SHARING SECRETS: What’s New That Helps You?
- Apr 1
- 3 min read
Edited by Cathy Tylka, for Let’s Talk Plants! April 2026.
Current question:
Are you using a new tool, implement, piece of hardware or structure to assist you to accommodate your garden? What is it and what does it do to assist you?
Susi Torre-Bueno of 92084 created something…
…It's not a new device, but I have used those cone-shaped wire tomato cages in a new way. I was gifted some large heavy bromeliad plants and put a tomato cage around each one to help it stay upright until the roots got established. Attached are a closeup photo and one from a distance showing that the cages were pretty unobtrusive. I removed them after a year or so.
Connie Choothesa says…
…I used a large salad bowl (9.5" wide x 2" deep) purchased from Goodwill as a bird bath. The bowl fit nicely into a 10-inch diameter plantstand and now the birds are enjoying bathing and drinking from it.
Karen England, 92084 responded…...
…Yes! Instead of building and installing window boxes on three of the windows on the north side of my house, I have repurposed three old bar stools destined for the Salvation Army as planter stands, raising three large pottery color bowls up to both a comfortable height for me to work and to be better seen - no window boxes needed.
(And Cathy Tylka is adding one like this from her yard…)
Gerald D Stewart of 92084 shared…
…There's a six-acre field behind my property that produces an infinite supply of vermin.
I don't grow many fruits and vegetables because of that, but I enjoy home grown tomatoes. I am going to try something new this year:
Walter Andersen Nursery in Poway has HUGE blow-molded pots that are almost 3' across and 21" tall. I am going to put a 4'x4' piece of 3/4" plywood up on 6x8x16 concrete blocks that are set in a little, so rats can't climb up them to get on the bench, and grow one tomato plant in each pot.
Hopefully, this will allow me to harvest fully ripe fruit from five different tomato plants.
Next up will be to renovate an old, raised bed in a similar manner so that vermin can't get to the much-loved Chandler strawberries planned for that space. Don't quite know what I'm going to do there yet, so I have no detailed description here.
Cathy Tylka of 92026 responds…
…First item, that no one dares to sit on, and would be otherwise thrown out but provides two purposes:
#1 is to provide a stand for my growing cactus, Cleistocactus brokeae.
And #2 it provides a wall for my lattice, so my Dragon Fruit, Pitaya, can grab on to something.
Another item, that I purchased at an Antique Store many years ago, was originally for horse watering, but now it hangs on the windmill and provides a home for my Italian Oregano, aka, Origanum vulgare and Aeonium haworthii.
Question for next month:
So, what are you going to plant, or have you already, for harvesting in your garden? Do you also desire fruit from trees or both? What is your favorite? Answer one or all questions, or make up your own!!!
