15 feet tall. 
 

 

I think even temporary plant supports, like tomato cages, should be industrial strength.  I first started growing tomatoes using the typical tomato cage about 20 years ago.  This type of cage is so frustrating to me.  The prongs that stick into the ground always seem to bend the wrong way and the little wires snap over time.  

Inevitably, whatever I have growing in traditional cages, be it tomatoes or peppers, finally sends the cage toppling over, forcing me to stake the cage with rebar.  Then, there’s storage.  Try storing any number of these cages and you’ll definitely start to wonder if there’s a better way.

This silly cage is even frustrating to photograph.  No matter where I put it, the cage disappeared into the scenery.  This shot looks a bit like a tomato cage lineup photo, but somehow that seems fitting to me.

In my efforts to think bigger and stronger, I switched over to homemade cages made out of fencing formed into a circle and secured with wire.  These cages are certainly more industrial strength then the wimpy store bought cages.  The fencing-made cage is strong and tall, but since it has no means of its own to stand up, the cage has to be secured with rebar woven through the fence holes.  

These cages are severely limiting when it comes to storage. There’s just no good way to make these look organized or to stack them neatly, so I lay them down in a big pile at the back of our property and try to ignore them.  What a mess.

This year I’m going hard core.  Queue the Tim Taylor grunting noises and prepare to see industrial strength on steroids.  Tomatoes I laugh in your face.  Try; just try to knock these supports over!  These fence panels are heavy gauge wire, 5 feet tall, and held in place by ½ inch stout rebar, pounded a full foot into the soil.  I may never get them out, but whatever.  I’m happy for now.